During the apartheid era, psychology was accused of being irrelevant, and of advertently or inadvertently bolstering apartheid. Since 1994, much has changed in psychology. However, much has remained the same. In a situational analysis of research in psychology over the last five years it emerged that quantitative methods based on 'hard' science theory, as well as the traditional topics of assessment, psychotherapy, counselling, psychopathology and stress continue to dominate psychological research. A minority of studies utilise theoretical frameworks and tackle topics that illuminate the interweaving of the individual with the so ciopolitical context. Knowledge is being generated chiefly about urban, middle-class adults living in the three wealthiest provinces, with university students being the most popular source of participants. Historically white universities continue to dominate the publishing scene, and collaboration takes place chiefly with high-income countries. A comparison of these results with the key issues raised in the United Nation Development Programme's South Africa human development report 2003 shows that psychology has a long way to go before it can establish its 'relevance' credentials.Psychological research has had a chequered history in South Africa. In the 1980s a group of psychologists began what came to be termed the 'relevance debate', in which the relevance of psychological theorising and practice in the context of apart heid South Africa was called into question. South African psychology was accused of ignoring the dialectical relationship between individuals and the sociopolitical context in which they live (Anonymous, 1986), adhering to a noncritical, conserva tive ideology, and thus either actively or inadvertently supporting apartheid ideology (Dawes, 1985), ignoring working class issues (Dawes, 1986), perpetuating inequities in mental health service provision (Vogelman, 1986), lacking constructs for dealing with the process of change, and viewing culture in a mechanistic manner (Gilbert,

People who are voluntarily childless, or “childfree,” face considerable stigma. Researchers have begun to explore how these individuals respond to stigma, usually focusing on interpersonal stigma management strategies. We explored participants’ responses to stigma in a way that is cognisant of broader social norms and gender power relations. Using a feminist discursive psychology framework, we analysed women’s and men’s computer-assisted communication about their childfree status. Our analysis draws attention to “identity work” in the context of stigma. We show how the strategic use of “choice” rhetoric allowed participants to avoid stigmatised identities and was used in two contradictory ways. On the one hand, participants drew on a “childfree-by-choice script,” which enabled them to hold a positive identity of themselves as autonomous, rational, and responsible decision makers. On the other hand, they mobilised a “disavowal of choice script” that allowed a person who is unable to choose childlessness (for various reasons) to hold a blameless identity regarding deviation from the norm of parenthood. We demonstrate how choice rhetoric allowed participants to resist stigma and challenge pronatalism to some extent; we discuss the political potential of these scripts for reproductive freedom. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental

In this paper, we review South African research conducted in the last 10 years on the consequences of and contributory factors in teen-aged pregnancy. We discuss research into the rates of teen-aged pregnancy, the intentionality and wantedness of pregnancy, the disruption of schooling, health issues, consequences for the children, welfare concerns, knowledge and use of contraception, timing of sexual debut, age of partner, coercive sexual relations, cultural factors and health service provision. We compare this discussion to the reviews on the same topic appearing in the South African Journal of Psychology a decade ago. We find that there are several changes in focus in the research on pregnancy amongst young women. We conclude that, in general, there has been an improvement in the breadth of data available, mostly as a result of representative national and local surveys. A better teasing out of nuances around particular issues and a grappling with theoretical issues are also evident in recent research.

Researchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as 'noise' that 'veils', or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei's 'problematic of silence' by using our performativity-performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of 'unusual conversational moves', the deployment of researcher reflexivity and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men's involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.

This article forms the second of a two-part series in which South African research on teenage pregnancy is reviewed. Part 1 of the series dealt with the consequences of teenage pregnancy; this paper reviews the 'causes' thereof. International literature is incorporated in the discussion by way of comparison. Contributory factors which have been investigated by South African researchers include: reproductive ignorance; the earlier occurrence of menarche; risktaking behaviour; psychological problems; peer influence; co-ercive sexual relations; dysfunctional family patterns; poor health services; socio-economic status; the breakdown of cultural traditions; and the cultural value placed on children. Preston-Whyte and colleagues present a revisionist argument, stating that early pregnancy may represent a rational life choice for certain adolescent women. The article is concluded with comments on methodological problems encountered in the South African research, and a discussion on the implications in terms of policy formulation. 157 blackhigh schoolpupils 150 urbanGrade 10 Indian students 210 female students 135 males and 120 females: Soweto High Schools 50 blackschoolgirls in Umtata Books: 27.4% Friends: 20.4% Adults otherthan parents: 14.6%

The mainstream literature on teenage pregnancy highlights teenagers' inadequate mothering as an area of disquiet. `Revisionists', such as feminist critics, point out that a confluence of negative social factors is implicated in teenagers' mothering abilities. Whether arguing that teenagers make bad mothers or defending them against this, the literature relies on the `invention of "good" mothering'. In this article I highlight the taken-for-granted assumptions concerning mothering (mothering as an essentialized dyad; mothering as a skill; motherhood as a pathway to adulthood; fathering as the absent trace) appearing in the scientific literature on teenage pregnancy in South Africa. I indicate how these assumptions are implicated in the regulation of mothering through the positioning of the teenage mother as the pathologized other, the splitting of the public from the private, domestic space of mothering, and the legitimation of the professionalization of mothering. I explore the gendered implications of the representations of mothering in this literature.

Discourse analysis is increasingly becoming a methodology of preference amongst qualitative researchers. There is a danger, however, of it being viewed as a bounded and uncontested domain of research practice. As discourse analysis is inextricably linked with theoretical issues, it is a dynamic practice that is constantly in a process of revision. In this paper I reflect on some of the conceptualisations undergoing the notion of discourse – conceptualisations that have important implications in terms of how the practice of discourse analysis proceeds. I highlight some of the dualisms that may plague discourse analysis, and offer some solutions to these. Finally, I outline the deconstructive discourse analysis that I utilised in my doctoral work. The purpose of the latter is not to provide a recipe of methodology, but to illustrate how elements of various theorists' work (in this case Foucault, Derrida and Parker) may be profitably drawn together to perform specific discourse analytic work.

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