Conference Agenda

Much has been written about identity development and its significance for self-navigation, mental health and wellbeing. Most of this work is rooted in the writings by Erik Erikson and focuses on the development of one integrated identity through a potentially recursive but linear process of exploration and commitment. However, in Eriksons writings, identity synthesis results from the interplay between three types of identity. Their complex dynamic may be more accurately captured in the framework of the Dialogical Self than through a linear process of exploration and commitment.

Erikson distinguished between group identifications comparable to social identities, a personal identity, and something referred to as ego-identity. Ego identity goes beyond identification with groups or personal values in that it involves understanding of, and identification with, the self-as-agent. Fostering resilience of the self-as-agent is of particular importance in the long run because of its effect on the experience of intimacy, generativity and ego integrity.

Conceptualizing identity development from the framework of Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory furthers present understanding of the writings by Erikson in two ways. First, the framework of a dynamic society of selves provides room for dialogue among a chorus of external I-positions or social identifications, as well as the emergence of a personal identity as a promotor position all simultaneously. This leads to important nuances in the conceptualisation of what develops when and how. Second, understanding the self-as-agent as a society of I-positions helps to elaborate on a vital aspect of identity development that in the Eriksonian tradition is mainly addressed by example. Considering the ego as a dynamic society of I-positions allows for both the exploration and integration of an effective and resilient ego-identity.

I will discuss how voices from the Eriksonian tradition and Hermans’ Dialogical Self Theory will add to a complementary understanding of identity development.

Mental health of students in Higher Education is worrisome. Many of these mental complaints classify as age-specific side-effects of identity development. Problems in identity development are related to multiplicity and deficits in terms of authenticity and direction in particular. Project UrU was funded to develop a digital platform to support students in these challenges.

Pilot research showed that students crave an overview of the challenges they might encounter as well as an indication of their whereabouts in this field. They would like a navigation map of potential challenges in order to understand what to confront rather than avoid in order to keep growing.

Problematic was that, since every user comes from a different perspective, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for a roadmap. Moreover, aspects of self-understanding constitute a field of tensions in which striving for one implies harming something else. The Dialogical Self Theory meets these challenges, making it a useful framework for a map for identity development in emerging adulthood.

To design this map, we used the axes mood and self-other focus from the Self-Confrontation Method for cardinal directions. This provided us with an area of agency and strength, relatedness and warmth, loneliness and isolation, and agitation and stress. We further divided each of these area’s by implementing the degrees of internalisation provided by the Self Determination Theory, and some area-specific themes and challenges.

To navigate the map, we designed four tools. The first assists in finding an idiosyncratic promotor position as a personal compass. A second helps solving conflicts between I-positions. The third helps differentiating between I-positions, reflecting upon and embracing their strengths and weaknesses as an agent. The fourth invites tracing where each I-position typically brings one in the mental map.

We suggest that this DST navigation-set provides both the insight and means to travel emerging adulthood.

This study examines early dialogicality in preschool children (aged 4–5) within the school context, focusing on school-conceptualised I-positions grounded in Dialogical Self Theory. Using a multiple case study design, three case studies were analysed based on teacher’s reflective journals gathered across two interrelated phases: (1) initial mapping of children’s I-positions and (2) implementation of the IMAP-C method through a narrative problem situation. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Within-case analyses identified convergent patterns: the structural presence of early dialogicality, its functional mobilisation in response to context-related tensions, and developmental differentiation among I-positions. Cross-case comparison indicated that, despite these shared patterns, children differed in the organisation, relationships, and use of their I-positions. Findings underscore the school environment as a dynamic setting for the emergence of early dialogicality and suggest a developmental boundary at this age in the meta-reflective organisation of the self. Overall, early dialogicality in preschoolers appears as a dynamic, polyphonic system that is activated and reshaped through school-meaningful experiences and dialogical practices. The study advances theoretical and methodological understanding of the dialogical self in early childhood education and highlights the potential for pedagogical cultivation and developmental mapping of dialogicality within school settings.

In line with phenomenology, a narrative and dialogical perspective conceptualizes dreams as stories embedded within a wider self-narrative in which different aspects or voices of the self are expressed aiming to make sense of experiences.

The present narrative study involved the analysis of a childhood dream from twenty clients, with each dream being compared to three corresponding autobiographical memories. At least one common theme ran across each client’s self-narratives. More specifically, the findings showed similarities in narrative and dialogical characteristics such as settings (e.g. main characters) and plots (e.g. basic omissions), clients’ voices but also emotions. A sense of agency varied especially when the childhood dream was recurrent. Case illustrations are used to exemplify findings. Themes and theme development are discussed as ways to organize experience over the life span. Working with childhood dreams and early memories can help therapists explore parental/family issues, whereas several techniques can promote clients’ sense of agency.