Affective Education
The 1972-3 report by the Centre for Adult Education said about “Affective Education”: Intellectual education is well provided for in our society. Many people, however, need in both their private and professional lives an opportunity to reappraise their own attitudes and to increase their sensitivity towards others. To this end the Human Potential Research Project provides human relations workshops as part of education programmes for various organisations as well as for the public in general. A main concern here is to create a self-directed learning community of peers in which a variety of skills and resources are pooled.
Aims of the Human Potential Research Project
Conceptual Research. A primary concern is to develop concepts that seek to clarify an understanding of the human condition and to examine the presuppositions of systematic enquiry into it.
Experiential Research. A second concern is to develop the theory and practice of the experiential method - the method whereby individuals in relation with each other systematically explore their potential for self-directed change in the areas of personal and interpersonal development.
Action Research.
A third concern is to develop the theory and practice of intervention method - the method whereby a process consultant works with a small group or larger organisation which seeks to clarify through action the relation between individual needs and corporate goals.
In terms of the experiential method, research and personality change are aspects of the same process. In terms of intervention method, which is a social extension of the experiential method, research and social change are aspects of the same process.
Areas of Application
Organisational Development. We work with existing organisations of all kinds, helping them to develop interpersonal skills and to plan their own processes of internal change. Our purpose here is to assist organisations to become person-centred; that is, to introduce changes which enable people to realise a wider range of their potential in their work. We set up and study the workings of experimental social structures. And we develop ideas for future forms of social Organisation and discover ways in which they might be incorporated into the existing system.
Professional Development. Professional persons - managers, administrators, doctors, nurses, social workers, teachers, police officers, and many others have attitude, communication, decision-making and human relations problems of special kinds. We work with single professional groups or, where relevant, mixed-professional groups, encouraging the development of skills and methods whereby the problems of the professional can be worked out in a creative manner. Our purpose is to facilitate the creative expression of the person in the professional task.
Training Development. We work with Staff Colleges and Training Colleges who wish to introduce or expand the use of sensitivity training, structured exercises, human relations seminars and participatory management concepts within existing or proposed courses. Our purpose is to assist Colleges to develop a training programme which encourages the full use of human resources - both in course content and teaching method.
Community Development. We use group interaction methods for mixed groups from the community - for example, a group of two or three families, a group of pupils, teachers and parents, a group of councillors and citizens, a mixed racial group. Our purpose is to introduce forms of group participation which open up communication and increase understanding between different sections of the community.
Personal Development. We have a programme of human relations laboratories or self-actualisation workshops which anyone can attend, who seek to further their self-awareness and social sensitivity in a small group of persons with a similar aspiration. Our purpose here is to explore human potential in the realms of personal and interpersonal growth, using a variety of new methods. We are concerned to facilitate the transfer of laboratory learning to real-life situations. We also work in two other fields of human potential parapsychological experience and transcendental or peak experience.
Research Development. We are concerned to introduce the experiential method to small groups of research workers as an aid to the generation of ideas in their current research problems. Our purpose is to explore group problem-solving techniques with teams who have research in progress.
Educational Development. We work with groups of teachers and lecturers who wish to explore techniques of self-directed learning and methods whereby the whole person is more fully involved both in curriculum content and in course administration. A closely related concern is to encourage the cultivation of emotional and interpersonal competence at all the levels of the educational system.
