Classic research and contemporary scholarship suggest that the self cannot be understood apart from the activities of people within specific contexts. The current conceptualization of self constructing activities is derived from James’ distinction between representations of one’s characteristics and the process of constructing those representations. It is argued that this distinction has been obscured in generations of self scholarship by attributing the process of self construction to “I”s and selves. The paper clarifies the distinction between self constructing activities and the constructed self, and ultimately offers a conceptualization of the forms, constituents, and functions of self constructing activities. Focusing on self constructing activities provides a way to address some of the complexities of the self by directing theoretical and empirical attention towards considering how selves emerge dynamically as people participate together in cultural practices.
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