Review: Noelie Rodrlguez & Alan Ryave (2002). Systematic Self­ Observation

This book systematizes 13 years of work by the two authors who debate their achieve­ments and the objections to their method, Systematic Self-Observation (SSO). They introduce SSO as a valid and reliable approach to the study of intra-psychic processes that accompany various experiences of everyday lite (e.g. telling lies, passing rumors) which would otherwise go unnoted. The authors introduce a brief review of work concerning the self-observation technique, point out the differences between their method and other similar ones, and provide a detailed description of how to implement this technique in research. The book is supplemented by a series of research abstracts that allow the reader to view the kind of results that may be achieved, and a description of the application of SSO in other areas, including pedagogy and psychotherapy. lt is a very interesting book for anybody who wants to explore new ways of understanding the thoughts and feelings that accompany our daily social behavior.