Northern Luzon Adventist College

Artacho, Sison, Pangasinan

Department of Psychology
Field Methods in Psychology

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Integration of Faith and Learning/Values

Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will
lift up his companion.
Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10

Learning Objectives
At the end of this module, you can:
1. Discuss & appreciate the uniqueness of discourse analysis
2. Be able to identify the skills needed in doing discourse analysis of data

Core issues:
✓ What is discourse analysis?
✓ How to conduct discourse analysis?

I. Discourse analysis is a research method for learning the written or spoken language in
relation to its social context. It aims to understand how language [talk/text] is used in
real-life situations.
When you do discourse analysis, you might focus on:
The purposes and effects of different types of language
Cultural rules and conventions in communication
How values, beliefs and assumptions are communicated
How language use relates to its social, political and historical context
Discourse analysis is a common qualitative research method in many humanities and social
science disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology and cultural
studies.

Historical origins and influences

Discourse analysis is closely linked to the ‘turn to language’ and the emergence of social
constructionism. A specifically discursive approach emerged in psychology in the mid-1980s,
mainly in the U.K., and since its inception took shape in two distinct yet partly overlapping
trends. One approach, which was later termed discursive psychology, drew upon developments in
linguistic philosophy, semiology, the sociology of scientific knowledge, ethnomethodology,
conversation analysis, and rhetorical work in psychology. Discursive psychology is primarily
concerned with discursive practices, that is to say, with the ways in which speakers in everyday
and institutional settings negotiate meaning, reality, identity, and responsibility. Another trend,
subsequently termed Foucauldian discourse analysis, drew upon post-structuralist theorists, such
as Foucault, Barthes, and Derrida, cultural studies, and social theory and was informed by
feminism and Marxism. Foucauldian discourse analysis focuses on discursive resources and
examines the ways in which discourses construct objects and subjects and create, in this way,

A. FIAROQUE | FMP MODULE 9| DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

certain versions of reality, society and identity as well as maintaining certain practices and
institutions.

What is discourse analysis used for?

Conducting discourse analysis means examining how language functions and how meaning is
created in different social contexts. It can be applied to any instance of written or oral language,
as well as non-verbal aspects of communication such as tone and gestures.
Materials that are suitable for discourse analysis include:
a. Books, newspapers and periodicals
b. Marketing material, such as brochures and advertisements
c. Business and government documents
d. Websites, forums, social media posts and comments
e. Interviews and conversations
By analyzing these types of discourse, researchers aim to gain an understanding of social groups
and how they communicate.

Research questions
Given its emphasis on construction and function, discourse analysis neither asks
questions about nor makes claims about the reality of people’s lives or experiences but examines
the ways in which reality and experience are constructed through social and interpersonal
processes. In the field of psychotherapy, discourse analytic studies have investigated:
(a) the transformation of meaning in the course of therapy,
(b) the negotiation of agency, responsibility and blame between therapist and clients,
(c) the role of the therapist in shaping clients’ accounts,
(d) power and resistance and
(e) the role of hegemonic discourses in shaping clients’ problems and the solutions to
them.
Mental health topics investigated by discourse analytic studies include:
(a) critical examination of clinical categories through tracing their historical trajectory or
deconstructing their underlying assumptions,
(b) analysing the effects of discourses in shaping experiences and views of service users,
(c) examination of the ways in which professionals construct clinical cases and justify
their practices,
(d) how mental illness is constructed in public texts, including policy, media and cultural
texts.

How is discourse analysis different from other methods?

Unlike linguistic approaches that focus only on the rules of language use, discourse
analysis emphasizes the contextual meaning of language.
It focuses on the social aspects of communication and the ways people use language to
achieve specific effects (e.g., to build trust, to create doubt, to evoke emotions, or to manage
conflict).
Instead of focusing on smaller units of language, such as sounds, words or phrases,
discourse analysis is used to study larger chunks of language, such as entire conversations, texts,
or collections of texts. The selected sources can be analyzed on multiple levels.

A. FIAROQUE | FMP MODULE 9| DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

 Level of What is analyzed?
communication
Vocabulary Words and phrases can be analyzed for ideological associations, formality,
and euphemistic and metaphorical content.
Grammar The way that sentences are constructed (e.g., verb tenses, active or passive
construction, and the use of imperatives and questions) can reveal aspects
of the intended meaning.
Structure The structure of a text can be analyzed for how it creates emphasis or builds
a narrative.
Genre Texts can be analyzed in relation to the conventions and communicative
aims of their genre (e.g., political speeches or tabloid newspaper articles).
Non-verbal Non-verbal aspects of speech, such as tone of voice, pauses, gestures, and
communication sounds like “um”, can reveal aspects of a speaker’s intentions, attitudes,
and emotions.
Conversational The interaction between people in a conversation, such as turn-taking,
codes interruptions, and listener response, can reveal aspects of cultural
conventions and social roles.

II. How to conduct discourse analysis

Discourse analysis is a qualitative and interpretive method of analyzing texts (in contrast to more
systematic methods like content analysis or grounded theory). You make interpretations based on
both the details of the material itself and on contextual knowledge.
There are many different approaches and techniques you can use to conduct discourse analysis,
but the steps below outline the basic steps you need to follow and remember.

Step 1: Define the research question and select the content of the analysis
To do discourse analysis, you begin with a clearly defined research question. Once you have
developed your question, select a range of material that is appropriate to answer it.
Discourse analysis is a method that can be applied both to large volumes of material and to
smaller samples, depending on the aims and timescale of your research.

You want to study how a particular regime change from dictatorship to democracy has
affected the public relations rhetoric of businesses in the country. You decide to
examine the mission statements and marketing material of the 10 largest companies
within five years of the regime change.

Step 2: Gather information and theory on the context

Next, you must establish the social and historical context in which the material was produced and
intended to be received. Gather factual details of when and where the content was created, who
the author is, who published it, and whom it was disseminated to.
As well as understanding the real-life context of the discourse, you can also conduct a literature
review on the topic and construct a theoretical framework to guide your analysis.

A. FIAROQUE | FMP MODULE 9| DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

You research factual information on the politics and history of the country and on the
businesses you are studying. You also research theory on democratic transitions and
the relationship between government and business.
Step 3: Analyze the content for themes and patterns
This step involves closely examining various elements of the material – such as words,
sentences, paragraphs, and overall structure – and relating them to attributes, themes, and
patterns relevant to your research question.

You analyze the selected material for wording and statements that reflect or relate to
authoritarian and democratic political ideologies, including attitudes toward authority,
liberal values, and popular opinion.

Step 4: Review your results and draw conclusions

Once you have assigned particular attributes to elements of the material, reflect on your results to
examine the function and meaning of the language used. Here, you will consider your analysis in
relation to the broader context that you established earlier to draw conclusions that answer your
research question.

Your analysis shows that the material published before the regime change used
language that emphasized the quality and necessity of its services and products, while
the material published after the shift to a democratic regime emphasized the needs and
values of the consumer. You compare the results with your research on the ideology
and rhetoric of the political regimes, and infer that the shifting political context shaped
the communication strategies of national businesses.

An alternative way in conducting DA (Howitt & Cramer, 2014)

Here is an illustration of how DA is transcribed and further analyzed

A. FIAROQUE | FMP MODULE 9| DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

 The extract presented is drawn from a family therapy session that took place in a Community Mental
Health Centre in Greece1 and has been presented in more detail in Avdi (2005). The family (consisting of John,
Anne and Tom, age 3.5) visited the service because of concerns regarding Tom’s development; Tom had been
previously given a diagnosis of autism, psychosis and learning disability by different professionals. In the
following extract, drawn from the beginning of the first session, Anne explains how the parents gradually
came to realize that there was a problem.
Extract2
1 Anne- he started making some movements, that is he started to say ah very intensely aaaah
2 he started to make these movements [makes hand-flapping movements], he started to hop and to
3 clap his hands
4 Therapist - did these remind you of anything?
5 Anne- they didn’t remind us of anything because we didn’t know anything about such matters,
6 but we definitely thought that something was not quite right
7 Therapist- did they remind you of a child younger than Tom? because usually this is the sort of
8 hand clapping that babies do
9 Anne- no it wasn’t that sort of clapping (.) this is the sort of hand-clapping (.) not like the children 10
to whom we say ‘clap your hands’ (.) Tom does it when he is very pleased, that is, he sees a
11 picture and he claps, he does this thing, moves his hands like this (.) he goes round and round
12 sometimes, around himself, it is not the sort of clapping that shows us that he is a child (.) to me it 13
was indication that something was wrong, it is not the clapping of a child (…) we could see
14 Tom did not say anything anymore, he didn’t even say hello, nothing, he did nothing, and these 15
things he does they became more intense, that is, he started saying aaah more intensely, the
16 hand-clapping became more intense, he started seeing some pictures, not all pictures, and to hop
17 Therapist- what pictures was it usually?
18 Anne- oh it makes no difference what the picture is, it could be just a line, for example, we had
19 this drawing pad the other day it had a paintbrush and something else on, I cannot remember
20 exactly what, and he liked it a lot and he started hopping around
21 Therapist- did it have colours? Was it a drawing?

1
In line with the Centre’s usual practice, all family therapy sessions were audio-recorded and consent was obtained
from the family for the use of transcribed material for research and teaching purposes. All names used here are
pseudonyms
2
Transcription notation: underlining = added emphasis; (.) = brief pause; (...) = part of the text omitted

A. FIAROQUE | FMP MODULE 9| DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

22 Tom - eeeeee
23 Therapist- What is his favourite picture?
24 Anne - I cannot say that he has a specific picture, it is a thing of the moment, he may get hold of a 25
magazine and look at it and choose one picture that he likes from the whole magazine and start to 26
hop around (…) I get frustrated in the sense that I don’t know how to react, what I should do,
27 should I take the book off him so that he stops making these movements, I am thinking how to
28 stop these movements he makes, because, that is, I think ‘you go out, they see Tom’, er, your life 29
becomes different afterwards

References:
Avdi, E. (2005). Discursively negotiating a pathological identity in the clinical dialogue:
Discourse analysis of a family therapy. Psychology & Psychotherapy: Theory, Research
and Practice, 78, 493-511.

Georgaca, E., & Avdi, E. (2011). Discourse analysis. Qualitative research methods in mental
health and psychotherapy, 147-161.

Howitt, D. & Cramer, D. (2017). Research Methods in Psychology. (5th Ed.). Pearson Education
Limited

https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/discourse-analysis/

A. FIAROQUE | FMP MODULE 9| DISCOURSE ANALYSIS