Dialogical Self System Development: The Co-construction of Dynamic Self-Positionings Along Life Course

Abstract

In this chapter, we elaborate on conceptual and theoretical ideas concerning the development of the dialogical self from a cultural psychology perspective. We start by conceiving the dialogical self as an open system since it presents all the characteristics of such systems. Among others, it shows a dynamic, ever-developing complex structure, which features both stability and change deriving from centripetal and centrifugal forces. The Dialogical Self System is, also, in permanent exchange with many aspects of its cultural environment, which entails a continuous movement of emergence, transformation, and dissolution of its multiple components, characterized by a high degree of interdependence and connectivity. Therefore, we refer to the dialogical self as the Dialogical Self System-DSS. As its key characteristic, we underline the fact that the DSS’s emergence and development take place as a result of its interactions and relations with alterity, or otherness, which happens when the DSS relates to affective-significant social others. The DSS encompasses a multiplicity of positionings co-constructed in the space–time dimension, which we denominate as Dynamic Self-Positionings (DSP). We elaborated on this construct as we tried to make sense of the DSS development during our research with children and young adolescents. While carrying out such studies, we faced the need for a more field-like and dynamic component of the DSS, to better describe the data that emerged in our co-construction with the young participants. Here we analyze the role of other fruitful concepts—Affective-Semiotic Fields—and the dynamics between the I-self dimensions of the system. We endeavor to identify, analyze, and discuss the role of tensions and the affective-semiotic negotiations occurring as the DSS develops along its trajectory in the irreversible time. Other aspects pertaining to the DSS addressed in this chapter are the analysis of factors promoting change versus the relative continuity of the system, the latter being responsible for the sense of self unity/wholeness throughout life. In sum, our goal is to elaborate, at a theoretical level, on the structural and dynamic nature, and quality of the Dynamic Self-Positionings, therefore contributing to the advancement of a theoretical perspective on the development of the dialogical self.