TY - JOUR
T1 - Criticizing the critic
T2 - comments on Jahoda's (2012) critique of Discursive Social Psychology
AU - Anderson, Tony
AU - Wiggins, Sally
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Jahoda (2012) criticizes discursive social psychology (DSP) on several different grounds; specifically, he argues that DSP has opaque methodological procedures, is of questionable scientific merit, involves over-interpretation of its data, and implicitly claims its findings to be universal rather than contextually specific. We challenge these criticisms by arguing that observational studies of the kind typical within DSP research have a perfectly valid place within a scientific social psychology, that the interpretations made by DSP researchers should be seen in the context of a temporally extended research process in which they are subject to criticism and potential replication, and that Jahoda is himself guilty of over-interpretation by inferring claims of universality when such an inference is not warranted by the data (i.e. the qualitative content of the sample of research papers considered by Jahoda).
AB - Jahoda (2012) criticizes discursive social psychology (DSP) on several different grounds; specifically, he argues that DSP has opaque methodological procedures, is of questionable scientific merit, involves over-interpretation of its data, and implicitly claims its findings to be universal rather than contextually specific. We challenge these criticisms by arguing that observational studies of the kind typical within DSP research have a perfectly valid place within a scientific social psychology, that the interpretations made by DSP researchers should be seen in the context of a temporally extended research process in which they are subject to criticism and potential replication, and that Jahoda is himself guilty of over-interpretation by inferring claims of universality when such an inference is not warranted by the data (i.e. the qualitative content of the sample of research papers considered by Jahoda).
KW - discursive psychology
KW - science
KW - reflexivity
KW - universality
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84880680768&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jtsb.12031
DO - 10.1111/jtsb.12031
M3 - Comment/debate
JO - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
JF - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
SN - 0021-8308
ER -