"Foundations of Dialogical Self: Tension between Potentials of the Future and Unity of the Past"
SATO Tatsuya & VALSINER Jaan
last update: 20151225
Foundations of Dialogical Self: Tension between Potentials of the Future and Unity of the Past
SATO Tatsuya & VALSINER Jaan
Abstract:
Dialogical Self is made possible by continuity in irreversible time. Time and space are central in all psychological existence. We need to incorporate both time and space into human life studies. But for long time, there has been a tradition in psychology to view these categories as separate. Traditional personality psychology has been time-free and it is only through the focus on Dialogical Self that time-dependency becomes recognized in personality research. Even in developmental psychology, time might be regarded as an auxiliary line to understand the change and stability of human development. Quantitative change is rather easy to depict, but it is rather difficult to grasp qualitative transformation with time.
On the other hand, in cultural psychology, the diversity and un-sameness of human development is easily stressed. But it takes little light of historicity of each cultural tradition. The cultural-historical view of development is now needed but it doesn't have effective tool to treat qualitative transformation of human development.
The Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM) focuses on the diversity of life within irreversible time. The equifinality point (EFP) is the research focus in which researchers have interest, e.g., entering higher education, infertile experience of married women, an occasion for authentic reflection of delinquent adolescent, decision to go study abroad and so on. For research participants, the EFP is an alluded goal and to which they orient to. But goals are not always clear and easily achieved. And there are possible trajectories to reach the EFP. So the notion of Dialogical Self takes an important role to understand and depict the life with time.
In this workshop, Sato explains the TEM and Valsiner maps what we know of Dialogical Self on the TEM. General discussion will follow. The right figure is the original inspiration of Jaan's diagram of "equifinality in development" (Valsiner, 2003; p62). For describing the TEM, there are some basic concepts. These are Bifurcation points (BFP), Equifinality points (EFP), Obligatory passage points (OPP), Trajectory and Irreversible time (Valsinar and Sato, 2006). Because of the TEM "develops" very fast, new notions emereges. There are Poralized EFP, Multifinality, Social Direction and Zone of finality.
REV: 20151225