Figure 1. Cliffside Hiking Trail, may cause increase in negative inner voice
As you shuffle across the sharp edges of a cliffside, wind howls around you. "This is a giant fear for a reason, what if you slip!? You won't come back!" you hear these words whisper in your head as you continue with hesitation. As you move forward, unsure if that is what you really want to do, you hear the sound of your closest friends and family cheering and celebrating your achievement further ahead. The previous unpleasant voice trying to convince you to leave is slowly overshadowed by a positive encouragement, "You want to do this, this is about overcoming fears and feeling alive". These words fill you with the adrenaline needed to push forward faster towards the end, as you approach you hear a friend call out suddenly to be careful of loose footing. You're conflicted for a moment, were the first words right or the second? "You've made it too far to stop, keep going!" the voice continues, the fear from before becomes a driver as you keep moving and arrive to your friends. "You knew you could do it, it was always going to be fine!" you hear finally as you let out a sigh of relief. You know that this doesn't mean you won't feel stressed in the future, it doesn't mean that fear would just simply dissapear[spelling?] if you tried this again. But it may help you realise that there is, for most people, something with you at all times helping you make all your decisions, and greatly impacts how you are feeling in day to day life, the inner voice.
The inner voice, also known as self-talk, inner speech or intrapersonal communication, is a complicated concept. It is something that for some is with you at absolutely all times, and for others may sound like a myth that friends try to convince you exists. It can develop in a variety of ways, change over time, and is still not fully understood even by those that study it, and has many different competing theories to define it. As a whole, an inner voice is seen as "...a form of inner dialogue, which enables them to engage in high-level cognition, including self-control, self-attention and self-regulation” (Chella & Pipitone, 2020, as cited in Nedergaard, J. S. K., & Lupyan, G. (2024)
(need to add more and rewrite a lot of 2nd half of overview intro)
(maybe rewrite to just be about jumping off a cliff into water with friends instead of rock climbing/mountain hiking etc, so it is more easily understood and easy to visualise at first, especially given there was not image to show it more clearly)
Focus questions:
What is the inner voice and how does it develop?
What are the different kinds of inner voices, and how do they influence emotion differently?
What is the relationship between the inner voice and emotion?
Is this relationship generally positive or negative? (In what ways)
Why does it influence emotion?
Can people influence or change this relationship?/Can you modify inner voice to improve this relationship?
The inner voice has had a number of theories applied to it as to how it functions and develops with most however agreeing it develops throughout and has links to ones childhood. Recent studies have highlighted the neuro-development in children’s inner voice, with them showing how the dorsal language stream supports the development of inner speech. With later reviews of the dorsal stream in adults supporting that there are parallels between neuro-anatomical and psychological development of inner-speech. It is this that suggests maturation of dorsal language is highly related to development of a child’s inner voice. (Geva & Fernyhough, 2019, as cited in Brinthaupt et al, 2020)
Vygotsky's (1987) theory of cognitive development states that an inner voice developing is a result of developmental processes in co-operative activity with an adult. (Viacheslav, et al. 2023)
Although many people assume that however they hear their inner monologue is how others must hear it, an inner speech can vary greatly from person to person in how, and how much it is experienced.
Briefly talk about the average times that inner voice has major developments for a person (age wise)
Also talk about other factors that impact how an inner voice forms (environmental, social, etc)Not all adults have an inner voice
Types of inner voices and their impacts on emotion
There have been many theories that present the idea forward that although an inner voice may not be needed for simply having thoughts of one kind or another, a person does rely on their inner voice as a primary means to be able to internally reflect on and be conscious of those thoughts, (Clark, 1998, as cited in Langland‐Hassan, P. (2021) which in the context of emotion is key.
Talk a bit more in depth about inner voices role in managing, forming, changing emotions etc
(the 2nd point above pretty much)
How does it take part in a person's management of emotion?
Positive and negative influences of the inner voice on emotion
Research has found that talking to oneself, whether that is aloud in private (private speech) or to yourself silently (inner speech) has links to multiple positive cognitive, emotional and behavioural consequeces[spelling?]. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, as cited in Morin, A., Duhnych, C., & Racy, F. (2018)
Talk about what the main positive and negative impacts inner voice might have on emotion are
Even many very early perspectives on the inner voice or internal monologue have agreed that a human does not fully control themself. (Spinoza, 1667, as cited in Fossa, P., Pérez, R. M., & Marcotti, C. M. (2020). With emotions being modifications to the body, either increasing or decreasing its ability to perform. When an emotion does so to the body, it was argued that it simultaneously and likewise impacts the mind. Because of this it was appropriately said that in the same way a body condition can't be controlled unless a greater bodily condition meets it, an emotion cannot be controlled unless an opposite or stronger emotion is to oppose it.
Explore whether people can change or influence the amount of control their inner voice has
Figure 3. A woman reflecting on her own thoughts, which may be confronting when down.Discuss self-awareness of this relationship and how much people can impact it with events in their life/therapy/anything else
Talk about techniques or anything else used to modify inner voice
Inner voice contributes to both positives and negatives of emotion
It can develop in greatly different ways for different people, but if it does develop will be during childhood
Although most people do also have inner voices/speech, they experience them in greatly different ways and do varying degrees to.
For key question though:
It does not influence emotion in one set way, other parts of life will determine how, when, and to what degrees it influences emotion too, as well as how someone responds to this.
Also the fact that people are able to modify, treat, and impact their inner voice which will adjust its influence on emotion. (e.g. therapy)
Can still greatly narrow down some of these points when I see what is covered enough already prior, and probably just focus more on the bits related to key question. Come back and see as I go.
Brinthaupt, T. M., Morin, A., Brinthaupt, T. M., Morin, A., & Puchalska-Wasyl, M. M. (2020). Exploring the Nature, Content, and Frequency of Intrapersonal Communication. Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/978-2-88966-271-5
Fossa, P., Pérez, R. M., & Marcotti, C. M. (2020). The Relationship Between the Inner Speech and Emotions: Revisiting the Study of Passions in Psychology. Human Arenas: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Psychology, Culture, and Meaning, 3(2), 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-019-00079-5
Morin, A., Duhnych, C., & Racy, F. (2018). Self‐reported inner speech use in university students. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 32(3), 376–382. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3404
Nedergaard, J. S. K., & Lupyan, G. (2024). Not Everybody Has an Inner Voice: Behavioral Consequences of Anendophasia. Psychological Science, 35(7), 780–797. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976241243004
Viacheslav, I., Vartanov, A., Bueva, A., & Bronov, O. (2023). The emotional component of inner speech: A pilot exploratory fMRI study. Brain and Cognition, 165, 105939–105939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105939
Maybe this could be a rhetorical question? ie. What influences the inner voice and emotion?
