Discourse analysis: what it is and its uses in social psychology

This set of methods and theories proposes to study language beyond words.

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

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

• Related article, "What is political psychology?"

Study of language in social psychology

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

In the social sciences, the twentieth century is recognized as a period in which language was at the center of social, historical, philosophical and scientific research and analysis, known as the linguistic turn.. In other words, the study of language has been a very useful tool for the understanding of both psychological and social processes.

From this arises the interest of social psychology in studying and analyzing discourses, which in turn has generated research techniques such as discourse analysis, thematic analysis, content analysis or conversational analysis.

What distinguishes discourse analysis is that it considers the theory of language as complex. Unlike, for example, content analysis, which concentrates on the direct manifestation of a concept and how often it is repeated, discourse analysis pays attention to certain elements that structure everyday language, such as irony, double meaning, metaphors, implications, or the context itself, among others.among others, which can account for implicit or latent relationships.

Discourse analysis: a theoretical and methodological proposal.

Discourse analysis is the name that has been given to a set of theoretical and methodological a set of theoretical and methodological proposals that are in fact very diverse.. For this reason, it is difficult to offer a single definition of this technique, nor is there a kind of recipe that can be used in the same way by all researchers.

Some antecedents

Although its antecedents can also be traced in other traditions, discourse analysis arises mainly from the linguistic philosophy of the Oxford school. from the linguistic philosophy of the Oxford school, which considers that language directly affects the way in which we communicate.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 those of the individual. linguistic expressions produce effects that go beyond the 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 used to systematically interpret discourses. systematic interpretation of discourses.

And a discourse is a set of linguistic practices that maintain and promote social relations (Iñiguez and Antaki, 1994), which means that language is not only an individual communicative skill but also a practice that constitutes and regulates social relations that can be studied.

There are many ways of analyzing a discourse. In any case, the starting point is to ask what the social relations to be explained are and what they are like (pose a research problem related to discourse), and then gather the corpus of data to be analyzed, i.e., the linguistic materials (e.g., press releases, interviews, public policy, regulations, etc.).

From this point on, discourses can be analyzed by means of different tools.. Some researchers begin by performing a content analysis, categorizing the content of the texts according to the objectives of their research and then interpreting some of these categories.

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

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

Critical discourse analysis

Critical discourse analysis has recently positioned itself as a new research method and has gained much popularity. In broad terms, it consists of applying a critical perspective to discourse analysis, i.e., paying attention not only to social relations, but also to power relations, abuse of power and domination, to pay attention not only to social relations, but also to the power relations, abuse of power and domination that shape social reality and which are that shape social reality and are mobilized through language.

In other words, critical discourse analysis seeks to understand how domination is produced and reproduced through discourse. At the methodological level, there is no substantial difference; it is just as flexible and interpretative as traditional discourse analysis.

Its contribution to social psychology

The main impact of discourse analysis in social psychology is that it makes it possible to develop an alternative to the methods of research centered on discourse analysis. an alternative to research methods centered on experimentation.This is not a neutral process where the researcher does not affect the reality he/she is investigating, but on the contrary.

It has also 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 the environment with which we interact.

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

Bibliographical references:

• Íñiguez, L. (2003). El análisis del discurso en las ciencias sociales: variedades, tradiciones y práctica, Pp: 83-124. in Íñiguez, I. (Ed.) Análisis del discurso. Manual for the social sciences, Editorial UOC: Barcelona.
• Van Dijk, T. (2002). Critical discourse analysis and social thought. Athenea Digital. Journal of Social Thought and Research, 1: 18-24.
• Íñiguez, L. and Antaki, C. (1994). On discourse analysis in social psychology. Boletín de Psicología, 4: 57-75.