Michael A. Forrester

The Emergence of Self-Repair: A Case Study of One Child During the Early Preschool Years

Learning how to talk during the early preschool years involves the appropriation of cultural norms, conventions, and sense-making social practices. In this article, I document the emergence of self-repair practices of a preschool child between the ages of 1 and 3;6 years. Employing a longitudinal single-case approach extract, examples provide insights into the resources that a child employs when acquiring the ability to self-repair. The findings indicate that during the early years, self-repair is a more common occurrence than other-initiated repair, and the ability to self-repair rests on skills of sound/utterance alteration, repetition, conversation monitoring, and an orientation to self-positioning in discourse. The likelihood of the child producing self-repair is associated with the non-response of a coparticipant, highlighting a sensitivity to the interdependence of talk, gesture, and action. It is also linked to the requirements of communicative clarity, implicating the significance of sequential position when repairing. Concluding comments touch on the interactional consequences of repair organization and the variety of discourse contexts served by self and other-initiated self-repair.

Providing Resources for Enhancing the Teaching of Qualitative Methods at the Undergraduate Level: Current Practices and the Work of the HEA Psychology Network Group

The teaching of qualitative methods is now a required element of degree courses in the UK which seek to gain professional accreditation. This paper reports the work of a network group focused on enhancing the teaching of qualitative methods at the undergraduate level. Following a brief summary of the results of a survey into current teaching practices we indicate potential areas of resource support with linked references to examples produced by the network group.

Psychology of language : a critical introduction

Introduction Language Structure and the Significance of Recursion Semantics The Concept of Meaning Deixis The Interface between Language and Social Interaction Conversational Analysis and Accountability in Everyday Talk Processes and Procedures in Conversational Interaction Power Relations in Language Sign Systems and Social Semiotics The Role of the Reader in Text Interpretation Writing and the Construction of Narrative Text Post-Modern Psychology and Language Discourse Analysis and Social Psychology

CONVERSATION ANALYSIS AND PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOTHERAPY RESEARCH: QUESTIONS, ISSUES, PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

Understanding the talk of the ‘talking cure’ remains a central goal of researchers in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Here, we consider whether conversation analysis (CA) can provide techniques to understand better the conduct of the psychoanalytic therapeutic interaction. Following discussion outlining the participant‐oriented nature of this qualitative methodology we consider reasons for the emergence of CA‐informed studies of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Amongst other aims, CA focuses on uncovering the process and procedures which make the therapy encounter a distinct form of ‘institutional life’. For psychoanalytically‐oriented researchers, CA can refine their skills of attention and engender sensitivity to understanding material in sessions. Using examples from segments of talk between a training therapist and client we highlight both the advantages of, and constraints on, employing CA as an aid to understanding psychotherapeutic sessions by considering contrasting conceptions of temporality in conversation analysis and psychoanalysis. In the former participants are oriented towards the ongoing production of sequential understandings and local ‘context’ in an unfolding present, in the latter participants aim to enhance the emergence of the remote past into the present of the therapeutic interaction. While recognizing the research benefits of CA methodology concluding comments raise questions regarding the potential complementarity between our dispositions towards the close monitoring of the activity and the feelings of fellow humans.

Exploring Estimation in Young Primary School Children

Abstract There is an increasing emphasis in mathematics education on the importance of estimation abilities in children. This study investigates the role of context upon primary‐aged childrens estimation skills. Children in three age groups (from aged 5 to 8 years) were asked to carry out a range of estimation tasks involving distance, area and volume measurements. The tasks varied in type and complexity and were either of a ‘real‐world’ or ‘mathematics task’ form. In addition to performance measures the childrens answers to questions on how they carried out the estimates were recorded and analysed. Quantitative and qualitative analyses found significant effects for context and child strategy. Estimates in contexts perceived as mathematical were different, both in that they changed with age and in their error patterns, from contexts involving perceptual‐motor skills. The childrens answers highlight the importance of imagery and classroom experience. The results are discussed within a model of estimating.

Emerging musicality during the pre-school years: a case study of one child

Studies of communication in early infancy and childhood have highlighted the significance of rhythm, sound and music for emotional and social development. There is, however, little detailed empirical data on the emergence of naturalistic music-related behaviour by children in the early years. The aim of this work is to examine instances of musicality with respect to their form and/or function and to trace out developmental indices of musically related behaviours and competencies. Employing a single-case study approach, this paper documents the emergence of one child’s musicality between the ages of 1 year, and 3 years 10 months. From a data corpus of video-recordings, 33 examples of musicality, representing 20 time periods, were examined and categorized. In order to examine specific instances, ethnomethodologically informed conversation analysis was used to consider examples in more detail. Beyond indicating what conversation analysis might bring to the study of musical behaviour in context, the results highlight certain interrelationships between musicality, early word use, interpersonal skill and narrative development. Distinct phases — social-affective followed by ‘song-word’ play and finally narrative-related musicality — were identified in the data. Concluding comments touch on the significance of emerging musicality for social and cognitive development.

A conceptual framework for investigating learning in conversations

Abstract In response to the formidable problems involved in understanding the learning process and identifying evaluation principles, a case is made for conceptually distinguishing between learning as performance and the learning process. The role of conversation and the learning process is then considered and a conceptual framework for the study of conversation outlined. Three aspects are emphasized: conversation as model, conversation as medium and conversation as criteria. Within this framework a model of conversational participation and the learning process is proposed and exemplars of where it may usefully be applied suggested. Throughout, the implications of this view for software design are considered.

Tropic implicature and context in the comprehension of idiomatic phrases

Research concerned with how people understand idiomatic expressions has focused primarily on lexicalization, familiarity or literalness. In contrast, this study examined the extent to which comprehending idiomatic phrases in context depends upon the words which make up such phrases. Using reading time as a dependent measure and by substituting idiomatic expressions with phrases which retain the equivalent semantic meaning in context, the role of familiarity and literalness were again investigated. The results lend support to the importance of familiarity in comprehending idiomatic expressions (Schweigert, 1991); however, they raise questions about the extent to which idiomatic phrases are syntactically frozen. The findings provide a platform for considering contemporary theories of idiomatic comprehension and related theories of meaning.

Projective Identification and Intersubjectivity

The issue of what might constitute intersubjective relations during infancy and early childhood remains something of a puzzle within and beyond psychology. This paper considers whether the psychoanalytic concept of projective identification might supplement or enrich theoretical efforts in this domain. Following introductory comments on distinctive characteristics of Merleau-Ponty’s commentary on intersubjectivity, attention turns to psychoanalytic assumptions and presuppositions underpinning projective identification. Complementary and contrastive themes are drawn out, specifically those which highlight alternative metaphysical positions taken up within these approaches. Discussion touches on the processes involved in the emergence of projective identification and what implications the concept may have for contemporary theories of intersubjectivity in developmental psychology.

Reflections and Projections of the Developing Self

In response to calls for a constructively critical developmental psychology, this paper considers contemporary ideas of the developing self. After touching on theoretical assumptions within cognitive and psychoanalytic approaches, consideration turns to the potential value of narrative. A conception of the developing self embedded within the subject positionings of discourse is then formulated. This approach, defined as discursive ethnomethodology, focuses on narrativization as process bringing together Foucaults (1972) discourse theory, Gibsons (1979) affordance metaphor and conversation analysis. The proposals conceptualize theorized subject positioning as participant-oriented social practices, arguably understood as social affordances produced and recognized dynamically in context. Conversation analysis provides a key method for studying the production of such discursive self-positionings, particularly with regard to the implicit models and metaphors embedded in the talk between parents and young children. Recommendations for more dialogic conceptions of representation are suggested, alongside proposals for a discursive ethno-methodology of the developing self. Concluding comments emphasize the significance of studying talk and conversation within developmental psychology.