Sense, reference and attribution in self-description. A new TST outlook

Abstract

The current research is focused on examining the concept of personal identity using answers given to the question: who am I? Adopting the perspective and methodology of the Iowa School of symbolic interactionism, it concludes that the character of an individual’s self-perception is principally attributive. The answers provided by a representative sample of the Spanish population are used to support this position, and are analyzed comparatively in order to examine the self-definition people give of themselves using three criteria: sense, reference and attribution, this last criterion being of central importance in shaping the different groups of answers obtained.