Bildung Psychology

Book excerpt: The concept of Bildung-Psychology, as developed by Christiane Spiel and her colleagues, combines ideas from developmental and educational psychology to describe educational processes with a strong focus on lifelong learning. Bildung-Psychology is concerned with all educational processes contributing to the development of individuals, as well as all conditions and measures potentially influencing these processes, and it aims to stimulate integrative use inspired basic research in the field of education. The structural model of Bildung-Psychology contains three dimensions: (1) the Bildung-career, (2) several functional areas, and (3) different levels of activities. The theoretical framework systematically classifies psychological actions in the field of education. This book combines theoretical pieces discussing important conceptual topics within Bildung-Psychology, with empirical contributions focused on different phases of the Bildung-career. The studies were conducted in countries across Europe, and across the various age-specific educational phases in the Bildung-career. This book was originally published as a special issue of the European Journal of Developmental Psychology.