Self Inference Processes

Although self-inference processes -- the ways individuals make judgments about themselves -- have been studied in social psychology and sociology for many years, a distinct literature on this topic has not emerged due to the diversity of relevant issues. The editors of this current volume cull recent social psychological research and theory on self-inference processes and identify some of the common themes in this area of study. The specific topics covered in this volume include: ` how people infer their emotions, personality traits, and body images from relevant information * factors influencing the self-concept, identity, and self-standards * the impact of self-inferences on interpersonal relations * conditions motivating escape from the self The book is written for researchers and graduate level students in clinical, social, developmental, health, and personality psychology.

"This volume provides an authoritative synthesis of a dynamic, influential area of psychological research. Leading investigators address all aspects of dual-process theories: their core assumptions, conceptual foundations, and applications to a wide range of social phenomena. In 38 chapters, the volume addresses the pivotal role of automatic and controlled processes in attitudes and evaluation; social perception; thinking and reasoning; self-regulation; and the interplay of affect, cognition, and motivation. Current empirical and methodological developments are described. Critiques of the duality approach are explored and important questions for future research identified"--

Although social psychology has been traditionally focused on interpersonal relationships, the cognitive revolution in psychology has had the effect of refocusing some social psychology on intra-psychic processes. This area of psychology has become very popular in recent years, yet there is currently no other textbook available for the study of the self. Republished in its original form by Psychology Press in 2007, this book carefully documents the changing conceptions and the value accorded the self in psychology over time. It further outlines the many alternative conceptions of this increasingly central domain in social psychology. New research and conceptions are juxtaposed with the classic and traditional, providing the reader with a comprehensive introduction to the study of the self.

This book investigates a number of central problems in the philosophy of Charles Peirce grouped around the realism of his semiotics: the issue of how sign systems are developed and used in the investigation of reality. Thus, it deals with the precise character of Peirce's realism; with Peirce's special notion of propositions as signs which, at the same time, denote and describe the same object. It deals with diagrams as signs which depict more or less abstract states-of-affairs, facilitating reasoning about them; with assertions as public claims about the truth of propositions. It deals with iconicity in logic, the issue of self-control in reasoning, dependences between phenomena in their realist descriptions. A number of chapters deal with applied semiotics: with biosemiotic sign use among pre-human organisms: the multimedia combination of pictorial and linguistic information in human semiotic genres like cartoons, posters, poetry, monuments. All in all, the book makes a strong case for the actual relevance of Peirce's realist semiotics.

First published in 1979. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The organization of the first Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC) conference centered around two specifically identifiable research topics -- autobiographical memory and eyewitness memory. These two areas -- long-time staples on the menu of investigators of memory in more natural settings -- differ on a variety of dimensions, perhaps most notably in their specific goals for scientific inquiry and application. For many questions about memory and cognition that are of interest to scientific psychology, there have been historical as well as rather arbitrary reasons for their assignment to the autobiographical or eyewitness memory fields. Perhaps as a result of differing historical orientations, the first volume's seven autobiographical memory chapters focus upon the qualities or types of recall from research participants, whereas the seven chapters in the eyewitness memory volume generally focus upon the quantity (a concern for completeness) and accuracy of recall. This interest in the ultimate end-product and its application within the legal process in general encourages eyewitness memory investigators to modify their testing procedures continually in an attempt to gain even more information from participants about an event. Indeed, several of the eyewitness memory chapters reflect such attempts. Beyond the specific contributions of each chapter to the literature on autobiographical and eyewitness memory, the editors hope that the reader will come away with some general observations: * the autobiographical and eyewitness memory fields are thriving; * these two fields are likely to remain center stage in the further investigation of memory in natural contexts; * although the autobiographical and eyewitness memory chapters have been segregated in these two volumes, the separation is often more arbitrary than real and connections between the two areas abound; * the two research traditions are entirely mindful of fundamental laboratory methods, research, and theory -- sometimes drawing their research inspirations from that quarter; and * the two fields -- though driven largely by everyday memory concerns -- can contribute to a more basic understanding of memory at both an empirical and a theoretical level.