DD307 Open University Social Psychology - Discursive Psychology notes

Assumptions & definitions
1. Discourse - the way particular meanings are constructed w/in language
2. Not psychology of language - but how people use language in everyday lives
3. Language not neutral - vehicle to present different versions of objects which will be context dependent
  1. DP offers analysis of what language does & how people use it to present & legitimise a certain stance on given topic
4. Discourse Analysis - how people use language to present version of event - will often maintain/construct particular position
5. Linguistic devices
  1. P&W - used by m/c New Zealanders to position themselves as non-prejudice re Polynesian immigrants
  2. P&W - show how prejudice can become justified via language used
    1. & continue in our social interactions
6. Rhetorical devices
  1. Strategies used to persuade others of a specific viewpoint
Foucault
1. Constructing regulative norms
  1. Discursively constitute some things as acceptable, others deviant
  2. & construct w/in that linguistic distinction the incitement to self-regulate, fit-in, be normal
2. Power
  1. Not in hands of powerful & oppress the masses
  2. But - multiplicity of discursive practices that fabricates & positions subjects
  3. Power & ideology no longer separated from & operating on individuals but interwoven into subject positions a person takes up & are mediated by language
Tuffin - Understanding Critical Psychology
1. Thru language we offer:
  1. Justifications & explanations
    1. That take into a/c how others may judge our actions, motives & intentions
  2. We provide a/c's & descriptions
    1. That inevitably attend to questions of responsibility, blame & accountability
  3. We criticise, cajole & counsel
    1. Rarely from perspective of neutrality or disinterest
      1. We're psychologically invested in the matters we comment on
2. Action orientation of language use
  1. We achieve much thru the complex ways we're able to structure & manage talk/text
  2. Much important social business transacted in & thru language
3. Discursive analysis
  1. 1) Construction
    1. How a/c is put together; what linguistic resources - interpretive repertoires?
      1. Packages of ideas useful for making sense of & evaluating the world
  2. 2) Function
    1. Active/'doing' element
    2. Things achieved by particular characterisations, evaluation, descrption
    3. Version of events examined for interpersonal & psychological achievements
      1. e.g. accountability, blame, causality
    4. Important re attributions & assignment of responsibility for events w/in particular way a/c constructed
  3. 3) Variability
    1. Natural feature of language use
    2. Unique r'ship w/ function
    3. Alternative a/c's see to do different business
    4. Important as highlights context
4. Epistemological difference (from cog. soc.)
  1. Suggests emotion, attributes, memories etc should be regarded as being
    1. constituted in & thru the ways in which they're talked/written about
  2. DP examines ways in which language contributes to shared understandings of how categories formulated in particular ways
  3. Recognising talking about emotion in 1 way will have particular effects, while talking about it in another way has another effect
  4. Psychological knowledge studied interactionally, conversationally & relationally
    1. Emotion becomes social practice produces interactionally
  5. Emphasis & orientation move from interior to exterior
    1. What was previously inferred, now becomes part of what is able to be captured & studied as part of daily social practice
5. Shotland & Shaw - Bystander
  1. Staged attack
  2. R'ship between woman & her attacker manipulated
    1. "Get away from me - I don't know who you are"
    2. "Get away from me - I don't know why I married you"
  3. Demo power of langauge
    1. to construct (stranger or spouse)
  4. Study v. constrained in its exam of language
    1. Just used to manipulate (controlled by experimenter) & then discarded
    2. Would've been good to get a/c's from Ps to understand their experience more fully
6. How characterise actions of suicide bomber?
  1. Terrorism or martyrdom?
    1. Brave or foolhardy?
  2. Single word has significant effect on what else we say
    1. Language provides ability to construct very separate psychological realities
      1. Would either encourage condemnation or aggrandisement
      2. Language never neutral
        Never simply telling it how it is
        Reality always socially constructed - our knowledge of events comes to us thru the words we use when describing 'behaviour'
7. Emotion
  1. Nature of emotion found in way which they're talked about
    1. Jealously
      1. Not located in damaged bit of the heart
        Nor at physiological or cognitive level
      2. Located & constructed discursively
        i.e. how is it talked about?
  2. Talk does more than describe emotion
    1. it contributes to the nature of what we understand the experience of jealousy to be
      1. e.g. how words in Shakespeare play effect us

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DD307 Open University Social Psychology - Discursive Psychology notes

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	Created by Ken Adams over 9 years ago