Introduction

Abstract

My objective in this book is to explore a new area on the sociological map, namely, the relationship between internal and external conversation. As a recently established sociological term, ‘internal conversation’ refers to the inner dialogues that individuals have with themselves, about themselves and the social environment, while ‘external conversation’ refers to those parts of internal conversation that the individual shares with others. The central question of this research, concerning the relationship between internal and external conversation, derives from a common observation which poses an unanswered question: namely why do individuals produce different external conversations or different actions or different responses when they face similar social situations? In other words, why do individuals1 react in different ways to analogous stimuli or circumstances?