Dialogical self
Dialogical Self Theory (DST) weaves two concepts, self and dialogue, together in such a way that a more profound understanding of the interconnection of self and society is achieved.
In Dialogical Self Theory (DST) the self is considered as "extended," that is, individuals and groups in the society at large are incorporated as positions in the mini-society of the self.
When, in contrast, positions are recognized and accepted in their differences and alterity (both within and between the internal and external domains of the self), dialogical relationships emerge with the possibility to further develop and renew the self and the other as central parts of the society at large.
[4] As the composite term dialogical self suggests, the present theory finds itself not exclusively in one of these traditions but explicitly at their intersection.
The purpose of the present theory is to profit from the insights of founding fathers like William James, George Herbert Mead and Mikhail Bakhtin and, at the same time, to go beyond them.
Finally, a sense of personal volition is reflected in the continuous appropriation and rejection of thoughts by which the self-as-knower manifests itself as an active processor of experience.
Of particular relevance to DST is James's view that the Me, equated with the self-as-known, is composed of the empirical elements considered as belonging to oneself.
James was aware that there is a gradual transition between Me and mine and concluded that the empirical self is composed of all that the person can call his or her own, "not only his body and his psychic powers, but his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his lands and horses, and yacht and bank-account".
Such characters are more explicitly elaborated in Mikhail Bakhtin's[7] metaphor of the polyphonic novel, which became a source of inspiration for later dialogical approaches to the self.
These characters are not presented as obedient slaves in the service of one author-thinker, Dostoevsky, but treated as independent thinkers, each with their own view of the world.
Inspired by the original ideas of William James and Mikhail Bakhtin, Hubert Hermans, Harry Kempen and Rens van Loon[8] wrote the first psychological publication on the "dialogical self" in which they conceptualized the self in terms of a dynamic multiplicity of relatively autonomous I-positions in the (extended) landscape of the mind.
The voices function like interacting characters in a story, involved in processes of question and answer, agreement and disagreement.
As different voices, these characters exchange information about their respective Me's and mines, resulting in a complex, narratively structured self.
The theory has led to the construction of different assessment and research procedures for investigating central aspects of the dialogical self.
The assessment comprises two phases— This method represents a combination of qualitative and quantitative procedures that provide insight in the content and organization of a multi-voiced self.
In a second investigation, one year later, the intensely conflicting relationship between Mary and the witch was significantly reduced and, as a result, there was less tension and stress in the self.
The purpose of this questionnaire is to induce the subject's self-reflection and determine which I-positions are reflected by the participant's interlocutors and which of them give new and different points of view to the person.
For example, correlating the Initial Questionnaire with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), the researchers found that persons having inner dialogues scored significantly lower on Assertiveness and higher on Self-Consciousness, Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings and Openness than people having internal monologues.
At the same time these persons are more disturbed by awkward social situations, uncomfortable around others, sensitive to ridicule, and prone to feelings of inferiority (Self-Consciousness), they prefer to stay in the background and let others do the talking (Assertiveness)".
Based on Stiles' assimilation model,[14] "Osatuke et al.", describes a method that enables the researcher to compare what is said by a client (verbal content) and how it is said (speech sounds).
Usually, these locations form sequences, that can be examined and made explicit when one listens carefully not only to the content but also the expressive elements in the conversation.
Leiman's method, which analyzes a conversation in terms of "chains of dialogical patterns", is theory-guided, qualitative and sensitive to the verbal and the non-verbal aspects of utterances.
Theoretical advances, empirical research, and practical applications are discussed in the International Journal for Dialogical Science[17] and at the biennial International Conferences on the Dialogical Self as they are held in different countries and continents: Nijmegen, Netherlands (2000), Ghent, Belgium (2002), Warsaw, Poland (2004), Braga, Portugal (2006), Cambridge, United Kingdom (2008), Athens, Greece (2010), Athens, Georgia, United States (2012), and The Hague, Netherlands (2014).The aim of the journal and the conferences is to transcend the boundaries of (sub)disciplines, countries, and continents and create fertile interfaces where theorists, researchers and practitioners meet in order to engage in innovative dialogue.
The topic of mediated dialogue in a global and digital age was at the heart of a special issue in Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research (2004).
[52] In Counselling Psychology Quarterly (2006),[53] the dialogical self was applied to a variety of topics, such as, the relationship between adult attachment and working models of emotion, paranoid personality disorder, narrative impoverishment in schizophrenia, and the significance of social power in psychotherapy.
The relevance of the dialogical self to developmental psychology was discussed in a special issue of New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development (2012).
As the above review of applications demonstrates, there is a broad range of fields in psychology and other disciplines in which the theory has received interests from thinkers, researchers and practitioners.
Recent work by John Rowan has resulted in the publication of a book by him entitled - 'Personification: Using the Dialogical Self in Psychotherapy and Counselling' published by Routledge.
Certainly, more than most post-modernist approaches, the theory has instigated a variety of empirical studies and some of its main tenets are confirmed in experimental social-psychological research.
Apart from the theory-research gap, one of the additional reasons for the lacking connection with mainstream research may be the fact that interest in the notion of dialogue, central in the history of philosophy since Plato, is largely neglected in psychology and other social sciences.
