Social Psychology of and for World-Making

ACADEMIC ABSTRACT

Social psychology's disconnect from the vital and urgent questions of people's lived experiences reveals limitations in the current paradigm. We draw on a related perspective in social psychology1-the sociocultural approach-and argue how this perspective can be elaborated to consider not only social psychology as a historical science but also social psychology of and for world-making. This conceptualization can make sense of key theoretical and methodological challenges faced by contemporary social psychology. As such, we describe the ontology, epistemology, ethics, and methods of social psychology of and for world-making. We illustrate our framework with concrete examples from social psychology. We argue that reconceptualizing social psychology in terms of world-making can make it more humble yet also more relevant, reconnecting it with the pressing issues of our time.

PUBLIC ABSTRACT

We propose that social psychology should focus on "world-making" in two senses. First, people are future-oriented and often are guided more by what could be than what is. Second, social psychology can contribute to this future orientation by supporting people's world-making and also critically reflecting on the role of social psychological research in world-making. We unpack the philosophical assumptions, methodological procedures, and ethical considerations that underpin a social psychology of and for world-making. Social psychological research, whether it is intended or not, contributes to the societies and cultures in which we live, and thus it cannot be a passive bystander of world-making. By embracing social psychology of and for world-making and facing up to the contemporary societal challenges upon which our collective future depends will make social psychology more humble but also more relevant.

Choreographies of sexual safety and liminality: Forensic mental health and the limits of recovery

Medium secure forensic psychiatric units are unique environments within the broader "post asylum" landscape of mental health services. Length of stay is much greater and restrictions on behavior, including sexual behavior, are legally and institutionally legitimated, due to concerns regarding risk. As a result, sexuality is rarely explored experientially with service users and no official policies on sexual conduct and sexual safety have yet been developed.

Pursuing perfection through relationality: Studying the intersubjective dynamics of embodied agency in ballet

This study investigates the relational dynamics of embodied agency in the empirical context of ballet. Drawing on 15 ethnographic and 6 photo-elicitation interviews with professional dancers from the Finnish National Ballet, this study analyses the ways in which ballet dancers negotiate their agency in relation to other agents in their everyday work. We show how ballet dancers have to balance between satisfying the needs of the invisible gaze through different layers of relationality, on the one hand, and aiming to create room for their intimate, embodied experiences on the other. This study contributes to the existing knowledge on agency at the workplace by illustrating how it is grounded in the body in relational ways. By furthering the phenomenological understanding of subject formation as a form of intersubjectivity, this study shows how the working self is always relationally constructed, open to ambiguity and, sometimes, ‘caught between’ achieving agency and the objectifying scrutiny of the self and others between the visible onstage and hidden backstage. Consequently, this study offers in-depth insights into and parallels for intersubjective development in organisations.

Wearables in sociodrama: An embodied mixed-methods study of expressiveness in social interactions

This mixed-methods study investigates the use of wearable technology in embodied psychology research and explores the potential of incorporating bio-signals to focus on the bodily impact of the social experience. The study relies on scientifically established psychological methods of studying social issues, collective relationships and emotional overloads, such as sociodrama, in combination with participant observation to qualitatively detect and observe verbal and nonverbal aspects of social behavior. We evaluate the proposed method through a pilot sociodrama session and reflect on the outcomes. By utilizing an experimental setting that combines video cameras, microphones, and wearable sensors measuring physiological signals, specifically, heart rate, we explore how the synchronization and analysis of the different signals and annotations enables a mixed-method that combines qualitative and quantitative instruments in studying embodied expressiveness and social interaction.

Cultures of Listening: Psychology, Resonance, Justice

Listening, as a general psychological capacity, is a key aspect of perception, communication and experience. However, listening researchers frequently characterize it as a neglected, misunderstood and ill-defined phenomenon. This is a significant problem because questions of listening pervade social inequalities and injustices, as this paper demonstrates in the context of UK child protection practices. Exploring concepts of listening within and beyond psychology, the paper illustrates how a lack of overall theorization can contribute to inequality and injustice within applied listening practices. To address this, the paper theorizes listening in the spirit of Whiteheadian process ontology, drawing on the work of Nancy and Bonnet. Based on this, it develops the concept of ‘Cultures of Listening’ (CoL), which provides a tool for the critical analysis of troubled listening practices, indicating how they can be challenged and transformed. Within CoL, listening is not a mere aspect of auditory perception or communication, but each instant of listening is considered as shaped by and expressing political, social and experiential circumstances, that is, cultures. The paper demonstrates the theoretical, critical and applied value of CoL by offering a detailed analysis of the role of listening within troubled UK child protection practices.

Challenges and added value of measuring embodied variables in psychotherapy

Research on embodied aspects of clinical encounters is growing, but discussion on the premises of including embodied variables in empirical research is scarce. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that embodied aspects of psychotherapy interaction are vital in developing a therapeutic alliance, and these should be considered to better understand the change process in psychotherapy. However, the field is still debating which methods should be used and which features of the embodied aspects are relevant in the clinical context. The field lacks methodological consistency as well as a theoretical model. In the Relational Mind research project, we have studied the embodied aspects of interaction in the context of couple therapy for almost a decade and have gained experience with the positive and negative aspects of studying embodied variables in quantitative and qualitative studies. We have set out to develop the methodology (or procedures) for studying embodied variables in a multiperson setting, concentrating on interpersonal synchrony of sympathetic nervous system responses and movements, and we have strived to create methods for integrating information from different embodied modalities. In this narrative review, we share our experiences of the challenges and added value of studying embodied aspects in psychotherapy. The research field urgently needs an ongoing discussion of what researchers should take into consideration when studying the embodied aspects of interaction. We urge researchers to collaborate between research groups to jointly decide on the basic parameters of studies on the different embodied modalities of the research so that the individual researcher can become more aware of the impact the methodological choices have on their studies, results, and interpretations. We also see the use of embodied variables as having added value in the clinical work of psychotherapists, since it not only deepens our understanding about what is helpful in psychotherapy but will enable fine-tuning therapy processes to better suit clients who are verbally less fluent.

The Embodied Dimension of Imagination. Expanding the Loop Model

While the sociocultural embeddedness of imagination received the researchers' attention over the last years, less research was dedicated to the embodied dimension of imaginary processes. Nevertheless, any person engaged in imagination is always also a body. Moreover, there is no clear limit between imagination in thought, and in exploratory external actions. The aim of the present paper is to contribute to the theorization of the embodied dimension of imagination, by drawing on Zittoun, Cerchia and Gillespie's imaginary loop model. We discuss the notion of here-and-now reality entailed in this model with the help of Schuetz' notion of provinces of meaning and argue that this definition of the here-and-now allows to use the loop model for the analysis of activities in which the body movements occupy a central place. This argument is sustained by the example of an analysis of aikido practice. This analysis leads us to propose to complete the imaginary loop model with a forth dimension representing the degree of embodiment.

When Sex and Power Collide: An Argument for Critical Sexuality Studies

Attentive to the collision of sex and power, we add momentum to the ongoing development of the subfield of critical sexuality studies. We argue that this body of work is defined by its critical orientation toward the study of sexuality, along with a clear allegiance to critical modalities of thought, particularly feminist thought. Critical sexuality studies takes its cues from several other critical moments in related fields, including critical psychology, critical race theory, critical public health, and critical youth studies. Across these varied critical stances is a shared investment in examining how power and privilege operate, understanding the role of historical and epistemological violence in research, and generating new models and paradigms to guide empirical and theoretical research. With this guiding framework, we propose three central characteristics of critical sexuality studies: (a) conceptual analysis, with particular attention to how we define key terms and conceptually organize our research (e.g., attraction, sexually active, consent, agency, embodiment, sexual subjectivity); (b) attention to the material qualities of abject bodies, particularly bodies that are ignored, overlooked, or pushed out of bounds (e.g., viscous bodies, fat bodies, bodies in pain); and (c) heteronormativity and heterosexual privilege, particularly how assumptions about heterosexuality and heteronormativity circulate in sexuality research. Through these three critical practices, we argue that critical sexuality studies showcases how sex and power collide and recognizes (and tries to subvert) the various power imbalances that are deployed and replicated in sex research.

The complexities of 'otherness': reflections on embodiment of a young White British woman engaged in cross-generation research involving older people in Indonesia

If interviews are to be considered embodied experiences, than the potential influence of the embodied researcher must be explored. A focus on specific attributes such as age or ethnicity belies the complex and negotiated space that both researcher and participant inhabit simultaneously. Drawing on empirical research with stroke survivors in an ethnically mixed area of Indonesia, this paper highlights the importance of considering embodiment as a specific methodological concern. Three specific interactions are described and analysed, illustrating the active nature of the embodied researcher in narrative production and development. The intersectionality of embodied features is evident, alongside their fluctuating influence in time and place. These interactions draw attention to the need to consider the researcher within the interview process and the subsequent analysis and presentation of narrative findings. The paper concludes with a reinforcement of the importance of ongoing and meaningful reflexivity in research, a need to consider the researcher as the other participant, and specifically a call to engage with and present the dynamic nature of embodiment.

The intersubjective endeavor of psychopathology research: methodological reflections on a second-person perspective approach

Research in psychopathology may be considered as an intersubjective endeavor mainly concerned with understanding other minds. Thus, the way we conceive of social understanding influences how we do research in psychology in the first place. In this paper, we focus on psychopathology research as a paradigmatic case for this methodological issue, since the relation between the researcher and the object of study is characterized by a major component of “otherness.” We critically review different methodologies in psychopathology research, highlighting their relation to different social cognition theories (the third-, first-, and second-person approaches). Hence we outline the methodological implications arising from each theoretical stance. Firstly, we critically discuss the dominant paradigm in psychopathology research, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and on quantitative methodology, as an example of a third-person methodology. Secondly, we contrast this mainstream view with phenomenological psychopathology which—by rejecting the reductionist view exclusively focused on behavioral symptoms—takes consciousness as its main object of study: it therefore attempts to grasp patients’ first-person experience. But how can we speak about a first-person perspective in psychopathology if the problem at stake is the experience of the other? How is it possible to understand the experience from “within,” if the person who is having this experience is another? By addressing these issues, we critically explore the feasibility and usefulness of a second-person methodology in psychopathology research. Notwithstanding the importance of methodological pluralism, we argue that a second-person perspective should inform the epistemology and methods of research in psychopathology, as it recognizes the fundamental circular and intersubjective construction of knowledge.

From discourse to awareness: Rhetoric, mindfulness, and a psychology without foundations

This paper argues for a shift in the grounding of psychology from discourse to a “groundless ground” rooted in an ethically sensitive, within-person, and moment-to-moment embodied awareness. It offers a critique of discursive and rhetorical psychology commensurate with “affective turn” studies and develops an approach based in the practice of mindfulness meditation. This orientation enables the participant-researcher to come into experiential contact with a domain of pre-subjectivity not often addressed by discursive approaches. It also considers parallels between discursive constructionism and Buddhist mindfulness and shows how mindfulness is relationally and rhetorically organized as a social practice.

Experience and socio-cultural psychodynamics: Comment on Larrain and Haye’s “The discursive nature of inner speech”

Larrain and Haye propose that inner speech is a socially constituted phenomenon. I suggest they provide new directions for understanding inner speech but do not take the reader much beyond discursive psychology. In particular, the authors partially fall into the neglect of embodied experience (i.e., phenomenologically immediate experience) that is already a pitfall of discursive approaches. This commentary attempts to extend some of the ideas already embedded in Larrain and Haye’s article. It attempts to add an account of experience that includes lived tensions. Such an extension potentially takes readers beyond the boundaries of discursive psychology by enabling an approach to inner speech that addresses dynamic lived experiences of tension.

Re-reading Discourse and Social Psychology: transforming social psychology

This paper considers one theme in the contemporary legacy of Potter and Wetherell's (1987) Discourse and Social Psychology. It overviews the context that led to that book and considers a series of critical responses from both experimental and critical/qualitative social psychologists. It refutes criticisms and corrects confusions. Focusing on contemporary discursive psychology, it highlights (a) its rigorous use of records of actual behaviour; (b) its systematic focus on normative practices. In methodological terms, it (a) highlights limitations in the use of open-ended interviews; (b) considers the way naturalistic materials provide access to participants' own orientations and displays; (c) builds a distinctive logic of sampling and generalization. In theoretical terms, it (a) highlights the way discourse work can identify foundational psychological matters; (b) offers a novel approach to emotion and embodiment; (c) starts to build a matrix of dimensions which are central to the constructing and recognizing of different kinds of social actions. It now offers a fully formed alternative social psychology which coordinates theory and method and a growing body of empirical work.