Qualitative - 03 Flashcards
THE DISCURSIVE APPROACH looks at
the USE of language – to gain insight in to social construction of meaning – what is available to the narrator?
here, language is
action
Thinking about the role of discourse in
constructing realities
Ð Narrative analysis looks at
the stories individuals construct to make meaning of events and themselves
Discourse Analysis Identifies….
power dynamics in language by asking – what is this text doing?
Discourse Analysis asks How has this person used language to
construct their reality
essentially, Language constructs
reality
Three principal Components of discursive / discourse approach
1) Function / Action – We do things with language: persuade, request, accuse, blame etc
2) Construction – we use language to construct versions of the social world
3) Variability – Accounts vary according to function and fluidity of discourse
2 major types of discursive analysis:
discursive psych
& Foucauldian discursive analysis (FDA)
discursive psychology seeks to understand
How particular versions of reality are manufactured, negotiated, and deployed in conversation. How do people use language to negotiate and manage social interactions to achieve interpersonal objectives
Emphasises the….
Ð Emphasises the performative qualities of discourse
Ð Speaker as active agent who uses discourse as a tool
In short, discursive psychology does not seek to produce a knowledge of things (cognitions, mental states, personality traits etc), but an
understanding of the process by which they are talked into being.
Limitations
?
Ð Narrow focus on behaviour …i.e. speech. Like behaviourism. Neglects private speech / metacognition / the internal world.
Discourse is a tool used by people – and people inherently orient toward issues of importance, stake or interest IN PERSUIT of interpersonal and social objectives. Incapable of getting at true motivation
Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) is concerned with…
Ð Concerned with the role of language in which people construct subjects and objects in their social and psychological lives
Ð Discourses =
text in widest sense of meaning …. networks of meaning
Ð From a Foucaudian view, discourse changes things in which ways?
facilitates and limits, enables and constrains what can be said, by whom, where and when.
Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (FDA) explores…
Ð Explores the relationship between discourse and power
Ð What constructions are being used within the talk
Key point: Unlike discursive psychology (primarily concerned with interpersonal communication), FDA asks questions about the relationship between
discourse and how people think or feel (subjectivity), what they may do (practices) and the material conditions within which such experiences may take place.
what is Positioning in Foucauldian Discourse
?
Ð Discourses are often subject positions which when assumed as a role, define and have implications for subjectivity and experience (e.g. in biomedical contexts, those who are ill occupy ‘the patient’ subject position – which located them as the passive recipient of expert care within a trajectory of cure).
Ð Discourse constructs subjectivity, so constrains what can be said / done / felt by individuals
Ð A subject position within a discourse identifies a location for persons within the structure of rights and duties for those that use that repertoire
Ð Positions are different to roles because they are not prescriptive and have consequences for subjectivity
This implies a discourse relationship built on power between those in differing positions (think feminist / sexist speech within the history of discourse and power relations)
Limitations of FDA?
Can subjectivity be theorized based on discourse alone?
What is the relation between discourse and material reality?
Key differences between FDA and discursive psychology
They are designed to answer different research questions:
Ð Discursive = How do participants use language to manage stake in social interactions?
Ð FDA = What characterizes the discursive worlds people inhabit and what are their implications for possible ways-of-being?
Discursive emphasizes personal xxxx, whilst FDA draws attention to the power of discourse to xxxx
agency, whilst FDA draws attention to the power of discourse to construct its objects - including the human subject itself!
Discursive
use their experience to xxxxxxxx – FDA doesn’t attempt to theorize it, but discursive constructions change the way we xxxxxx
Discursive
use their experience to validate their claims – FDA doesn’t attempt to theorize it, but discursive constructions change the way we experience ourselves.
what is Narrative Analysis?
Interested in the ways in which people organize and thus bring order to experience
extra
Ð Looks at the stories people construct to make meaning of events and themselves
Ð Constructivist – how the story is told is as important and the words used to tell it
Ð Different models emphasize diff content, context and form.
the theory is that Narratives have….
Ð linguistic structure
Stories are used to construct the xxxx and understand
self / identify
Influenced by
context: social / cultural / interpersonal
and thus created by ….
both researcher and participant
stories can bring….
order to disorder
stories are a way to
connect a sequence of events
what effect does this have for the individual?
gives agency to self and to other
stories offer links between
seemingly disparate events
narratives allow theSelf to
present different identities to others
and can emphasize personal
reasonableness when trying to explain disruptions to others
narrative research beleives HOW the story is told is as important as
the words used to tell it
Through telling stories, people are continually in the process of
creating themselves (using language, talking, writing etc). Lives are ‘storied’. Never fixed. Fluid. Stories can always be retold.
