Ipseology - A new science of the self

Ipseology is the study of human identity using large datasets and computational social science methods. It is a new way to investigate ipseity at scale. Ipseity refers to selfhood, individuality and the essential elements of identity. At scale means with millions of observations covering substantial temporal periods and geographical areas. One measures ipseity with language. Specifically, the data sought is personally expressed identity text. This text must satisfy all three conditions. It should be personal - the authors are describing themselves. It should be expressed - the authors' text is "published," i.e. the words are available where others might see them. It should describe identity - the explicit purpose of the text is description of the author. Ipseology reduces complexity by focusing on signifiers. Signifiers are linguistic tokens that represent something the author wishes to convey about their identity.