Premium
The Fallacy of the Private‐Public Self‐Focus Distinction
Author(s) -
Wicklund Robert A.,
Gollwitzer Peter M.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1987.tb00448.x
Subject(s) - fallacy , focus (optics) , epistemology , relation (database) , psychology , social psychology , positive economics , sociology , philosophy , economics , physics , database , computer science , optics
Taking the distinction between Aristotelian and Galilean modes of thought (Lewin, 1931) as a background, the bifurcation of the self‐focus concept into “private” and “public” types of self‐focus is discussed critically A theoretical connection between the private‐public distinction and other central concepts within the self‐awareness literature is found to be lacking Further, it is found that ( a ) the relation between the theoretical definitions of “private” and “public” and their respective empirical definitions is not explicated, that ( b ) the public half of the dichotomy does not involve a focus of attention toward or away from the self, and perhaps most important, that ( c ) the conceptual work surrounding the private‐public distinction illustrates how an Aristotelian approach to theorizing prevents the raising of pertinent questions