Abstract
In this chapter I expect to contribute to the current theoretical discussions about the process of semiotic catalysis—a new way of understanding systemic causality in psychology—by exploring the role of catalytic agents in young people’s transitions to adulthood. Although semiotic catalysis can be generally regarded as a set of conditions or an atmosphere that indirectly aids, supports and enables other psychological mechanisms and functions to operate, I will advance the idea that significant others may temporarily act directly as catalytic agents in the life of youth—facilitating new synthesis in their self-configurations. They can be regarded as temporary embodiments of the catalytic function that take on the catalytic function and enable a specific direction for change. To explore this idea, I will present a longitudinal case study focusing on the narrative of a young woman who lives in a disadvantaged neighborhood in a large city in the northeast of Brazil, showing the role played by different catalytic agents in different dimensions of her life. The study emphasizes her narratives from 17 to 23 years of age, elaborating on changes in the dimensions of education/work and family/relationships. This analysis illustrates how catalytic agents operate in between the micro- as well as mesogenetic levels of development, fostering the emergence of promoter self-positions, helping create meaning bridges between past and future (projected) positions, and validating these new meanings in a broader context, giving a social framework to personal events. Further discussions advance the notion that catalytic agents might play a significant role in transition to adulthood, especially when youth undergo processes of rupture transition in their developmental pathways, affording social recognition of young people’s new emergent meanings, and helping youth become resources in their communities. In this light of reasoning I will argue that catalytic agents might help establish links between microgenetic change and ontogenesis, by facilitating continuity in the self-system over time at the mesogenetic level of development.
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Notes
- 1.
A “mother-in-saint” is a priestess of the Brazilian Afro religion, “Candomblé.” The word comes from the title “Ialorixá” in African language, where “Iyá” means mother and “Orixá” means a deity or ancestral spirit. The mother-in-saint run temples are where several rituals and cult practices take place throughout the year (Matory, 2005).
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de Mattos, E., Chaves, A. (2014). Exploring the Role of Catalyzing Agents in the Transition to Adulthood: A Longitudinal Case Study with Brazilian Youth. In: Cabell, K., Valsiner, J. (eds) The Catalyzing Mind. Annals of Theoretical Psychology, vol 11. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8821-7_9
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