Other, self and intersubjectivity

Understanding the self

•Darwin 1872 exploring orangutans - didnt know it was them in the mirror when kissing it

•understanding that we are a separate entity from other people and objects in the world

Mirror self recognition test (Gallup,1970)

a mark placed on chimpanzee body where they cant normally see e.g. forehead

•when infront a mirror if the chimp thinks its another chimp it will show social behaviour

•if it understands the self, it will touch the mark

•chimps touched the mark showing physical awareness and other studies show asian elephants, killer whales, dolphins and magpies pass this test

Self-concept

•personal summary of who we are, including our positive and negative qualities, relationships to others

Introspection

•process when one observes and examines one’s internal states for behaving in a certain way

Choice blindness study - Johansson et al 2005

•answering which person they found most attractive, experimenter swapped the photo meaning participants had to explain their choice when handed the one they did not choose

•73% did not notice the swap

•offering introspectively derives reasons

Repressing study - Macrae et al 1994

•asked to avoid stereotypical thinking about skinheads yet when expecting to meet the individual they sat further away

•therefore have limited self-insight about those aspects of ourselves we wish were not true

The dynamic self

•self is highly variable and socially contextualised

•you develop a sense of who you are through your interactions with others

•we interpret social feedback not absorb it

Self-construal (active)

•Morf & Koole 2015, a persons views about themself is shaped through an active construal process

•motivated by how one would like to see oneself

Self-perception theory

•Bem 1972 - people can infer states by observing their own behaviour, behaviour leads to attitudes

Social comparison theory

•Festinger 1954 - uncertain of their own abilities so evaluate themselves through comparison with others and benchmarking

•Klein 1997 - we are happier with a low score that is above average over a high score that is below average

Self expansion theory

•Aron et al 1995 - become ourselves through relationships as others resources and perspectives are experienced as ones own

•students who had recently fallen in love included features of their new partner in their self concept

Generalised other

•Mead 1934 - guiding concept in knowing what to do with yourself in such situations

•formed by how children have to be a good at games by understanding the role of others - must form an idea of a generalised other

Intersubjectivity

•Gillespie and Cornish 2010 - variety of possible relations between people’s perspectives

•Gillespie & Zittoun 2010 - intersubjectivity is shaped by social situations, groups, norms, cultures and imaginations

•Heasman & Gillespie 2019 - how people create a shared understanding

Adjacency pairs

•cooperative aspects of language mean that statements we make are linked together

•greeting-greeting response

•question-answer

•compliment-acceptance/refusal

•beckon-response

Repairs

•Schegloff 1992 - mechanism through which a speaker recognises a misalignment of perspective and attempts to correct it

•Schegloff 1997 - other initiated repair

•Schegloff 1992 - self initiated repair

•third turn repairs