Discourse and Social Psychology: Beyond Attitudes and Behaviour

“Potter and Wetherell have genuinely presented us with a different way of working in social psychology. The book’s clarity means that it has the power to influence a lot of people ill-at-ease with traditional social psychology but unimpressed with (or simply bewildered by) other alternatives on offer. It could rescue social psychology from the sterility of the laboratory and its traditional mentalism’ - Charles Antaki, The Times Higher Education Supplement

This book is the first systematic and accessible introduction to the theory and application of discourse analysis within the field of social psychology.

Discourse and Social Psychology includes chapters on the theoretical roots of discourse analysis in linguistic philosophy, ethnomethodology and semiotics and an overview on the perspectives of discourse analysis and its utility in studying attitudes. Five substantive chapters are concerned with the key concepts of social psychology. Finally, the authors identify future research directions and present an exhaustive bibliography of all relevant literature.

The authors draw on a wide range of examples from written and spoken discourse and avoid jargon at all times, even when introducing complex theoretical issues.