Rethinking Methods in Psychology

Jonathan A Smith, Rom Harre, Luk Van Langenhove, Jonathan A Smith, Rom Harre, Luk Van Langenhove

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 1995
• Print ISBN: 9780803977334
• eBook ISBN: 9781446235713
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Research & Methodology in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The recent widespread rejection of conventional theory and method has led to the evolution of different ways of gathering and analyzing data. This accessible textbook introduces key research methods that challenge psychology?s traditional preoccupation with `scientific? experiments.

The book provides a well-structured guide to methods, containing a range of qualitative approaches (for example, semi-structured interviews, grounded theory, discourse analysis) alongside a reworking of quantitative methods to suit contemporary psychological research. A number of chapters are also explicitly concerned with research as a dynamic interactive process. The internationally respected contributors steer the reader through the main stages of conducting a study using these methods.

1 Introduction

Jonathan A. Smith, Rom Harré and Luk Van Langenhove

This is an exciting time for psychology. A number of methodologies consonant with a shift to a post-positivist, non-experimental paradigm are now emerging and they are beginning to be used in a wide range of empirical studies. As these studies proliferate and are published, there will be a real chance of fundamentally changing the discipline of psychology, of dramatically redrawing its boundaries to include a whole set of new questions, asked and answered in new ways. In this book we present a range of these new ways of working. Practicality is a key issue. We hope that after reading the contributions in the book, readers will feel encouraged to embark on research projects using the methods outlined.

The book is primarily focused on methods rather than concepts. It is, in fact, part of a series of books addressing new ways of looking at psychology and one of the companion volumes (Rethinking Psychology [1995b], also edited by Smith, Harré and Van Langenhove) is devoted to alternative conceptual foundations for psychology. The opening chapters of that book set the scene for the paradigm shift occurring in the discipline and subsequent chapters are concerned with important alternative theoretical approaches, all of which can be said to be contributing to a rethinking of what psychology is. Because of the close links between the theoretical and methodological arguments for a new paradigm, we would recommend readers of this volume to look at Rethinking Psychology as well.

Later in this chapter we will outline the organizing principles of the book and introduce each of the methodological approaches we have included. First, however, a brief contextualization for the emergence of these alternative methods is provided.

The changing discipline

What has led to the sense of historical moment we have signalled in the opening paragraph? For many years, discontent has been expressed with a narrowness in the discipline of psychology, with its emphasis on laboratory studies, experimental design and statistical analysis and an epistemology based on a particular conception of the natural sciences. This discontent was manifested in a number of works which took a critical slant on academic psychology and pointed to the limitations of its practice. A number of the classic critiques appeared in the 1970s (Gergen, 1973; Harré and Secord, 1972; Shotter, 1975). While much of this work seemed particularly focused on social psychology, which can be portrayed as undergoing a continual series of crises (Parker, 1989), dissatisfaction with aspects of the mainstream was also expressed in other quarters (for example, Neisser, 1976).

What was the effect of the disaffection? Psychology has clearly witnessed a move away from the hegemony of the laboratory experiment in the last two decades. Thus Neisser’s call for ecological validity seems to have been heeded as more ‘real-world’ studies are conducted. This move to a more naturalistic psychology operates at a number of levels. First, psychology has become more open to research on a range of previously neglected areas which are central to the psychology of everyday life, illustrated, for example, by the explosion of work on the self (see, for example, Honess and Yardley, 1987; Markus and Wurf, 1987; Shotter and Gergen, 1989) and the growth of research in autobiographical memory (Conway, 1990; Rubin, 1986). Secondly, there is a greater openness to different types of data collection, for example field experiments, diary studies, self-reports. Thirdly, more studies are attempting to include more appropriate participant groups, moving beyond the student population which has overwhelmingly provided the ‘subjects’ for experimental psychology (but see Sears, 1986).

A central component of the discipline has remained essentially unchanged, however. The quantitative imperative still dictates the form of data to be collected and how it is to be analysed. Thus, psychological studies of autobiographical memory or the self still, for the most part, involve categorization of responses for statistical comparison between groups. And a crucial aspect of the critique of mainstream psychology is precisely at this level of method. Harré and Secord (1972) were particularly concerned not just with the subject matter of psychology and where it was conducted but also with psychological measurement – the reductionism implicit in the manipulation of variables and the dominance of quantification. For Harré and Secord, the methods and measurements academic psychology used reflected the mechanistic model of human beings it seemed to subscribe to.

Thus it can be argued that, in order to be able to conceive of itself as truly embarked on a post-positivist paradigm, psychology needs to find new methods, methods which are more appropriate to the questions it now wants to ask and to the settings in which it wants to ask them. Gordon Allport had, much earlier, captured this nicely: ‘We should adapt our methods so far as we can to the object and not define the object in terms of our faulty methods’ (1963: 28). We believe this methodological shift is now occurring. A range of alternative methods for conducting psychological inquiry are now available, as reflected in the number and diversity of contributions to this book.

Guiding principles

The first word that we agreed on when considering what the book should be like was ‘pluralistic’. We are not advocating a singular theoretical or methodological position here but, rather, wish to present a whole array of new ways of working. While they share a commitment to producing a new form of psychology, the methods arise from a range of different theoretical viewpoints. It is our intention neither to be partisan about these different positions nor to pretend that the differences do not exist. Our primary aim is to make the range of approaches available so that the reader can engage in the debates and make informed choices about different ways of working. Further, we think the diversity is a healthy reflection of the multifaceted new paradigm.

While we are emphasizing diversity, it is also true that the methodologies do have considerable commonalities. We had certain guiding principles in mind when selecting methods to include and these principles form a fuzzy set – each approach draws upon a number of the principles but no single principle is privileged. The principles represent a set of concerns which we feel marks out the new paradigm in psychology:

1 Research conducted in the ‘real world’.

2 A recognition of the central role of language and discourse.

3 Life and research perceived as processual or as a set of dynamic interactions.

4 A concern with persons and individuals rather than actuarial statistics and variables.

Thus, none of the methodologies is based on laboratory experiments. Rather, they are attempting to construct ways of working which are more appropriate to, and, in some sense, a closer reflection of, psychological life. Most of the methods reflect a recognition of the importance of language in the construction of psychological reality, and that this construction comes about in the dynamic interactions between people. Most of the approaches in this book are qualitative. However, we are not setting qualitative versus quantitative as a defining characteristic of the new paradigm. Rather, it is argued that the role of numbers will be rather different in a new psychology. Finally, one thread of the new paradigm arises from a frustration with academic psychology’s failure to address human individuality, which is lost in the gross averaging of statistical manipulations. Thus, some psychologists are attempting to find methods more appropriate to the study of individuals and a number of the contributions here represent part of that move towards an idiographic psychology.

We see these as key issues for a new paradigm in psychology. The complex, patterned relationship between these principles and the methods included in this book will become apparent in the different chapters.

Most of the contributors are psychologists, but some come from cognate disciplines. Part of the excitement of the new paradigm comes from a cross-fertilization across disciplines. For example, sociologists and anthropologists have been employing qualitative methods for many decades. We would argue that these methods, and the philosophies behind them, transcend rather flimsy discipline boundaries and are equally appropriate (indeed particularly appropriate) for psychological investigations.

Making it work

We are assuming that there are many psychologists – researchers, post-graduates and undergraduates – who are now, perhaps from an awareness of the conceptual shifts reflected in Rethinking Psychology, looking for a different way to conduct psychological studies but not sure how to set about it. Therefore, practicality and accessibility are given priority. Each chapter has been written with the specific intention of helping to guide the reader through the stages of conducting a study using the particular method concerned. Indeed we hope that, amongst its uses (though not as its exclusive use), the book may be adopted as part of psychology research methods courses.

The book is not overloaded with philosophical concepts – we see it and Rethinking Psychology as intimately connected – and the methods presented here draw on the foundations laid in the previous one. At the same time, the methods are not presented in a vacuum. Each contributor gives a brief summary of the theoretical assumptions which underlie the particular method being described.

We also do not intend to privilege method or put it on a pedestal. While our aim is to present clear guidelines for conducting research, all these methods make particular demands on the resources and skills of the researcher, who thereby becomes the key instrument in the inquiry. We are stressing practicalities and making procedures accessible because our primary aim is to encourage newcomers to have a go. Doing research in the ways outlined in this book can seem daunting and we are conscious that, if these methodologies are to be more widely taken up, clear guidance needs to be given.

The contributions

The search for meanings

The three contributions in this section form a coherent set. Each can be seen as derived from the qualitative tradition in the social sciences influenced by, for example, phenomenology and symbolic interactionism. Here the emphasis is on attempting to understand the psychological conceptions of participants. In order to do this, qualitative researchers in this tradition conduct interviews or collect other forms of verbal material, and the resultant transcripts or other documents are then subjected to close textual analysis. It is argued that this is necessary if one is attempting to understand the meanings their psychological and social worlds hold for respondents. At the same time all three contributions recognize the important role the investigator has in shaping the research project. The respondent’s story only becomes available through intensive interpretative engagement on the part of the researcher.

In Chapter 2, Jonathan A. Smith discusses the stages involved in conducting a semi-structured interview project, from an interpretative phenomenological perspective. Thus it is a practical guide to one form of qualitative methodology. The stages involved are: formulating questions, constructing an interview schedule, conducting the interview, analysis and writing up.

In Chapter 3, Kathy Charmaz introduces grounded theory as a systematic way of working with qualitative data. This approach has a long tradition in sociology but is at last being recognized as a useful and equally appropriate method for psychologists (Henwood and Pidgeon, 1992). While, as Charmaz discusses, there are varying orientations within the grounded theory field, her own approach is consonant with the interpretative phenomenological approach outlined in Chapter 2. Indeed the two chapters complement each other in that while Smith’s chapter has presented an overview of the different stages involved in one form of qualitative research, this chapter provides a more detailed treatment of one of the stages: analysis.

In Chapter 4, Ken Plummer focuses on another long-established approach within the social sciences, the construction of life histories. Again, this method has been utilized by sociologists, and other social scientists, but has generally been neglected by psychology. The chapter discusses the different stages through which life stories are assembled but also usefully completes this section by concentrating on questions which arise when writing up life histories. Although the chapter is firmly grounded in work in life history, many of the issues it raises are pertinent to all qualitative projects.

Discourse as topic

For the contributions in this section, discourse becomes a topic for study in its own right. The types of questions these approaches address include: How is conversation organized? What social function does the organization have? What discursive resources do people draw on or bring to their social interactions? Research in this tradition also involves looking at transcripts in fine detail. However, the questions these methodologies ask and their epistemological foundations are rather different from those in the previous section. The third chapter in this connected set is concerned with some issues around the transcription process itself – a vital part of work in conversation or discourse analysis.

In Chapter 5, Paul Drew introduces conversation analysis. The chapter first considers some of the conceptual and methodological foundations of conversation analysis, and outlines the distinctiveness of its perspective in contrast, for example, with the usual cognitivist or information-processing models of much psychological research. It then describes how the methodology works in practice, that is, how conversational data are analysed to reveal systematic properties of the organization of conversation. Detailed illustrations of conversation analysis are provided as part of this treatment.

In Chapter 6, Jonathan Potter and Margaret Wetherell begin with an outline of key theoretical principles in discourse analysis. They point to two broad elements in the analysis of discourse: discursive practices and the resources people draw on in those practices. For the purposes of this chapter, they concentrate on the latter concern and its theorization in terms of ‘interpretative repertoires’. The chapter includes both guidance on how to conduct discourse analysis and detailed examples of the authors’ own work, drawing on previously published studies of racist discourse in New Zealand.

Researchers analysing conversation and discourse usually work with verbatim transcripts of spoken data. In Chapter 7, Daniel O’Connell and Sabine Kowal discuss the purposes of transcription, suggest criteria for evaluating transcription systems and then propose a set of principles which can be applied to the transcription requirements of particular studies. They argue that the search for a single, all-purpose transcription system must be abandoned in favour of systems tailored to the purposes of specific research projects.

Research as dynamic interaction

Most or all of the contributions to this book would consider research as representing one form of social interaction. Thus, research is not an activity completely divorced from everyday social practices, although it is, admittedly, a rather unusual form of that practice. For the two chapters in this section, however, dynamic engagement between people becomes a focal part of the research endeavour. While the two methods are in many respects different, they converge in making the process of interaction which takes place the very substance of the research itself.

In Chapter 8, Krysia Yardley provides a conceptual framework for understanding how role play works as a technique for psychological research. She then describes essential features of role play and links each to the theoretical underpinning. She goes on to describe the importance of induction principles as part of a d...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction Jonathan A. Smith, Rom Harré and Luk Van Langenhove
• PART I THE SEARCH FOR MEANINGS
• PART II DISCOURSE AS TOPIC
• PART III RESEARCH AS DYNAMIC INTERACTION
• PART IV USING NUMBERS DIFFERENTLY
• References
• Index