Dialogical self
Inspired by the original ideas of William James and Mikhail Bakhtin, Hubert Hermans, Harry Kempen and Rens van Loon wrote the first psychological publication on the "dialogical self" in which they conceptualized the self in terms of a dynamic multiplicity of relatively autonomous "I"-positions in the (extended) landscape of the mind. In this conception, the "I" has the possibility to move from one spatial position to another in accordance with changes in situation and time. The "I" fluctuates among different and even opposed positions, and has the capacity to imaginatively endow each position with a voice so that dialogical relations between positions can be established. The voices function like interacting characters in a story, involved in processes of question and answer, agreement and disagreement. Each of them have a story to tell about their own experiences from their own stance. As different voices, these characters exchange information about their respective Me's and mines, resulting in a complex, narratively structured self.
Dialogical self
Under the supervision of the Polish psychologist Piotr Oleś, a group of researchers constructed a questionnaire method, called the "Initial Questionnaire", for the measurement of three types of "internal activity" (a) change of perspective, (b) internal monologue and (c) internal dialogue. The purpose of this questionnaire is to induce the subject's self-reflection and determine which "I"-positions are reflected by the participant's interlocutors and which of them give new and different points of view to the person.