The potential of a dialogical understanding of language for empirical research in developmental psychology

Abstract

Based on recent developments within the field of discursive psychology that integrate the works of Bakhtin, the present paper discusses the dialogical self with regard to early infancy research. It draws on examples from a comparative study of mother-infant interactions among North German middle class families and Cameroonian Nso to illustrate the potential of a dialogical approach to language and self for developmental psychology and to demonstrate empirical ways of studying child development from this perspective.

Keywords

• Dialogical self
• ontogenesis
• mother-infant interaction
• Cameroon Nso farmers
• German middle class families