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Discourse Analysis

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Abstract

Discourse Analysis (DA) refers to the systematic study of both written text and talk and its role in constructing social reality. DA is much more than a qualitative methodology: it is theoretically and epistemologically informed by social constructionism and has been central to challenging the dominance of cognitive and perceptual theoretical models in psychology. Currently there are a diverse range of approaches to analysing discourse that differ markedly from each other so DA should not be treated as a unified approach. This chapter will consider this tradition of research, its intellectual influences, historical trajectory in psychology and the radical critique it has directed towards many of its taken-for-granted concepts. It will also outline some core principles in DA and demonstrate how they are examined in the analysis of discourse.

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Augoustinos, M. (2017). Discourse Analysis. In: Gough, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Social Psychology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51018-1_11

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