Courageous Methods in Cultural Psychology (Theory and History in the Human and Social Sciences)

Innovative research requires courageous methods. With this in mind, Courageous Methods in Cultural Psychology invites students and post-graduate researchers to develop methods that will let them grasp phenomena of interest more fully. Readers will learn how to use established methods, and may be asked to develop them further by combining single steps of extant procedures, or by taking a completely new approach to data collection and analysis. In this book, diverse researchers present projects in which they have tried to do just that. A comprehensive process from narrowing down research questions to collecting and analyzing data is given in detail, followed by critical reflections on how well the authors have understood and shared complex realities. Project presentations are framed by theoretical chapters that deal with the challenges and opportunities of cultural psychology and interdisciplinary research. Courageous Methods in Cultural Psychology is sure to inspire and encourage those who wish to venture on new roads "into the wild." Courageous Methods in Cultural Psychology introduces research projects from various subdisciplines of the social and human sciences, each of which was conducted with a culturalpsychological reference in mind. The book strives to emphasize diversity and the added value of interdisciplinary exchange, something that is often neglected in research and needs to be encouraged. Through detailed descriptions of the research process, this book will support and guide readers on how to approach a research question when concrete ideas about the appropriate method may be lacking. Each chapter shows how methods are adapted to the phenomenon of interest, inviting the reader to proceed in a similar way. Within psychology, most methods are very language-based, which means that researchers analyze questionnaires, diaries, transcripts of interviews, and the like. Materials such as these play a major role in this book, but we have also tried to include other data sources. For example, art and architecture are also brought into the books purview, to help researchers and students rethink the construction of knowledge and data as such. Preface by the Series’ Editor Ordinary Courage: How to Make a Methodological Revolution Without Anybody Noticing It Is Going On? Contents Contributors Part I: Setting the Stage for Courageous Methods Chapter 1: The Crooked Relationship Between Method and Matter 1.1 Reformulating the Relationship Between Method and Knowledge 1.2 Overcoming Discursivism References Chapter 2: Reading Traces in Eels and Faces: Historical Roots of Semiotic Thinking in Psychology 2.1 First Steps in the Physiological Laboratory: Freud’s “Latest Method” 2.2 Freud’s First Steps in the Laboratory 2.3 From Gold Chloride to Free Association: The Freudian Art of Reading Traces 2.4 “Symptomatology”: Carlo Ginzburg and the Interdisciplinary Art of Reading Signs and Clues 2.5 From Research to Practice: First Steps of German Military Psychology 2.6 The Rise and Demise of German Ausdruckspsychologie 2.7 Conclusion: On the Hidden Tracks of Semiotics in Psychology References Chapter 3: Why We Have Two Ears: Particularized Meaning Beyond Language or the Benefits of Musicalization in Research 3.1 The Difficulty of Differentiating Between Various Levels of Meaning 3.2 An Example for Analysis: “Everything Goes on Happening at the Same Rhythm” 3.3 Systems Combined: Synesthesia 3.3.1 Level 1 of Analysis: Time and Narratives 3.3.2 Level 2 of Analysis: Navigating Through Space 3.3.3 Level 3 of Analysis: The Individuals Who Surpass Themselves 3.3.4 Level 4 of Analysis: The Aspect of Sociality 3.4 Conclusions References Part II: Courageous Methods in Application Chapter 4: Unfrozen: A Voice-Centered Listening Analysis of Self-Acceptance 4.1 What Is an Abled Body? 4.2 Making Yourself the Subject of Research 4.3 Analyzing the Autoethnographic Text: Searching for Voices 4.3.1 The Self-Othering Voice 4.3.2 Fear of Objectification, Hiding, and Acceptance-Seeking Voice 4.3.3 Pleasing Others, Guilt, Responsibility, and Self-Blame Voice 4.3.4 Identifying with Hermione (Harry Potter) and Elsa (Frozen): A Path to Acceptance? 4.4 Affective Explosions and Rupture Transitions: Frozen as Symbolic Resource 4.4.1 Social Justice and Self-Care/Love Voice References Chapter 5: Breaking Down Complex Realities: The Exploration of Children’s Prosocial Actions Using Photographs 5.1 The Study 5.2 Using Pictures to Speak in Research 5.3 Prosocial Behavior 5.4 Interpreting Prosocial Behavior Through a Cultural Lens 5.5 Sharing: The Act of Lending from What You Have 5.6 Giving: The Act of Dispensing What You Have or Own 5.7 Sibling Interactions 5.8 Data, Method, and Methodological Concerns 5.9 Pictures and Their Analysis: The Depth and Detail of Visual Images 5.10 Conclusion References Chapter 6: How Do People Make Meaning? A Methodological Dialogue Between Social Anthropology and Developmental Psychology 6.1 Methodological Dialogues to Study Knowledge in Context 6.2 The Clinical Method 6.3 Combining Methodologies in Practice 6.3.1 An Ethnographic Survey and Reconstruction 6.3.2 Context-Specific Interviews 6.4 Final Thoughts: How to Connect Knowledge with Actions and Feelings References Chapter 7: Studying the Stream of Experience at Memorial Sites: The Subjective Camera Methodology 7.1 Methods on the Move 7.2 Three Case Studies 7.2.1 Post-Visit Replay Interview at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 7.2.2 Walk-Along Interview at the National September 11 Memorial 7.2.3 Walk-Along Interview and Focus Group at Valley of the Fallen 7.3 Discussion and Conclusion References Chapter 8: Multimodal Interaction Analysis in Cultural Psychology Research 8.1 Ethnomethodologically Informed Discursive Psychology 8.2 Laminated Social Interaction: Charles Goodwin’s Action Theory 8.3 Studying Meaning-Making and Normativity in Early Childhood Educational Context 8.4 Conclusion Appendix References Chapter 9: Multisensory Ethnography as a Tool for Reconstructing the Subjective Experience of a City 9.1 (Re-)Constructing Realities: What Are We Actually Looking At? 9.2 Preconceptions: An Inherent Part of Research 9.3 Who Was (Not) Invited to Participate in the Research Project? 9.4 Multisensory Ethnography and Interpretative Sociology 9.4.1 Twenty Sentences About the City 9.4.2 Mental Maps of the City 9.4.3 Expert Interviews (with “Particular Users” of the City) 9.4.4 Ethnographic Walks Through Warsaw 9.4.5 Journals of Sensory Experiences 9.5 How Do People Experience Warsaw? Maps of Senses 9.6 Conclusions References Chapter 10: How Research Can Support a More Embodied Pedagogy in Psychology 10.1 Situating Silence and Shame: Developing Epistemologies of Ignorance 10.1.1 Negative Sociocultural Representations 10.1.2 Compulsory Heterosexuality and Gendered Violence 10.1.3 Sexual Education 10.2 The Vulva Assignment as Confrontation 10.3 Tracing Socio-relational Circuits of Embodied Knowledges 10.4 Relational Histories: Listening for Dialectical Voices of Engagement and Estrangement 10.4.1 Tanya 10.4.2 Valeria 10.4.3 Discovering New Relational Selves 10.5 Moving Away from Pedagogical Disembodiment References Chapter 11: Art as a Domain of Psychological Reality: Morphological Art Research and Art Coaching 11.1 Psychological Art Research 11.2 Report of a Nameless Spectator 11.3 The Man Freud and the Moses of Michelangelo 11.4 Message or Meaning—Freud’s Psychology of Art 11.5 Formations of Meaning: The Moses Figuration 11.6 Morphological Studies in Art Research 11.7 From Art Research to Art Coaching 11.8 Art Coaching with the Moses of Michelangelo 11.9 Courageous Research Leads to Courageous Interventions References Chapter 12: Collaborative Realities 12.1 Run-up 12.2 The Researcher and the Magnifying Glass 12.3 visions4people 12.3.1 How Did You Decide on a Particular Aspect of and Perspective on Your Object of Interest? 12.3.2 Goal 12.3.3 Complexity 12.3.4 How Did You Choose What You Wanted to Investigate? 12.3.5 Special Conditions 12.3.6 Language and Context 12.4 Practices 12.4.1 Data 12.4.2 Retooling: From Using to Creating 12.4.3 Initial Task 12.4.4 Waiving Questionnaires: From Applying to Creating 12.4.5 Field to_Scape 12.4.6 From Reporting to Narrating 12.4.7 From Expected Data to Unpredicted Experience 12.4.8 Feedback to Source: From Data to Artistic and Scientific Outcomes 12.5 Analysis 12.5.1 From Thread to Threat 12.5.2 Neglect 12.5.3 Obstacles 12.6 Outcomes 12.6.1 Contributions 12.6.2 How Can Your Results Help Us Understand the More Complex Reality? 12.7 The Bigger Picture 12.7.1 Transdisciplinarity 12.7.2 Artistic Research 12.7.3 Massive Serialized Collaborative Fictions 12.8 Conclusion References Part III: Part III: What Does Being Courageous Mean After All? Chapter 13: Researching in Spite of Resistance: Courage and Responsibility in (Re)Breaking New Ground 13.1 Understanding Meaning-Making with the Help of Language 13.2 The Courage and Necessity to Do Things Differently 13.3 Research Needs to Reflect on Power References Index