Speaking of the self and understanding physical activity participation: what discursive psychology can tell us about an old problem

Abstract

Since McGannon and Mauws' article on discursive psychology and adherence to physical activity, papers have extended the dialogue towards developing associated qualitative research methods to understand sport and exercise. The present article furthers this dialogue in the context of understanding the self and women's physical activity participation using discursive psychology and discourse analysis. An example of discursive psychology ‘in use’ was employed to theorise women's physical self (i.e. who they are) and physical activity behaviour as a collection of conversations within broader discourse(s). The power relations perpetuated by a micro‐talk within discourses also contributed towards theorising a discursive psychological view of the self and physical activity participation. The implications of a discursive psychological view of the self combined with discourse analysis for understanding women's physical participation are discussed within the context of this example.

Keywords:

• discourse
• psychology
• physical activity
• self

Notes

1. Discursive psychological work grounded in ethnomethodology, conversation analytic princples and/or the approach advanced by Edwards and Potter (1992) tends to use a transcription system of signs, symbols and common conventions developed by Jefferson (2004). This style of transcription is in line with the specific goals of discursive psychological work grounded in these analytic traditions: to (re)present the features of talk in interaction treated as relevant by participants (e.g. emphasis, pause, overlap, length, intonation) and/or to look at interactional and rhetorical usage of psychological terms. A large body of research in conversation analysis and discourse analysis supports these detailed and demanding transcription techniques to capture what is fundamental to the ‘sense of talk’ for the participants. Given that our research was not grounded in the foregoing versions of discursive psychology and discourse analysis, we did not use Jefferson's (2004) transcription system to transcribe, analyse and ultimately (re)present data within the current paper.

2. While discourse analysts do not tend to use computer software, given the large corpus of data associated with the current project, we chose to use a software package for pragmatic reasons. Despite using a software package to assist with data management and storage, we did not take lightly the possibility of missing the performative nature of talk and the multiple meanings of words, concepts and phrases used by Joan. To avoid this, we strove to apply the discourse analytic principles outlined in a conscious and reflexive manner in line with the steps outlined in our research methodology. We acknowledge that not all researchers would employ computer software packages such as Atlas.ti in light of their association with other forms of analysis (e.g. grounded theory).