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The 1985 Distinguished lecture: The Bureaucratizing of Impulse: Self‐Conception in the 1980s
Author(s) -
Zurcher Louis A.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
symbolic interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.874
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1533-8665
pISSN - 0195-6086
DOI - 10.1525/si.1986.9.2.169
Subject(s) - rationalization (economics) , impulse (physics) , modernization theory , epistemology , sociology , argument (complex analysis) , the symbolic , social institution , institution , psychology , social psychology , social science , political science , psychoanalysis , law , philosophy , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics
This article selectively reviews and interprets the literature on self‐concept and social change. It summarizes the view that in the 1970s the self‐conception of Americans, modally considered, manifested a shift from institution to impulse, from social to reflective. The argument is made that in the 1980s the expression of impulse is becoming bureaucratized, newly formated in rationalization and modernization, effectively being institutionalized by assorted societal agents, including sociologists. Speculations are offered about the implications of that change. Several suggestions are made regarding future research on self‐concept and the broader notion of “self”, particularly by symbolic interactionists and for the purpose of application.