Positionspapier: Entwurf einer Lebensspannen-Psychologie der Sehnsucht
Utopie eines vollkommenen und perfekten Lebens
Abstract
Zusammenfassung. Obwohl das Konzept der Sehnsucht in der Kunst und den Geisteswissenschaften eine große Rolle spielt, ist es in der Psychologie bisher kaum behandelt worden. Dieser Beitrag stellt einen Entwurf für eine lebensspannen-psychologische Konzeptualisierung des Phänomens Sehnsucht dar. Es wird vorgeschlagen, Sehnsucht durch sechs zusammenhängende Merkmale zu charakterisieren: (1) Unerreichbarkeit einer persönlichen Utopie idealer Entwicklung, (2) Gefühl der Unvollkommenheit und Unfertigkeit des Lebens, (3) Dreizeitigkeitsfokus (auf Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, Zukunft), (4) ambivalente (bittersüße) Emotionen, (5) reflexive und evaluative Prozesse und (6) Symbolhaftigkeit. Diese theoretischen Annahmen können empirisch anhand einer ersten Studie von Scheibe, Freund und Baltes (2007) gestützt werden.
Abstract. The concept of the perfect life plays an important role in the arts and humanities, but has scarcely received attention as a psychological phenomenon. I propose a lifespan developmental conceptualization of Sehnsucht; of striving for a personal utopia of the perfect life., as expressed in the phenomenon of life longings (better captured in the German word Sehnsucht). It is suggested to characterize life longings with a family of six core characteristics: (1) utopian conceptions of ideal development; (2) sense of incompleteness and imperfection of life; (3) conjoint time focus on the past, present, and future; (4) ambivalent (bitter-sweet) emotions; (5) reflection and evaluation of one’s life; and (6) symbolic richness. These theoretical assumptions are supported by a first empirical study by Scheibe, Freund, and Baltes (2007).
Literatur
(1986). The psychology of control and aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(1987). Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology, 23, 611–626.
(1991). The many faces of human aging: Toward a psychological culture of old age. Psychological Medicine, 21, 837–854.
(1997). On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny: Selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory. American Psychologist, 52, 366–380.
(1990). Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation. In , Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences (pp. 1–34). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
(2006). Life span theory in developmental psychology. In , Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (6 ed., pp. 569–664). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 122–136.
(2003). The fire of desire: A multisited inquiry into consumer passion. Journal of Consumer Research, 30, 326–351.
(2001). Extending the study of autobiographical memory: Thinking back about life across the life span. Review of General Psychology, 5, 135–147.
(1991). Symbolic action theory and cultural psychology. New York: Springer.
(1998). Sehnsucht: Von der Suche nach Glück und Sinn. Bern, Switzerland: Huber.
(1984). Personal and social control over development: Some implications of an action perspective in life-span developmental psychology. In , Life-span development and behavior (Vol. 6, pp. 1–32). New York: Academic Press.
(2007). Konzepte positiver Entwicklung. In , Entwicklungspsychologie der Lebensspanne (S. 681–723). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
(1977). Optimal human development: Some implications for psychology. Human Development, 20, 48–64.
(1992). Ambition: How we manage success and failure throughout our lives. New York: Basic Books.
(1987). Life tasks, self-concept ideals, and cognitive strategies in a life transition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 1178–1191.
(2001). Utopias: Social. In , International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 16123–16127). Oxford, England: Elsevier Science.
. (2005). Melancholie: Genie und Wahnsinn in der Kunst. Ostfilden-Ruit: Hatje Cantz.
(1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton.
(2000). The orchestration of selection, optimization and compensation: An action-theoretical conceptualization of a theory of developmental regulation. In , Control of human behavior, mental processes, and consciousness: Essays in honor of the 60th birthday of August Flammer (pp. 35–58). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2005). Entwicklungsaufgaben als Organisationsstrukturen von Entwicklung und Entwicklungsoptimierung. In , Enzyklopädie der Psychologie: Entwicklungspsychologie (Vol. 6, S. 35–78). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
(1995). The experience of regret: What, when, and why. Psychological Review, 102, 379–395.
(1854–1871/1984). Deutsches Wörterbuch Bd 1–33. Nachdruck der Ausgabe Leipzig 1854–1871 [German dictionary Volumes 1–33. Reprint of the edition Leipzig 1854–1871]. München: Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag.
(1970). Life-span developmental psychology in Europe. In , Life-span developmental psychology: Research and theory (pp. 54–68). New York: Academic Press.
(1972). Developmental tasks and education (3rd ed.). New York: McKay.
(1999). Developmental regulation in adulthood: Age-normative and sociostructural constraints as adaptive challenges. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
(1999). Analyses of longing: Origins, levels, and dimensions. Journal of Psychology, 133, 612–630.
. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of Age and Ageing. New York: Cambridge University Press.
(1981). Proactive and reactive aspects of constructivism: Growth and aging in life-span perspective. In , Individuals as producers of their development: A life-span perspective (pp. 197–230). New York: Academic Press.
(2001). Personality and the self in midlife. In , Handbook of midlife development (pp. 279–309). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.
(2002). Time counts: Future time perspective, goals, and social relationships. Psychology and Aging, 17, 125–139.
(1992). Melancholy and society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
(2002). Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2001). Understanding developmental regulation in adolescence: The use of the selection, optimization, and compensation model. Human Development, 44, 29–50.
. (1981). Individuals as producers of their development: A life-span perspective. New York: Academic Press.
(1999). Die Entwicklungspsychologie der Lebensspanne (Lifespan-Psychologie): Johann Nicolaus Tetens (1736–1807) zu Ehren [Lifespan psychology: In Honor of Johann Nicolaus Tetens (1736–1807)]. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 299–323.
(
in press ). (Un)reachable: A comparison of personal goals and longings. European Psychologist.(1990). Unity and purpose in human lives: The emergence of identity as a life story. In , Studying persons and lives (pp. 148–200). New York: Springer.
(1980). History of the idea of progress. New York: Basic Books.
(1996). Positive fantasy and motivation. In , The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 236–259). New York: Guilford Press.
(2006). Die Kunst, Fehler zu machen. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
(1993). The experience of longing: A phenomenological investigation (emotion, desires) (Doctoral dissertation, The Union Institute, 1993). Dissertation Abstracts International, 54, 1678B.
(2001). Seeds of wisdom: Adolescents’ knowledge and judgment about difficult life problems. Developmental Psychology, 37, 351–361.
(1965). Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch: Einleitung in die philosophische Anthropologie. Berlin: de Gruyter.
(1998). The experience of longing (desire, yearning) (doctoral dissertation, university of tennessee, knoxville, 1998). Dissertation Abstracts International, 60, 2958B.
(2003). Life scripts help to maintain autobiographical memories of highly positive, but not highly negative, events. Memory and Cognition, 31, 1–14.
(2006). Emotional development: Action, communication, and understanding. In , Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed. Vol. 3, pp. 226–299). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(2005). Longing („Sehnsucht”) as a new lifespan concept: A developmental conceptualization and its measurement in adulthood. Retrieved from www.diss.fu-berlin.de/2005/159: Doctoral dissertation, Free University Berlin, Germany.
(2007). Toward a developmental psychology of Sehnsucht (Life-Longings): The optimal (utopian) life. Developmental Psychology, 43, 778–795.
(2001). Die Kultur der Niederlage. Der amerikanische Süden 1865, Frankreich 1871, Deutschland 1918. Berlin: Alexander Fest.
(1996). True ethnography: The lore, the law, and the lure. In ), Ehnography and human development: Context and meaning in social inquiry. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation series on mental health and development (pp. 15–52). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
(2004). „Habseligkeiten” ist schönstes deutsches Wort. Retrieved October 24, 2004, from www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,324670,00.html.
(1996). Psychologische Produktivität und Selbstentfaltung im Alter. In , Produktives Leben im Alter (S. 344–373). Frankfurt am Main: Campus.
(1999). Social cognition and a psychological approach to an art of life. In ), Social cognition and aging (pp. 343–375). New York: Academic Press.
(2001). Life reflection: A social-cognitive analysis of life review. Review of General Psychology, 5, 91–99.
(1777). Philosophische Versuche über die menschliche Natur und ihre Entwicklung. Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich.
(2006). The development of the person: Social understanding, relationships, conscience, self. In ), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 24–98). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(1993). Der anthropologische Zusammenhang zwischen Sehnsucht und Sucht. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
(2004). Ein anderes Selbst: Bild und Bildung im deutschen Roman des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Göttingen: Wallstein.
(2006). Development of achievement motivation. In ), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., Vol. 3, pp. 933–1002). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
(2003). The importance of goal disengagement in adaptive self-regulation: When giving up is beneficial. Self and Identity, 2, 1–20.
