Situation and Self

The theme that threads through these pages is the notion of the situated self. From George H. Mead and the symbolic interactionists who argue that the self is socially constructed, from the Buddhist psychologists who argue that the self is a social fiction, and from the phenomenological perspective of experiential research we are led to an understanding of the situationally-determined, ever-changing self. A further step takes us to situated explanations of human behavior. What is offered here is not theory alone, but a beginning methodology for utilizing the theory and verifying hypotheses derived from it. It is a small step toward incorporating phenomenological data into the realm of science.