This chapter is structured in terms of questions and answers. There are several reasons for adopting this format. First, people often consult a handbook to find the answers to questions so the format may simplify this task. Second, most constructionist approaches place a considerable emphasis on dialogueand question-answer sequences are dialogue in one of its most prototypical forms. Third, constructionist researchers have been at the forefront of moves to rethink the literary forms in which social science is presented. I shall start with some general questions about constructionism and its place in psychology, and then I shall move on to focus on issues of method and analysis. I shall concentrate upon general principles and arguments, however, this is not intended to be a how-to-do-it chapter. Chapter 11, by Rosalind Gill, provides a more fleshed out example of a particular style of constructionist research

A number of ways of treating talk and textual data are identified which fall short of discourse analysis. They are: (1) under-analysis through summary; (2) under-analysis through taking sides; (3) under-analysis through over-quotation or through isolated quotation; (4) the circular identification of discourses and mental constructs; (5) false survey; and (6) analysis that consists in simply spotting features. We show, by applying each of these to an extract from a recorded interview, that none of them actually analyse the data. We hope that illustrating shortcomings in this way will encourage further development of rigorous discourse analysis in social psychology

Potter and Wetherell have genuinely presented us with a different way of working in social psychology. The book's clarity means that it has the power to influence a lot of people ill-at-ease with traditional social psychology but unimpressed with (or simply bewildered by) other alternatives on offer. It could rescue social psychology from the sterility of the laboratory and its traditional mentalism' - Charles Antaki, The Times Higher Education Supplement

This accessible text introduces the key elements of a discursive approach to psychology. This focuses on how discourse - naturally occurring talk and text - can be studied and understood as the accomplishment of social action. Building on discourse analysis, the authors present an integrated discursive action model which leads to a radical reworking of some of psychology's most central concepts - language, cognition, truth, knowledge and reality

Este trabajo incluye 6 de las estrategias más comunmente utilizadas de análisis conversacional o de datos textuales que resultan para clarificar cómo se analisa el discurso.

Varios artículos de Potter disponibles en línea.

This paper speculates about what will, and should, follow cognitivism in psychology in the new century. It highlights the importance of the work of Wittgenstein, Sacks and Edwards for the development of post-cognitive psychology. Cognitivism is criticized for failing to conceptualize practices in a way that recognizes their action orientation and co-construction, and to appreciate how they are given sense through people’s categories, formulations and orientations. Discursive psychology focuses on the production of versions of reality and cognition as parts of practices in natural settings. It is offered as one potential successor to cognitivism. KEY WORDS: action, cognitivism, discursive psychology, practices

This is an admirable book which can be recommended to students with confidence, and is likely also to become an indispensable source of reference for those researching fact construction' - Discourse & Society

This paper responds to, and comments on, Coulter’s (1999) critique of discursive psychology with particular reference to how cognition is conceptualised theoretically and analytically. It first identifies a number of basic misreadings of discursive psychological writings, which distort and, at times, reverse its position on the status of cognition. Second, it reviews the main ways in which cognition, mental states, and thoughts have been analytically conceptualised in discursive psychology (respecification of topics from mainstream psychology, studies of the psychological thesaurus in action, and studies of the way psychological issues are managed). Third, it considers two of Coulter’s substantive issues: the role of correct usage and the role of conceptual vs. empirical analysis. A series of problems are identified with Coulter’s development of both of these issues

This paper addresses the broad question of how work in sociolinguistics should be related to social theory, and in particular the assumptions about cognition that can underpin that relation. A discursive psychological approach to issues of cognition is pressed and illustrated by a reworking of Stubb’s review of work on language and cognition. A discursive psychological approach is offered to the topics of racist discourse, courtroom interaction, scientific writing, and sexism. Discursive psychology rejects the approach to ‘cognition’ as a collection of more or less stable inner entities and processes. Instead the focus is on the way ‘mental phenomena’ are both constructed and oriented to in people’s practices.

This article criticizes current psychological work on ‘heterosexism’, highlighting the way its operationalization tends to obscure flexible discursive practices and settle them into stable, causal attitudes within individuals. It studies extracts from a variety of sources where sexuality is made relevant (in describing someone as a ‘poof ’ or a ‘dyke’, for example), and considers (a) how interactants attend to ‘heterosexism’ in their talk and (b) what such ‘attending to’ is doing interactionally. The analysis highlights four of the resources speakers use to manage such talk: (i) discounting heterosexism; (ii) displaying a lack of understanding; (iii) softening the blow; and (iv) conceding positive features. It is argued that heterosexist utterances do not have their negativity built into them, but become prejudicial, troublesome or otherwise for participants in situ, as their sense is produced and negotiated. The article concludes with a discussion of the wider implications of this type of research for psychological approaches to (what are typically conceived as) ‘ideological’ or ‘cognitive’ phenomena.