Discourse analysis: what it is and uses in social psychology

Discourse analysis is a qualitative research technique that has had an important impact on both the social sciences and social psychology, and that arises from the importance that language has acquired not only as a way of expressing a certain social reality, but as a way of expressing build it.

It is also a complex orientation that has gained significant popularity in social studies and can be done in many different ways. Below you will find an overview of discourse analysis, its background, and the impact it has had on social psychology.

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Study of language in social psychology

Language is undoubtedly one of the most complex and interesting elements that we share human beings, that is why it has been positioned as an object of scientific discussion and research for centuries.

In social sciences, the 20th century is recognized as a period in which language was at the center of social, historical, philosophical and scientific research and analysis,

what is known as the linguistic turn. In other words, the study of language has been a very useful tool for understanding both psychological and social processes.

Hence arises the interest of social psychology to study and analyze discourses, which in turn has generated techniques research such as discourse analysis, thematic analysis, content analysis or conversational analysis.

What distinguishes discourse analysis is that it regards language theory as complex. Unlike, for example, content analysis, which focuses on the direct expression of a concept and the times that this is repeated, the discourse analysis pays attention to some elements that structure everyday language, such as irony, the double meaning, the metaphors, the implications, or the context itself, among others, that can account for relationships that are implicit or latent.

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Discourse analysis: a theoretical and methodological proposal

Discourse analysis is the name given to a set of theoretical and methodological proposals that are actually very diverse. For this reason, it is difficult to offer a single definition of this technique and there is no kind of recipe that can be used in the same way by all researchers.

Some background

Although its antecedents can also be traced in other traditions, discourse analysis arises mainly from the linguistic philosophy of the Oxford school, which considers that language directly affects social reality (interpersonal relationships, behavior, cognition, language).

Specifically, the theory of speech acts has had an important impact on discourse analysis, since it proposes that linguistic expressions produce effects that go beyond words that are used. On the other hand, discourse analysis is also influenced by works that have a more political and sociological orientation.

Possible definitions

One of the possible ways of defining discourse analysis is to point out that it is a flexible research method that serves to perform a systematic interpretation of speeches.

And a discourse is a set of linguistic practices that maintain and promote social relations (Iñiguez and Antaki, 1994), with which, language It is not only an individual communicative ability but it is a practice that constitutes and regulates social relationships that are capable of being studied.

There are many ways to analyze a speech. In any case, the starting point is to ask what are and how are the social relations that are to be explained (pose a research problem related to the speech), to later gather the corpus of data to be analyzed, that is, the linguistic materials (for example, press release, interviews, a public policy, a regulation, etc.).

From there, speeches can be analyzed using different tools. Some researchers start by performing a content analysis, categorizing the content of the texts according to the objectives of their research and then interpret some of these categories.

Other researchers make deep, careful, repeated and systematic readings of each statement, looking for language resources such as irony, metaphors, contradictions, trying to reveal the social relations that are mobilized through these resources, that is, looking for the latent effects of the language.

In any case, what is important in terms of the rigor of the investigation is to adequately justify the steps that we have followed during the analysis.

Critical discourse analysis

Critical discourse analysis has recently emerged as a new research method and has gained much popularity. Broadly speaking, it consists of applying a critical perspective to discourse analysis, that is, pay attention to not only social relations, but power relations, abuse of power and domination that shape social reality and that are mobilized through language.

In other words, critical discourse analysis seeks to understand how domination is produced and reproduced through discourses. At the methodological level there is not a great substantial difference, it is just as flexible and interpretive as traditional discourse analysis.

His contribution to social psychology

The main impact of discourse analysis in social psychology is that it allows us to develop an alternative to research methods focused on experimentation, considering that this is not a neutral process where the researcher does not affect the reality that he investigates, but on the contrary.

Likewise, it has had an impact on the way of doing social psychology, because it understands language not as something that is in each individual but as a way of constructing ourselves and ourselves, and the environment with which we interact.

Being such a broad and heterogeneous tradition, there are schools, authors, and paradigms that differentiate both the theory of language and the theory of language. research methods, in the more traditional perspectives of discourse analysis as well as in the current of critical analysis of the speech.

Bibliographic references:

• Íñiguez, L. (2003). Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences: Varieties, Traditions, and Practice, Pp: 83-124. in Íñiguez, I. (Ed.) Discourse analysis. Manual for the social sciences, Editorial UOC: Barcelona
• Van Dijk, T. (2002). Critical analysis of discourse and social thought. Athenea Digital. Journal of Social Thought and Research, 1: 18-24.
• Íñiguez, L. and Antaki, C. (1994). In discourse analysis in social psychology. Psychology Bulletin, 4: 57-75.