Discursive Psychology: Implications for Counseling Psychology

Abstract

In this article, we present discursive psychology (DP), a qualitative approach that focuses on the study of conversational and textual materials, including everyday interactions. Although DP is well-established methodologically and theoretically and used widely in Europe and in the Commonwealth countries, it is relatively unknown in counseling psychology in the United States. As such, the purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of DP and offer guidance for researchers who may be interested in studying and using DP. We thus discuss practical considerations for doing DP, including the development of research questions, carrying out data collection, and conducting DP-informed analysis. We also provide a general overview of the history of DP and key resources for those interested in studying it further, while noting the usefulness of DP for counseling psychology.

The Dynamic Paradigm of Ethnic Culture: Variations Across Context, Time, and Meaning

“…We believe that qualitative studies are useful in advancing the constructionist perspective because of their emphasis on people's subjective experiences (S. C. . Specifically, we recommend discourse analysis as a qualitative methodology that is a good fit with social constructionist notions of ethnic culture (Barker & Galasinski, 2001;Lester et al, 2018). In discourse analysis, language is viewed not only as a mirror that reflects reality but also a social tool to achieve certain functions.…”

“…Although DP researchers use different types of data, one feature of recent DP research is a preference for analyzing naturally occurring talk or textual data (i.e., conversations that would have occurred even without the researcher's study) rather than interview data (Potter, 2012). In this regard, Lester et al (2018) have argued that the emphasis on analyzing naturally occurring data makes DP a good fit with counseling psychology because the clinical training of counseling psychologists emphasizes both the video-recording of psychotherapy sessions and the analysis of psychotherapy transcripts. One example of how counseling psychologists might use DP to study the performance of ethnic culture using naturally occurring data is the use of psychotherapy transcripts to study rhetorical devices counselors and clients use to negotiate an understanding of their cultural similarities and differences.…”

“…One example of how counseling psychologists might use DP to study the performance of ethnic culture using naturally occurring data is the use of psychotherapy transcripts to study rhetorical devices counselors and clients use to negotiate an understanding of their cultural similarities and differences. As another example, researchers can study the discursive devices that students in a multicultural counseling course use to justify and resist other classmates' accounts of ethnic culture (Lester et al, 2018). Drawing from the intersectionality framework (Cole, 2009), researchers can also explore the complex ways in which individuals who simultaneously occupy privileged and marginalized social statuses (e.g., men of color) appeal to their ethnic culture to legitimize or resist the perpetration of oppression (e.g., sexism, heterosexism) during a multicultural counseling course group discussion.…”

“…For instance, a male student of color might appeal to cultural antiquity to justify a particular gender belief (e.g., "In my culture, we are taught clearly defined roles for women and men, and these cultural beliefs date back thousands of years"). Currently, DP is largely unknown and underutilized in U.S. counseling psychology (Lester et al, 2018), and we recommend its use to reconceptualize ethnic culture in innovative ways that more fully align with the constructionist perspective.…”

“…At the interpersonal level, people’s conversational language elucidates the social constructionist view of ethnic culture (Baker & Galaskinski, 2001; Lester, Wong, O’Reilly, & Kiyimba, 2018 [this issue]). Like the sociological concept of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987), ethnic culture is what people “do” when they talk or write to each other (P.…”