“To thine own self(ves) be true”: Reflexive insights for etic self theory from consumers’ emic constructions of the self

Abstract

The self and related multiple self constructs while widely applied in many guises in consumption‐focused research may be surprisingly underdetermined or misconstrued. What has been missing in particular is a critical perspective assessing an emic view of consumers’ personal theories and narratives of the self. A study using written protocols was conducted to investigate these consumer perspectives and a hermeneutic thematic analysis was developed. Varying accounts of the self in terms of its definition, multiplicity, and related dialectical and reflexive consumption processes were found, suggesting that prior etic self theories ignored many nuances of consumers’ constructions of the self. Building on these accounts, an enhanced theoretical framework of the self emerges involving multiple personal constructions of the self, the reflexivity of the narrative of the self (theory of the self as a construct) with the narrative of oneself (identity construction) and a critical perspective on the discourses of self reflexively involving etic–researcher and emic–consumer cultures.

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