Investigating the Interactionist Minded Self

Abstract

The interactionist minded self (IMS), the package of cognitive processes, including the internal conversation, that the classic pragmatist philosophers and early interactionist sociologists claimed were important for understanding self and action, has been underinvestigated. These conceptions of the self have tended to be treated as a set of hermeneutical devices rather than as testable propositions about how people think. The authors identify several empirical claims about the IMS, discuss the diversity of minded activity (including the claim that some people don't have internal conversations), summarize some of the findings from our research on internal conversations, provide a set of topics related to the IMS that we believe should be researched, and discuss methods for researching these and other topics related to the IMS.

Citation

Schweingruber, D. and Wahl, D.W. (2024), "Investigating the Interactionist Minded Self", Denzin, N.K. and Chen, S.-L.S. (Ed.) Essential Issues in Symbolic Interaction (Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 59), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 89-104. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-239620240000059005