Mapping as a Method: History and Theoretical Commitments

Abstract

Billig (2008) argues "some of the ideas in today's critical psychology have a longer history than is often supposed " (p. 195). We begin with that premise by excavating the theoretical history of psychological mapping methods in social psychology (including, but not limited to, place/space mapping). We have found deep theoretical linkages between our uses of mapping and the development of social psychological theory over the last 50 years and also see mapping as holding great promise for interrogating the terrain between individual experience and social reality. We highlight three specific studies in which we have used mapping to discuss these theoretical connections, and we explore the possibilities and dilemmas inherent in such a visual and creative method. We conclude by suggesting ways to improve the method in the future. Then, we call on social-personality psychology to consider the increasing importance of methods that are able to resist the hegemony of the written word and draw on the complexities of our interconnected life spaces in a time when individualism is inordinately prioritized amongst psychological theories and methods.

Creative twists in the tale: Narrative and visual methodologies in action

“…It is no longer that unusual to utilise visual methods for data collection, for example: photo voice (Kessi, 2011(Kessi, , 2013Bradbury & Kiguwa, 2012); body mapping (Busch, 2012;Botsis, 2016) or visual autobiography (Esin & Squire, 2013); (spatial and identity) mapping (Futsch & Fine, 2014). These techniques are particularly helpful when stories are difficult to articulate, perhaps due to trauma or other embodied experiences that are typically "beyond words", rendering us speechless (Emmerson & Frosh, 2013), or when the storyteller(s) and audience must cross linguistic or other (classed, raced, gendered) boundaries.…”

Using Ecological Asset Mapping to Investigate Pre-Service Teachers’ Cultural Assets

“…Futch and Fine (2014) discuss using maps to understand and witness changes and shifts in self over time and space and how the self is situated and made meaningful within and across geographical, social, and cultural spaces. In addition, Futch and Fine elaborate upon how maps also demonstrate how selves 132 navigate and negotiate these different spaces, which was an important finding in our ecological asset maps.…”

“…We consciously decided to divide the analysis into two stages to allow deeper and specific understandings to emerge in each of the assignments. As described by Futch and Fine (2014), maps allow us to "consider the increasing importance of methods that are able to resist the hegemony of the written word and draw on the complexities of our interconnected life spaces" (p. 42). These authors also speak to the use of mapping as part of a multi-method research approach to access multiple, layered dimensions of selves.…”

“…These examples allow the viewer to see the author in movement and see how location fostered unique assets. The maps with transition themes also provide spatial temporal information (Futch & Fine, 2014) that highlight self-in-relation information, as self is inevitably interconnected with location and movement.…”

“…According to Futch and Fine (2014), "Maps answered the critical historical call of early social psychology to consider the typology of life spaces, the subjectivity of individual, social representations and de-center the more traditional and hierarchical aspects of research participation endemic to our field (p. 21)."…”