S u m m a r y

 

Suoninen E (2002)

Interaction, experience, meaning - The opportunities of discourse social psychology in the interpretation of experience

Psykologia 37:372 384. Vammala ISSN 0355-1067

 

The general aim of the article is to discuss the opportunities to illustrate and enlarge the potentials of discursive social psychology in studying human experience. The article is based on discourse analytical tradition and some related traditions: social constructionism, conversation analysis, narrative tradition and ethnographic tradition. In the article four alternative ways of doing research are illustrated: the analysis of cultural categories, details of interaction, narratives and long interaction processes. The first two are already widely applied in the field of discursive social psychology but the last two have been only preliminarily tested in the field of discursive psychology. After these illustrations the writer draws conclusions about the opportunities to enlarge the focus of analysis and argues for combining the four ways of analysis.

 

Keyword: Discursive social psychology, discourse analysis, experience

 

Eero Suoninen, YT / dosentti, yliassistentti, Sosiologian ja sosiaalipsykologian laitos, 33014 Tampereen yliopisto