The Daily Use of Imagined Interaction Features

Abstract

Imagined interactions (IIs) refer to a process of social cognition in which individuals imagine, and therefore, indirectly experience themselves in anticipated and/or past communicative encounters with others. In this manuscript, two groups of participants kept diaries of their daily IIs. In the first study, rehearsal and proactivity were the most frequently reported features. Half of the entries reported only one function for the II. In the second study, catharsis and proactivity were the most frequently reported features, and there were positive associations between the number of II functions and II attributes featured in the diary and the interpersonal cognitive complexity of the participant. The contributions of these findings are discussed in regard to II theory and intrapersonal communication.