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Making agreements with oneself: Prelude to social behavior

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Sociological Forum

Abstract

Self-promises, implicitly-articulated self-agreements, and self-bargains seem to be widespread and important sociopsychological phenomena that have been little studied. As aspects of a problem-solving orientation, possibly inherent in social conduct, they may be significant as a way in which social control operates internally. The purposes, commitments, disclosures and rewards of self-agreements are viewed as mechanisms used to deal with the problematical. Individuals' testimony indicates that awareness of processes involved in articulating self-agreements vary from little to highly active internal negotiating. Findings from an open-ended questionnaire given to 313 respondents are discussed.

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Kenen, R.H. Making agreements with oneself: Prelude to social behavior. Sociol Forum 1, 362–377 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01115743

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01115743

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