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In the last decade, many diverse streams of thought have come together in an international movement to reject the traditional view that a `scientific' psychology must rely on an experimental methodology. Underpinning this movement is the principle that the main characteristics of human life are best understood as produced through discourse. This `discursive' psychology has found adherents across the range of psychological disciplines and has ushered in a completely revised understanding of the subject.
This volume shows how to put these theoretical and methodological insights to work in the investigation of concrete problems in psychology. The internationally renowned contributors re-examine a range of traditional psychological topics, from decision-making, memory and attribution to emotions, learning and the self, and in the process map out the foundations of a new psychology.
List of contents
Introduction - Rom Harr[ac]e and Peter Stearns
Psychology as Discourse Analysis
PART ONE: DISMANTLING THE INNER/OUTER DISTINCTION: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EMOTION, MEMORY AND EXOTIC COGNITIVE STATES
Remembering - Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter
Emotion - Peter Stearns
Constructing Divinity - Nancy C Much and Manamohan Mahapatra
PART TWO: COGNITION IN PUBLIC: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DECISION AND ACTION
Attribution - Derek Edwards and Jonathan Potter
Agentive Discourse - Rom Harr[ac]e
Decision-Making - Donal Carbaugh
PART THREE: THE LANGUAGE GAME OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Language Development - Christina Erneling
PART FOUR: SOME USES OF TRADITIONAL METHODS
Emotions and Discursive Norms - Muriel Egerton
Pictorial Discourse and Learning - Sandra L Calvert
About the author
Rom Harré is a Fellow of Linacre College, Oxford and Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, Washington, DC
Summary
This text shows how to put discursive theoretical and methodological insights to work in the investigation of concrete problems in psychology. A range of traditional psychological topics are examined, from decision-making, memory and attributions to emotions, learning and the self.
