This Open Access Brief analyzes the dynamics in which children's selves
emerge through their everyday activities of meaning construction, both
in their relationships with family and within school education. It
begins with a discussion of new psychological inquiries into children's
selves and builds upon the innovative theoretical notion of the
Presentational Self, developed by the author over the last decade.
The book illustrates how the observation of children's meaning
construction in their everyday lives becomes a starting point for
theoretical and empirical inquiries into child development and gives a
framework that promotes new inquiries in this area. The book describes
the Presentational Self Theory as a sense of how the notion of the Self
is being worked upon in everyday life encounters. Chapters feature
in-depth analyses of exchanges between adults and children in the
Japanese cultural context.
Meaning-Making for Living will be of interest to researchers and
graduate students in the fields of cognitive, social, developmental,
educational, and cultural psychology.