Gender Talk provides a powerful case for the application of discursive psychology and conversation analysis to feminism, guiding the reader through cutting edge debates and providing valuable ...evidence of the benefits of fine-grained, discursive methodologies. In particular, the book concentrates on discourse and conversation analysis, providing a full account of these methodologies through the detailed study of data from a variety of settings, including focus groups, interviews, and naturally occurring sources. Providing a thorough review of the relevant literature and recent research, this book demonstrates how discourse and conversation analysis can be applied to rework central feminist notions and concepts, ultimately revealing their full potential and relevance to other disciplines. Each chapter provides an overview of traditional feminist research and covers subjects including: * Sex differences in language: conversation and interruption * Reformulating context, power and asymmetry * Gender identity categories: masculinity and femininity. This unique and thought-provoking application of discursive and conversation analytic methodologies will be of interest to students and researchers in social psychology, sociology, gender studies and cultural studies.
Susan A. Speer is a Lecturer in Language and Communication at the University of Manchester School of Psychological Sciences. She is currently Principal Investigator on a three year project 'Transsexual Identities: Constructions of Gender in an NHS Gender Identity Clinic', which is part of the ESRC Social Identities and Social Action Research Programme. Susan was previously a Lecturer in Sociology and Communication at the Department of Human Sciences at Brunel University.
Feminism, Discourse and Conversation Analysis: Mapping the Terrain. Gender and Language: ‘Sex Difference’ Perspectives. Gender and Identity: Poststructuralist and Ethnomethodological Perspectives. A Feminist, Conversation Analytic Approach. Reconceptualizing Gender Identity: ‘Hegemonic Masculinity’ and ‘The World Out There’. Reconceptualizing Prejudice: ‘Heterosexist Talk’ and ‘The World in Here’. Questions, Conclusions and Applications. Postscript: The Future Of Feminist CA: Methodological Issues.
"This is the most comprehensive and groundbreaking work to date in the field of gender and discourse research. Speer has taken gender and language studies beyond the current focus on postmodernism to an engagement with ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and discursive psychology. Speer clinically lays out the theoretical and analytic issues in a range of contemporary perspectives, and in doing so produces a clear, concise yet sophisticated book that is essential reading for anyone interested in gender, language or feminism." - Elizabeth Stokoe, Lecturer in Social Psychology, Loughborough University
"I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a cioncise and authoritative account of the potential for feminist discursive research that draws on Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology. Undergraduate students of gender and discourse will benefit from the clarity of the arguments and analytic examples. the book ispires, and even demands action from researchers." - Clare Stockhill, St. Martin's College, Carlisle, in Feminism and Psychology , November 2006.
Flirting is typically regarded as an ambiguous social action, which, in the absence of members' orientations, is subject to multiple interpretations and hard to pin down analytically. This article ...demonstrates a methodological technique for identifying the interactional practices that constitute vehicles for "possible flirting" by examining instances that contain (a) "endogenous" orientations to flirting, (b) orientations to flirting that are "exogenous" and post hoc, and (c) no orientations. Analyses suggest that flirting practices are often not ambiguous to members and involve the flirting party claiming epistemic rights to greater familiarity or intimacy with the flirt recipient than the interactional context, or the status of the speakers, might otherwise make procedurally relevant. Data are in British English.
Disputes about parenting, including investments of time, can arise when families break apart. One such context is that of kinship care, where relatives (typically grandparents or siblings) take over ...parenting responsibilities for a child. However, little is known about the discursive processes by which ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parental identities are constructed. From a corpus of video–recordings of kinship carer support groups, we examine how time references feature in carers' complaints about birth parents. Using Conversation Analysis, we identify two forms of reference: (i) reference to “child's time”, a shared cultural device concerning children's experience, and (ii) juxtaposing reported events on a timeline to infer consequentiality, thus attributing unparental motives to the birth parent. Both forms of time reference substantiate carers' inferences about birth parents' ineligibility for membership of the “good parent” category, and thus affirm their own entitlement as members, as key actions in the formulation of their complaints. We consider the implications of these findings for understanding co-constructed time-referenced devices such as “child's time”, and how Conversation Analytic studies could usefully investigate what other event-relative devices may be used to accomplish different social actions, and what identities might get constructed in the process.
•Time reference can be used as a members' resource to cast identity in talk.•“Child's time” operates as a cultural “device” in ascribing good and bad parenting.•Motive can be inferred by the juxtaposition of time references on a single timeline.•The design of time reference can establish common cause and peer identities.
Objectives
Effective clinical communication is fundamental to tackling overweight and obesity. However, little is known about how weight is discussed in non‐weight‐specific settings where the primary ...purpose of the interaction concerns clinical matters apparently unrelated to weight. This study explores how mental health clinicians initiate discussions about a patient's possible weight problem in the non‐weight‐specific setting of a UK NHS Gender Identity Clinic (GIC), where weight is topicalized during discussions about the risks of treatment.
Design
A conversation analytic study.
Methods
A total of 194 recordings of routine clinician–patient consultations were collected from the GIC. Weight talk was initiated by four clinicians in 43 consultations. Twenty‐one instances contained reference to a possible weight problem. Transcripts were analysed using conversation analysis.
Results
Clinicians used three communication practices to initiate discussion of a possible weight problem with patients: (1) announcing that patients are overweight; (2) asking patients whether they are overweight; and (3) deducing that patients are overweight or obese via a body mass index (BMI) calculation. Announcing that patients are overweight is the least aligning practice that denies patient's agency and grammatically constrains them to agree with a negative label. Asking patients whether they are overweight treats them as having limited agency and generates comparatively aligning, but occasionally resistant, responses. Jointly deducing that patients are overweight or obese via a BMI calculation is the most aligning practice, which deflects responsibility for labelling the patient onto an objective instrument.
Conclusions
Small differences in the wording of turns that initiate discussions about a possible weight problem can have significant consequences for interactional alignment. Clinicians from different specialities may benefit from considering the interactional consequences of different practices for initiating discussions about weight during the kinds of real‐life discussions considered here.
Statement of contribution
What is already known on this subject?
There is a correlation between clinical communication about weight and patient weight loss.
Clinicians from all specialties are encouraged to discuss diet and exercise with patients, but communication about weight remains problematic.
Health psychologists have identified an urgent need for communication training to raise sensitive topics like weight without damaging the doctor–patient relationship.
What does this study add?
Clinicians in a non‐weight‐specific setting use three communication practices to introduce the possibility that a patient's weight may be a problem.
These practices have varying consequences for the interaction and doctor–patient relationship.
Conversation analytic findings may be useful in training clinicians how to initiate discussions about weight with patients.
This article contributes to a social psychological understanding of identity by identifying some features of the interactional organization of self-praise. Early conversation analytic work on the ...epistemics of self-assessment and constraints against self-praise has shown that praising oneself is an interactionally delicate matter that may leave one vulnerable to "unfavorable character assessment" or accusations of bragging (Pomerantz 1978:89). Drawing on data examples from a range of settings, this article develops Pomerantz's work and examines the role of reported third-party compliments (e.g., "she... said 'you look really lovely'") in objectifying self-praise. Analyzing instances in which speakers initiate repair on their self-descriptions in favor of reported third-party compliments, I provide evidence of practices suggesting a norm against direct self-praise and an interactional preference for embedding positive self-descriptions within a third-party attribution. I consider the implications of these analyses for a social psychological understanding of identity and its measurement.
The psychological concept of “microaggression” has refocused interest on what counts as prejudicial action. It redirects attention from standard socio-cognitive explanations of overt prejudice among ...social groups toward recipients’ perspectives of largely unwitting and subtle everyday racism. Microaggression studies define common implicit identity challenges faced by minority groups, including kinship carers. However, criticisms of the “microaggressions program” raise difficulties inherent in establishing prejudicial action from accounts of necessarily ambiguous actions, and contend that reliance on self-reporting inevitably lacks validity. This conversation analytic (CA) study offers a complementary approach: from videos of ten kinship carer support groups it shows how participants construct accountabilities for prejudicial actions in their retrospective reports of questions, challenges and suspicions in ways that build these actions as microaggressive. It addresses methodological shortcomings in microaggression studies, and extends CA research on accountability in offense construction, and on prejudicial social actions that are contested and difficult to analyze.
Prostate cancer and its treatment have significant sexual side effects that necessitate timely patient information and open communication with healthcare professionals. However, very little is known ...about men's experiences of talking to clinicians about the psychosexual difficulties associated with the disease.
This study aims to advance understanding of men's perceptions of the communication and information challenges associated with the psychosexual aspects of prostate cancer and its treatment.
Between October 2013 and April 2014, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 men from the UK who had been treated for prostate cancer. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.
Three themes describe the communication challenges men face: (1) It can be too soon to talk about sex; (2) the psychology of sex is missing; (3) communication is not individually tailored.
Clinicians might usefully (1) consider and discuss with patients how their psychosexual communication needs and information processing abilities may fluctuate across the cancer timeline; (2) initiate discussions about the consequences of treatment that extend beyond biological and mechanical aspects to include emotional and relational factors; (3) tailor communication to the dynamic mix of attributes that shape men's individual psychosexual needs, including their relationship status, sexual orientation, sexual motivations and values. Skills-based training in communication and psychosexual awareness may facilitate the proactive and permissive stance clinicians need to discuss sexual side effects with a heterogeneous group of patients.
•Study examines the psychosexual challenges faced by men with prostate cancer.•Thematic analysis of 21 interviews with men who have undergone active treatment.•Three psychosexual communication challenges are identified.•Challenges relate to lack of individualised, contextually-based communication.•Findings recommend communication that is sensitised towards men's individual needs.
Popular discourse contends that social media interactions are somehow less valid than face-to-face exchanges. Complaining about the impact of online activities can construct identity-linked cultural ...and moral norms. One such identity is that of ‘kinship carer’ - family members who step in to parent a relative's child when the birth parent is unable. From a corpus of video recordings of 10 support group discussions, we identified two ways that participants constructed family identities in topicalising Facebook use: by a) negotiating social media norms for this sensitive family context, and b) supporting their epistemic status with reference to ‘mediated’ properties of Facebook posts. We discuss how ‘mediated evidentiality’ works as a participant's resource in constructing 'what's real’, thus validating speakers' identity.
•Kinship carers construct norms for Facebook use in their family arrangement.•Complaints about the use of social media can construct specific identities.•‘Mediated evidentiality’ offers speakers epistemic resources for arguing ‘what is real’.
Conversation analysts have begun to challenge long-cherished assumptions about the relationship between gender and language, asking new questions about the interactional study of gender and providing ...fresh insights into the ways it may be studied empirically. Drawing on a lively set of audio- and video-recorded materials of real-life interactions, including domestic telephone calls, children's play, mediation sessions, police-suspect interviews, psychiatric assessments and calls to telephone helplines, this volume is the first to showcase the latest thinking and cutting-edge research of an international group of scholars working on topics at the intersection of gender and conversation analysis. Theoretically, it pushes forward the boundaries of our understanding of the relationship between conversation and gender, charting new and exciting territory. Methodologically, it offers readers a clear, practical understanding of how to analyse gender using conversation analysis, by presenting detailed demonstrations of this method in use.
This article deals with the topic of social psychological research methods in practice, by examining how informed consent is gained from research participants. In most research, the consent‐gaining ...process is hidden from analytic scrutiny and is dealt with before data collection has begun. In contrast, conversation analytic research, which records interactional encounters from beginning to end, enables examination of this methodological ‘black box’. We explored how ‘requests’ to consent in research played out across different institutional settings. We found that participants had to ‘opt‐out’ of a research process that was already underway. Consent‐gaining sequences constrained opting out in two ways: (1) because research activity was already underway, it must be stopped affirmatively by participants; (2) consent‐gaining turns were tilted in favour of continued participation, making opting out a dispreferred response. We also found a mismatch between what ethics guidelines specify about consent‐gaining ‘in theory’ and what actually happens ‘in practice’. Finally, we make suggestions about interventions in and recommendations for existing practice to best achieve informed consent.
PDF
