In Pursuit of Self-Knowledge: Agency, Reflexivity, and Dual Process Models in Group Psychotherapy

• In Event: 30260 - Joint Roundtables: Section on Social Psychology and Section on Sociology of Emotions
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 1: Emotion Work

Abstract

Cognitive sociologists continue to debate the relationship between conscious and unconscious aspects of cognition, and I argue the results of this debate have significant implications for the existence of human agency. Research from sociologists and psychologists suggests that the relationship between our consciousness and unconsciousness may be clarified by observing embodied and emotional reflexivity, in which individuals consciously monitor their bodily sensations and emotions as indications of unconscious processes. Other research indicates that intersubjectivity is a core part of advancing self-understanding, like through the process of “reflected appraisal”--- understanding oneself through the evaluative treatment from other people (as in Cooley’s theory of the looking-glass self). I investigate further how reflexivity and intersubjectivity may allow an individual to consciously access (and perhaps change) their own unconscious beliefs, behaviors, and motivations using ethnographic field notes from group therapy sessions led by licensed psychotherapists in Chicago, IL and the surrounding area.

Author

• Ashley N Burk, University of Notre Dame