Please note the following call for contributions. Get in touch with Paula if
you're interested.
***Call for contributions***
Visual Psychologies: Using and interpreting images in qualitative
research
Contact: Dr. Paula Reavey, Psychology Department, Faculty of
Arts and Human Sciences, London South Bank University, 103 Borough
Road, London, SE1 0AA. Email: [log in to unmask]
The use of the visual image in social research has become increasingly
popular in disciplines such as human geography, social anthropology
and sociology where the 'aesthetic' is acknowledged for the
fundamental part it plays in speaking to 'who we are' - our identities
and the spaces we inhabit (Banks, 2001; Emmison and Smith, 2000; Pink,
2001). This is because some researchers have begun to discuss how
'multi-modal' (visual, spatial and textual) forms of communication are
better able to provide access to space (visual), as well as time
(words). This relates both to the use of the visual in 'real-time
space' by examining how people use the visual in 'live' social
interactions, or in the context of 'finished and finite' images that
can be used as an anchor for present discussions (Iedema, 2003: 30).
There is also a greater acknowledgement of the role of visual media in
social and psychological activities, from knowledge consumption,
experiences of health and illness (Radley & Taylor, 2003a & b;
Mitchell et al, 2005; Frith & Harcourt, in press;) , embodiment (Burr,
2000; Nightingale and Cromby, 2000; Gillies, Harden, Johnson, Reavey,
Strange & Willig, 2005) sexual activity (Jones, 2005), memory (Radley
& Taylor, 2003; Middleton & Brown, 2005) and gender identity (Gleeson
& Frith, 2004). Such projects form part of a wider aim to further
understandings of experience and subjectivity through shifting modes
of social interaction and through an acknowledgement that individuals
do not only speak, but view their world in material space (Brown,
2001).
Critics of purely discursive approaches have highlighted the
importance of 'visual languages' in stitching together the
socio-cultural fabric of social-psychological experiences and embodied
ways of being (Banks, 2001; Reavey & Johnson, 2008). An example of
this is the significance of aesthetic dress in the creation and
maintenance of gendered bodies and identities. Though a person may be
able to verbalise bodily experiences and subsequently conjure a
'representation', identification with a (body) image, or presenting
oneself through one's 'image', can be a more powerful way of capturing
emotions which may be more removed from verbal articulation. This is
not to say that 'emotions' or 'embodiment' are in any way separate
from socially constructed language systems or discourse, but the way
in which we live feelings and experiences are not always available, or
confined to, verbal description. Furthermore, some writers have
pointed out that new communication technologies such as the web, where
people can communicate using photos, as well as web cams, increasingly
lead to a shift in modes of social interaction and power relations
(Jones, 2005). The visual, in this context, has changed the ways in
which people not only interact, but also alters the whole dynamic and
sequence of social actions, including how individuals exercise control
over the presentation of them-selves (Iedema, 2003).
The proposed book seeks to provide further discussion and debate about
the use and interpretation of any visual media in psychology,
including paintings, photographs, graphic design, models and film.
Chapters can be either theoretical or empirical. Prospective authors
are invited to contact the editor at the earliest possible opportunity
to discuss potential submissions. The closing date for chapter
abstracts (between 200-250 words) is 31st November and (provisionally)
for completed chapters 31st May 2008 (electronic submission
preferred).
References
Banks, M. (2001) Visual methods in social research. London: Sage.
Barthes, R. (1973) Mythologies. Fontana: Fontana Press.
Barthes, R. (1995) Image-music-text. London: Vintage Press.
Bolton, A, Pole, C, & Mizen, P. (2001) Picture this: researching child
workers, Sociology, 35: 501-18.
Brown, S. D. (2001) Psychology and the art of living. Theory &
Psychology, 11: 171-192.
Emmison, M. & Smith, P. (2000) Researching the visual: images,
objects, contexts and interactions in social and cultural inquiry.
London: Sage.
Gillies, V., Harden, A., Johnson, K., Reavey, P., Strange, V. &
Willig, C. (2005) Painting pictures of embodied experience: the use of
non-verbal data production for the study of embodiment. Qualitative
Research in Psychology: Special Issue on Visual Methodologies, 2:
199-212.
Iedema, R. (2003) Multimodality, resemiotization: extending the
analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual
communication, 2: 29-57.
Jones, R.H. (2005) 'You show me yours and I'll show you mine': the
negotiation of shifts from textual to visual modes in
computer-mediated interaction among gay men. Visual communication, 4:
69-92.
Lynn, N. & Lea, S. J. (2005) Through the looking glass: considering
the challenges visual methodologies raise for qualitative research.
Qualitative Research in Psychology: Special Issue on Visual
Methodologies, 2: 213-225.
Lynn, N. & Lea, S. J. (2005b) Graffiti and the asylum seeker: text,
context and social comment. Visual Communication, 4: 39-63.
Middleton, D. & Brown, S.D. (2005) The social psychology of
experience: studies in remembering and forgetting. London: Sage.
Mitchell, C., Delange, N., Molestane, R., Stuart, J. & Buthelezi, T.
(2005) Giving a face to HIV and AIDS: on the uses of photo-voice by
teachers and community health care workers working with youth in rural
South Africa. Qualitative Research in Psychology: Special Issue on
Visual Methodologies, 2: 257-270.
Moscovici, S. (1984) The phenomenon of social representations. In
Farr, R.M. and Moscovici, S. (eds.) Social Representations, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Moscovici, S. (1994) Social Representations and pragmatic
communication, Social Science Information, Vol. 33:163-177.
Nightingale, D. & Cromby, J. (eds) (2000) Social constructionist
psychology: a critical analysis of theory and practice. Buckingham:
Open University Press.
Parker, I. and the Bolton Discourse Network (1999) Critical textwork:
an introduction to varieties of discourse and analysis. Buckingham:
Open University Press.
Penn, G. (2000) Semiotic analysis of still images. In Bauer, M. W. &
Gaskell, G. (eds.)
Qualitative researching with text, image and sound. London: Sage.
Pink, S. (2001) Doing visual ethnography. London: Sage.
Radley, A., Hodgetts, D. & Cullen, A. (2005) Visualising homelessness:
a study in photography and estrangement.. Journal of Community and
Applied Social Psychology, 15: 273-295.
Radley, A. & Taylor, D. (2003a) Images of recovery: a
photo-elicitation study on the hospital ward. Qualitative Health
Research, 13, 77-99.
Radley, A. & Taylor, D. (2003b) Remembering one's stay in hospital: a
study in photography, recovery and forgetting. Health: An
Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Health, Illness and
Medicine, 7: 129-59.
Reavey, P. & Johnson, K. (2008) Visual approaches: Using and
interpreting images in qualitative research, in C. Willig & W.
Stainton Rogers (eds) The Sage Handbook of qualitative research
methods. London: Sage.
Sparrman, A. (2005) Video recording as interaction: participant
observation of children's everyday life. Qualitative Research in
Psychology: Special Issue on Visual Methodologies, 2: 241-245.
Temple, M. & McVittie, C. (2005) Ethical and practical issues in using
visual methodologies: the legacy of research-originating visual
products. Qualitative Research in Psychology: Special Issue on Visual
Methodologies, 2: 227-239.
Walkerdine, V., Lucey, H. & Melody, J. (2001) Growing up girl:
psychosocial explorations of gender and class. Hampshire: Palgrave.
Wang, C., Burris, M. A. and Ping, Z. Y. (1996) Chinese village women
as visual anthropologists: a participatory approach to reaching
policymakers. Social Science and Medicine, 42 (10): 1391-1400.
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