Dynamics in the Coordination of Mind and Action

Abstract

Social psychology is of two minds when it comes to the mind. One perspective recognizes the potential for fluidity and turbulence in mental process, with the elements of thought popping in and out of consciousness in a seemingly whimsical fashion. This, of course, is the view of mind that James (1950/1890) had in mind when he coined the term "stream of consciousness" to characterize phenomenal experience. It is hard to deny the dynamic nature of human thought conveyed by this metaphor. In the most mundane of settings and in the absence of external instigation, the flow of cognitive elements seems to have a life of its own, producing an uninterrupted sequence of images, feelings, memories, and concerns, to which we often feel like mere spectators. Since James's time, there have been admirable attempts to capture the nature of the elements populating the stream of thought, typically through speak-a-loud or thought-listing protocols (e.g., Klinger, Barta, & Maxeiner, 1980; Pennebaker, 1988; Pope & Singer, 1978; Singer, 1988; Singer & Bonnano, 1990). Such work has revealed, for instance, how fantasies, current concerns, and fragments of repressed memories seem to pop spontaneously into consciousness with little or no priming from environmental cues and often with no obvious connection to ongoing behavior.