Imagined interaction and interpersonal communication
Renee Edwards1990, Communication Reports
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Abstract
Imagined interactions are cognitive representations of conversation experienced as internal dialogues with significant others. Results of an investigation confirm four hypotheses. The self talks more in imagined interactions, imagined interactions primarily involve intimate partners and personal tppics, they are more likely to occur before an actual communication event than after it, and they are less functional for lonely individuals. •Although "internal dialogue" has been discussed by contemporary communication theorists (Hikins, 1981), the concept can be traced back to Plato. Recently, interpersonal communication scholars have taken great interest in the relationship between communication and social cognition (Roloff & Berger, 1982). Nevertheless, little systematic attention has been given to explicitly intrapersonal communication processes like "internal dialogues.' Our purpose in this paper is to extend and report research concerning internal dialogue, what we have in other places called "imagined interactions." (Edwards, Honeycutt, & Zagacki, 1988; Honeycutt, Zagacki, & Edwards, 1989). Imagined interaction is a process of social cognition, whereby actors imagine and therefore indirectly experience themselves in interaction with others. Imagined interactions are a form of intrapersonal communication in which talking activity is directly related to the achievement of some intentional, social communicative goal. The term imagined interactions was first used by Rosenblatt and Meyer (1986), who applied a general understanding of the concept to counseling situations. These authors based their notion of imagined interaction in symbolic interaction theory (see Manis & Meltzer, 1978). Mead (1934) for example, discusses the "internalized conversation of gestures" in which actors cognitively monitor social action by reviewing alternative endings of any given act in which they are involved. Mead adds that such mental activity is important to the development of the self, since internal conversations. give cues for how the self might respond and would be perceived by others in real social conduct. We have proposed that imagined interactions may allow actors to solve communication problems. They afford actors the opportunity to envision the act of discoursing with others, anticipating their responses, and even adjusting to their roles. In general, then, the study of imagined interactions partially addresses a major question posited by Arnold and Frandsen (1984) and Duck (1980):
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