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Direct Perception and Symbol Forming in Positioning
Author(s) -
Jones Raya
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal for the theory of social behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.615
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5914
pISSN - 0021-8308
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5914.00090
Subject(s) - indexicality , conversation , psychology , interpersonal communication , perception , symbol (formal) , affordance , embodied cognition , premise , epistemology , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , social psychology , linguistics , communication , philosophy , neuroscience
Harreà’s positioning theory posits discourse as the concrete context within which selves are produced, but accentuates the dissociation between the physical engagement in a conversation and ‘location’ in a conceptual interpersonal space. The thesis that positioning involves selective attention, and that selected positions express ongoing transformations in the hearer’s experiential realm is expanded here initially by reference to Gibson’s direct‐perception theory. The concepts of indexical and symbolic affordances are introduced to describe the function of utterances in setting parameters for hearer’s behavioural and social‐relational engagement, respectively. This implicates a construct of ‘psychological value’ (i.e., the affective intensity and valence of elements of experience), as proposed by C. G. Jung. The essay draws attention to the idea of symbol forming as a process whereby abstract self/world relations are articulated in one’s actions and thoughts, and in which context the ‘reception’ of others’ actions and utterances as having positioning implications may be understood.