Week 4 Flashcards
Field Theory
- Kurt Lewin
- Social Theory 1950s applied concepts from physics to psychology
Importance of: - Concepts of force, tension, constraint and context
- Experimental methods - Wood & Kroger 1998
3 Criticisms of Experimental Social Psychology
- Deception is necessary tool for research - unethical; if you say what the research is for it changes the nature of the study
- Demand Characteristics - Peculiar experiments where stress demand not selected independent variables Implemented (Stanford Prison Experiment)
- Absence of everyday language consideration - “Interesting” has many different subjective conotations
Two Books That Show Shift in Language Study
- How to do Things with Words - Austin 1962
- The Explanation of Social Behaviour - Harre and Secord 1972
* Encouraged the Philosophy of Language
* Steered away from Positivism
Label & Describe
- Initially assumed that language was unambiguous
- Labels - Internal states (I’m happy)
- Descriptions - External Reality (It’s cold outside)
Language as a Mirror
- Potter 1996 & Freesmith (ND) use this metaphor to describe perspective
- Language simply reflects reality
Social Performance 1960s
- Fixed language was challenged
- Language was viewed as Productive
- Constructs ‘versions’ of social reality
- Achieves - Language actively changes social spaces
Language as a Construction Yard
- Potter 1996 & Freesmith (ND)
- Language is used to construct versions of ideas and events
- Words are Never simple or neutral versions of reality
- They are Influential Choices
- Represent reality in selective ways
Critique of Cognitivism
- All things can be described many ways
- This creates our knowledge of the world
- Present and Represent our own reality our own way
- Social psychologists began to critique Cognitivism
Critique of Cognitivism
- All things can be described many ways
- This creates our knowledge of the world
- Present and Represent our own reality our own way
- Social psychologists began to critique Cognitivism
Cognitivism
- Focus of inquiry is the study of Mental Representations
- Rules that control Cognitive Mediation of input from the environment
- Assumes these rules are universally true
Discursive Psychology
- The focus on language and critique of cognitivism led to discourse
- Re-thinking of cognitive models
- Assumes phenomena of interest are created socially in and through discussions
Discursive Psychology
- Language is Not Just a Tool to describe or communicate
- Is a Social Practice and way of doing things
- The World Runs on Talk - Wood & Kroger 1998
Discourse Practices
- What people do with language
- How we use Discoursive Resources to acheive group objectives and social interactions
- Potter & Wetherell created Overt/Covert Racism
Epistemological View of Discursive Pschology
- Hall 2018
- We all try to accuse others and defend ourselves
- It is a learned process
- Emphasises the Performative Aspects of discourse
- Discourse = Words
Discourse Analysis
- Uses natural language - talk and text
- How we are accountable in day to day life
- Are unsolicited
- Take place within familiar settings
Aims of Discourse Analysis
Seeks to find:
1. Performative Force of words
2. Penetrate Beyond common sense appearance of a social interaction to deconstruct what is said
Three Fundamental Assumptions of Discourse Analysis
- Analysis of Discourse comes first before coding data
-
Take Apart in many ways
* Don’t build codes into abstract
* What does it consist of?
* How is it put together to accomplish different outcomes
3 . Elucidate Social Functions and consequences of discourse
Discourse Analysts look at 2 Things:
- Style, Structure & Content
- How the above work together
* How are functions acheived? - Justification, rationalising, naming, blaming
Discursive Actions are conceptualised
- Concerned with Memory, identity, attitudes and emotions
- These are concepts and considered Discursive Actions
- We construct in speech rather that as cognitive process
- How do we maintain our personal interests by talking about them
Discourse Analysis - Functions and Consequences
- Find references to phenomena that occur naturally
- How these affect actions and results and behaviour
e.g. Toxic Positivity
Discourse Analysis ToolKit
- Interpretive Repertoires
- Speech Acts
- Grammatical and semantic features
- Rhetorical.
Interpretive Repertoires
- Can be seen as building block for constructing verbal actions
- Derived from key metaphors and figures of speech
e.g. worth or value of romantic love - Similar to Foucauldian Discourse Analysis or Superordinate themes
- What discourse is, How it functions and its consequence
Two Primary Functions of Interpretive Repertoires
- Formulating the Nature of the phenomena
- Characterise and Evaluate actions or events
Speech Acts
Single utterances that accomplish something
e.g I’m sorry = apoligy
Grammatical Features
Modals - Should
Conditionals - If
Intensifier adverbs - Really
Metaphors - Have Syntax & Semantecs
Rhetorical Strategies
- Ways in which language is used to persuade
- Derived from Aristotle where he outlines method to construct persuasive arguments
Rhetoric: Building up Credibility
- Category Entitlement
- Concession
- Consensus
- Disclaimer
- Stake Management
- Active Voice
- Categorisation
- GerryMandering
- Making Evidence
- Pronoun Selection
- Used of Statistics
Category Entitlement
- Using Experts to build a case
- Back up position with voices that carry weight