Self-Observation in the Social Sciences
By: Joshua W. Clegg
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 308
ISBN-13: 9781351296809
Subjects: Introspection; Self-perception; Observation (Psychology); Perception de soi; Observation (Psychologie)
Description: "Notwithstanding the mythical demise of "introspection," self-observation has always been an integral aspect of the social sciences. In the century following the "behavioral revolution," psychology has seen a reduction not so much in the frequency as in the rigor with which self-observation is practiced. A great deal of self-observation has been renamed or obscured (as, for example, "self-report"), but this has served only to defer and impoverish important theoretical and technical work. This volume, which contributes to the development of a rigorous theory of self-observation, is organized around three general objectives: to re-animate a discourse on self-observation through a historical analysis of various self-observation traditions; to outline and begin to address some of the unique theoretical challenges of self-observation; and to elaborate some of the technical and practical details necessary for realizing a program of research dedicated to self-observation. In the first section of the book, three historians of psychology trace the evolution of self-observation. In the second, three scholars who are currently working in contemporary traditions of self-observation discuss the basic theoretical and practical challenges involved in conducting self-observation research. In the final two sections of the book, scholars from the phenomenological and narrative traditions trace the history, theory, and practice of self-observation in their respective traditions. Self-Observation in the Social Sciences continues the fine tradition set by Transaction's History and Theory of Psychology series edited by Jaan Valsiner. It is of interest to psychologists and to those who study methodology within the social sciences."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Part Part I: Introduction; title: chapter 1 Developing an Adequate Theory of Self-Observation; title: part Part II: The History of Scientific Self-Observation; title: chapter 2 The History of Introspection Revisited; title: chapter 3 A Brief History of Self-Report in American Psychology; title: chapter 4 Introspection and the Myth of Methodological Behaviorism; title: part Part III: Contemporary Self-Observation: Theory and Practice; title: chapter 5 Language in Self-Observation; title: chapter 6 Confronting the Challenges of Observing Inner Experience: The Descriptive Experience Sampling Method; title: chapter 7 Multimodal Introspection Theory; title: part Part IV: Self-Observation in the Phenomenological Traditions; title: chapter 8 A Conceptual History of Self-Observation in the Phenomenological Tradition: Brentano, Husserl, and Heidegger; title: chapter 9 A Phenomenologically Informed Theory of Self-Observation: Intra-spection as Hermeneutic Reduction on the Self; title: chapter 10 The Practice of Self-Observation in the Phenomenological Traditions; title: part Part V: Self-Observation in the Narrative Traditions; title: chapter 11 A Practice of Self-Observation in Narrative Psychology; title: chapter 12 Self-Observation Theory in the Narrative Tradition: Rescuing the Possibility of Self-Understanding; title: chapter 13 Self-Observation in Ethnographic Writing; title: part Part VI: Conclusions; title: chapter 14 The Inferential Context of Self-Observation.