Honorary professor Elaine Kasket's inaugural lecture

We are delighted to announce that Dr Elaine Kasket will be delivering her inaugural lecture to celebrate her appointment to honorary professor in the Centre for Psychological Research at the University of Wolverhampton.

Tuesday, 14 June 2022 from 1 pm to 3 pm

The lecture will take place in the Millenium City Building (room MC228), which is located on City Campus.

BOOK YOUR PLACE

Abstract

Erik Erikson mapped the unfolding of our socially situated identities across eight chronological life phases. At each stage, he said, you can expect to encounter a particular crisis, to be caught between two opposing forces. Navigate this tension well, and you’ll develop the psychological robustness, social support, and strong sense of self and purpose you need to thrive and move on to the next hurdle. Falter, and you may become stuck and suffer.

As a psychologist at midlife, currently squished between a digital-resident daughter and digital-visitor parents, I've begun to think about Erikson's stages afresh. We're aware that our new environment of disclosure, spying, and behavioural manipulation has created new challenges, but we don't often think or speak of these in psychosocial developmental terms. In this talk, I'll reflect on how phenomena such as sharenting, child surveillance, hacking romantic partners, and even commercial genealogical websites might interface with developmental tasks at key life stages.

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Professor Chris Fullwood at c.fullwood@wlv.ac.uk.