 |
|
Volume 3 Number 1
Fall 2008
| Negotiating
the Place of
Culture and Emotion in the Dialogical Self (Commentary on Choi and Han) Hala W. Mahmoud University of Cambridge, UK |
pp. 225-240 |
 |
|
ABSTRACT: This commentary on Choi
& Han’s article attempts
to extend the use of the Dialogical Self model to understand emotional
experiences
in broader sense. It focuses on the dynamics by which emotions are
dialogically
experienced in the everyday lives of individuals as a manifestation of
the
intersection between self and culture. It is argued that culture is
distributed
and inherently heterogeneous yet preserves a surface homogeneity that
binds and
facilitates communication between people of a cultural group. The
underlying
heterogeneity is explained both as a result of personality factors (and
related
idiosyncratic internalizations of prevailing cultural and value systems
in a
given society), as well as contextual factors. Both end up forming
varying
configurations of I-positions within the self that guide and shape
emotional
experiences and produce heterogeneity. It is argued that the dynamics
of
emotion judgements and the communication of those
judgements is
what reflects the underlying heterogeneity of culture and reproduces
and
reinforces
the surface homogeneity. |
||
| Keywords: Dialogical self, culture, emotions, internalization, externalization, personal culture, collective culture, homogeneity and heterogeneity of culture | ||