The life of Steve Jobs: a psychobiographical study
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Date
2016-02
Authors
du Plessis, Ruvé
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
This study constitutes a psychobiography of the late businessman and entrepreneur, Steve
Jobs (1955-2011). The primary aim was to explore and describe the psychosocial
development of Steve Jobs across his lifespan in terms of Levinson’s (1996) theory. This
objective demonstrates an inductive approach and reflects the exploratory-descriptive nature
of the study. The secondary aim of this study was to test the relevance of the content and eras
of Levinson’s (1996) theory, demonstrating the deductive approach and reflecting the
descriptive-dialogic nature of the research. The study employed a single case
psychobiographical research design, which utilised psychological theory in a systematic
fashion in order to illuminate the life of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was the co-founder of the
Apple Inc. company and the founder of Pixar and NeXT. He was selected for this study by
means of a non-probability sampling procedure, known as purposive sampling. The
researcher found one existing psychobiography on Jobs by Ndoro (2014), with the emphasis
falling on the way in which Jobs’s personality influenced his career, and vice versa. This
study, however, made use of Levinson’s (1996) theory to study the psychosocial lifespan
development of Jobs. Jobs’s life history was uncovered through the systematic and consistent
collection, analysis and interpretation of the available biographical and historical data. The
data were collected from both primary and secondary sources and it consisted mainly of
published materials. Alexander’s (1988, 1990) model was used to identify and extract salient
themes for analysis from the collected biographical data. Furthermore, data were organised
and integrated in a conceptual matrix which also guided the categorisation, analyses and the
presentation and discussion of the findings. The findings of this study supported the
applicability and relevance of Levinson’s (1996) theory to gain psychological understanding
of Jobs as an individual. There was a’fit’ between Jobs’s life and the eras and transitional
periods as proposed by Levinson et al. (1978). The findings also confirmed the assertion by Levinson et al. (1978) that the central components of an individual’s life have a significant
impact on life structure development. Jobs developed through the on-going process of
individuation, as proposed by Levinson et al. (1978), which guided his development as a
man, entrepreneur, businessman, creator, innovator, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), husband
and father. Furthermore, recommendations are made future psychobiographical research.
Description
Keywords
Psychobiography, Steve Jobs, Levinson, Psychosocial development, Dissertation (M.A. (Psychology))--University of the Free State, 2016