Browsing by Person "McKinlay, Andy"

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A discourse analytic study of ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) sufferers' experiences of interactions with doctors
(2010) Guise, J.; McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
The aetiology, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS are controversial. Doctors and sufferers often have opposing perspectives, leading to problematic clinical interactions. We use discourse analysis to explore ME/CFS sufferers' descriptions of interactions with medical professionals taken from an asynchronous, online sufferers' support group. Participants described themselves as experiencing limited medical care and attention but restricted criticisms to ?legitimate?, pragmatic or ancillary matters such as a clinicians' unwillingness to prescribe untested treatments. Participants also described themselves as active in seeking a resolution to their problems. They thus attended to possible negative attributions of being ?complaining? or unmotivated to seek recovery. 2010 SAGE Publications.
Alternative facts are not facts: Gaffe-announcements, the Trump administration and the media
(Sage, 2018-12-20) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
Gaffes are actions or events that are treated as problematic in subsequent news coverage through the production of what we term here ‘gaffe-announcements’. In an analysis of news media interviews conducted with members of the Trump administration during its first 100 days, we examine how interviewees respond to interviewer gaffe-announcements. Interviewees are seen to challenge the making of an announcement, to attempt to rework the ontological status of infelicitous talk, or to introduce the views of others who view the prior talk as felicitous. These responses lead in subsequent turns to reformulation of the gaffe-announcement, rejection of the response, or the views introduced being treated as irrelevant. These forms of response allow interviewees to avoid accepting that gaffes have occurred and allow the interviews to continue in line with normative expectations, but discussion continues on matters that are treated as negative and detrimental to the interests of the administration.
British Muslims’ discourse of belonging and conflict
(Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, 2019) Anjum, Saliha; McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
According to the 2011 UK Census, Muslims form the second largest religious community in Britain. The relationship of this community to British society more generally has come under much scrutiny. The current study focused on British Muslim’s constructions of belonging and conflict towards Britain. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using discourse analysis. Findings suggested that for these participants second generation Muslims were more likely to construct themselves as belonging to Britain than first-generation Muslims, who show more attachments to their own culture and religion. Both generations produced rationalizations in order to negotiate their sense of belonging to British society and /or other culture. Moreover, their discourse was constructed in such a way that it fulfilled the function of protecting both generations from issues of accountability in social interactions.
Committed to (un)equal opportunities?: 'New ageism' and the older worker.
(British Psychological Society, 2003) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Widdicombe, Sue
In recent years the principle of equality of opportunity in employment has been widely promoted as a means of addressing the marginalization of various groups of workers, including older workers. Evidence suggests, however, that equal opportunities have not improved prospects for older workers. The present study employs discourse analysis to examine a variety of accounts of those responsible for employment within a number of organizations. Analysis shows that these accounts are rhetorically oriented towards potential attributions of age discrimination. As evidence of a non-discriminatory stance, participants attend to possible shortcomings in written policies by making explicit their organizations' equal opportunity practices. In describing their workforces as comprising predominantly younger employees, however, they make only implicit reference to practices involving older workers. When they account for the apparent age imbalances in their workforces, they attribute these imbalances to factors outwith their control so that the organization's practices become completely 'invisible'. The contrast between this 'invisibility' and explicit claims to be committed to equal opportunities allows participants to position themselves as non-discriminating employers and at the same time justifies the marginalization of older workers.
Design issues for socially intelligent user-interfaces: a discourse analysis of a data-to-text system for summarizing clinical data
(Schattauer, 2010) McKinlay, Andy; McVittie, Chris; Reiter, E.; Freer, Y.; Sykes, C.; Logie, R.
Discourse Analysis and Discursive Psychology
(APA, 2023-07) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Cooper, Harris
This chapter provides an introduction to discourse analysis (DA) and how its focus on the study of language as topic in its own right differs from the ways in which other methods approach qualitative data. We examine how this focus has been taken up specifically in relation to psychological issues and concerns, leading to the development of discursive psychology (DP). In doing so, we trace the origins of DP in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, and show how these have led to the key features of current DP, in its focus on the action orientation of discourse, discourse as construction, and the situatedness of discourse in use. The chapter outlines the various steps involved in conducting DP research. We discuss elements of research design and selection of data for DP studies, outlining debates between different authors as to the use of naturally-occurring data against reliance on data generated by the researcher for research purposes. This is followed by discussion of how to conduct analysis, how to recognize people’s use of discursive devices and discursive forms, and the organization of talk. The chapter includes examples that illustrate the points being covered and highlight the relevance of DP for understanding the psychological issues in play. We conclude by discussing ways of evaluating DP research and outlining current debates.
‘A Golly was simply a toy. End of.’: Inoculation, attention deflection, and attempted puzzle-resolution in contesting racism in online discussions
(Wiley, 2019-11-06) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Munro, Rachel
In producing arguments against minority groups that are designed to avoid accusations of prejudice, speakers routinely deploy two discursive strategies. One strategy of ‘inoculation’ seeks to ward off such accusations, while the other strategy of ‘attention deflection’ directs attention away from the potential target group. Where despite use of one or both strategies accusations arise, the result is a puzzle that needs to be resolved through explanation. Here, in a discourse analysis of online discussions as to whether ‘blacking up’ is to count as racism, we see contributors contest (1) whether absence of intention to offend inoculates individuals from accountability for potentially racist actions, (2) whether ‘blacking up’ depicts toys/characters rather than people, and (3) whether attempted explanations of accusations of racism work to resolve the apparent puzzle that has arisen. Contributors do not reach any consensus. These findings point to the difficulties in attempting to challenge potential racism.
He's a cracking wee geezer from Pakistan': Lay accounts of refugee integration failure and success in Scotland
(OUP, 2014-03-21) Kirkwood, Steve; McKinlay, Andy; McVittie, Chris
Previous research on the integration of asylum seekers and refugees has aimed to develop conceptual frameworks for understanding integration or to measure the extent to which people are integrated. However, this research tends to pay insufficient attention to the rhetorical functions of integration discourse. The current study addresses this gap through a discursive analysis of 'lay' accounts of asylum seeker and refugee integration in Glasgow, Scotland. The analysis highlights that accounts of integration 'failure' may support 'two-way' conceptions of integration while still blaming asylum seekers for any lack of integration. Furthermore, accounts of integration 'success' may reinforce assimilationist policies or otherwise function to reinforce the view that adult asylum seekers generally do not integrate. The analysis highlights the importance of attending to the rhetorical functions of integration discourse in order to understand how particular policies and practices are supported or criticised at the community level at which integration takes place.
Help-seeking in context: masculine and feminine identities in relation to men's health issues
(2010) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
Much research into men's health issues argues that men are reluctant to seek help and attributes this to men's enactment of hegemonic masculinity. This study explored how female partners negotiate men's health and consequences for their own identities. Discourse analysis of interview data collected from female partners (n=16) shows that participants critiqued hegemonic masculinity as relating to men generally and constructed different identities for their own partners. In all cases however, participants identified women as overseers of men's health. These findings demonstrate the need to examine identity consequences for all those concerned in negotiating men's health issues.
How expert psychiatrists formulate criticisms of lay descriptions of psychiatry in front of a lay audience
(Walter de Gruyter, 2011-09) McKinlay, Andy; McVittie, Chris; Cowan, Sue
How do experts make their own expertise relevant in offering criticisms of non-experts when what they say is, itself, addressed to a radio audience of non-experts? Discourse analysis of 13 interviews between a professional journalist and practicing psychiatrists from the United Kingdom and the United States examined how interviewees challenged others' versions of psychiatric expertise. Analysis focused on how these descriptions were rhetorically designed to address the potential expectations and lack of expertise of a lay audience. Interviewees' descriptions establish why lay constructions of psychiatry are at fault while attending to the concern that they may be heard as criticizing a lay audience. The data reveal that interviewees deployed forms of membership categorization that attended to this potential interactional difficulty. The interviewees either categorized others in a way that potentially excluded audience members as targets of criticism or aligned themselves with those being criticized. 2011 Walter de Gruyter.
“I don't mean extradimensional in a woo-woo sense”: Doing non-explanation in discussions of unidentified aerial phenomena
(Elsevier, 2022-11-29) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
In everyday talk, speakers commonly provide explanations that “make plain” or “make intelligible” prior talk. Little work, however, has examined talk in which speakers offer no explanation for what is being described. We consider talk about “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAPs) from news media interviews. Interviewees distanced themselves from accountability for explaining UAPs or proposed multiple candidate explanations. Interviewers tabled their own potential explanations. Participants’ talk did not “make plain” or “make intelligible” phenomena being discussed. These findings show that explanations are a participants’ concern. These interactions allow discussion of topics of broad public interest, thereby “doing news”.
If they have a girlfriend, they have five girlfriends': Accountability and sexism in volunteer workers' talk about HIV/AIDS in a South African health setting
(Sage, 2016-04-19) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Ranjbar, Vania
Significant challenges remain in tackling the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. Effective action requires both appropriate policy at a global level and informed practice on the local level. Here we report how workers in a project in Johannesburg, South Africa make sense of HIV transmission. Discourse analysis of data from interviews with 63 participants shows that project workers routinely attribute transmission to men's sexual relationships with multiple female partners. This explanation is so pervasive that it renders invisible other routes to transmission. Absence of consideration of other routes to infection potentially restricts front-line practice, so hindering local attempts to tackle HIV/AIDS.
Imaging the future: Does a qualitative analysis add to the picture?
(2010) McKinlay, Andy; McVittie, Chris; Della Sala, Sergio
Various studies report that patients with dense amnesia experience difficulties in simulating future events. It is argued that this resembles an inability to remember past episodes in that both indicate a deficit in mental scene construction. Such findings, however, rely upon quantitative content-based analyses of participants' verbal reports. Here, samples of verbal reports produced by participants with hippocampal lesions are subjected to a qualitative, discourse analysis of how participants and researchers negotiated the status of these reports. This shows that failure in mental scene construction can be viewed as an interactional achievement rather than the mere reporting of mental events. A multidisciplinary perspective which combines qualitative analysis with other forms of analytic technique may explain subtle differences between participants with hippocampal lesions and control participants. 2010 The British Psychological Society.
It's not quite cricket: Muslim immigrants' accounts of integration into UK society
(Wiley, 2017-06-20) Anjum, Saliha; McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy
Recent events demonstrate the need for greater understanding of intercultural relations between Muslim minorities and majority cultures in host societies. We examine British Muslims' descriptions of their experiences of acculturation. Data from interviews with first generation Muslims were analysed using discourse analysis. Participants' descriptions reflect the acculturation possibilities made available in local interactional contexts. Where invited to choose between assimilation and separation, participants provide 'troubles-telling' accounts that detail the difficulties involved. In contexts involving integration, participants account for their own efforts. By contrast, contexts that allow participants to introduce acculturation in their own terms lead to descriptions of acculturation success. Thus, participants' accounts of relations with British culture reflect not simply orientations towards acculturation but rather how acculturation is framed and negotiated in local contexts: the success or failure of intercultural relations reflects as much how the issues are presented as they do immigrants' acceptance or non-acceptance of British culture.
"Just an excuse people are just using these days": Attending to and managing interactional concerns in talk on exclusion of immigrants
(Sage, 2017-04-28) Sambaraju, Rahul; McVittie, Chris; Goodall, Karen; McKinlay, Andy
In line with discursive work on the role of constructions of minority groups in social exclusion, we offer an examination of talk on immigrants and its links with employment of British residents, in the UK Parliament and interview talk with British residents looking for work, in the context of a financial crisis (2007-09). Discursive analysis of data shows that parliamentarians treat immigration as problematic for British residents' employment, whereas interviewees' responses reject or minimally accept this, while displaying sensitivity to the status of this as a prevalent complaint about immigration. Parliamentarians do so to warrant and challenge or manage challenges to Government's policies, whereas interviewees do so to manage being seen as discriminatory and work-shy. These findings show that constructions of immigration and its links with employment in the context of the financial crisis, and, their use in warrants for exclusion are offered in ways to attend to the situated institutional and interactional relevancies in play for interlocutors.
Locals, incomers and intra-national migration: Place-identities and a Scottish island.
(British Psychological Society, 2007) McKinlay, Andy; McVittie, Chris
In a trans-national context, immigrants are often described as essentially different from existing residents. However these descriptions of group differences are occasioned constructions of immigrants, and talk about nations provides frameworks of history and space within which immigration is understood. Claimed group differences and the proposed commonality of nation together present a challenging context for immigrants to negotiate identities and to gain acceptance. Drawing on the concept of place-identity, we examined here whether similar issues arise in intra-national migration to a remote Scottish island. We conducted semi-structured interviews with individuals who had lived on the island for periods ranging from 14 months to 20 years. The interviewees described island residents as comprising different groups, in terms such as residence, motivation, place of birth, and connections to other locations. The interviewees negotiated place-identities that compared favourably with others with more transitory connections but unfavourably with residents of longer-standing. Findings show that spatial connections can be used to account for varying degrees of social status in such locations. But some issues relevant to trans-national immigration still arise in intra-national migration, even in the absence of racial, ethnic, religious, or language differences. In short, `incomers' cannot readily do `being local'.
Online discussions of racism following 2015 Gala Day parade
(2018-09-30) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Munro, Rachel
Dataset pertains to a discourse analytic study of online discussions of possible racism in response to events at a local Gala Day parade in July 2015. The dataset comprises 103 postings to an online discussion thread that ran in July / August 2015.
Organizational knowledge and discourse of diversity in employment
(2008) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Widdicombe, S.
Purpose - Evidence suggests that the notion of diversity in employment has failed to meet expectations of increased inclusion and organizational competitiveness in an ever-changing and globalizing economic context. This paper aims to consider the use of language of diversity in an organizational context. Design/methodology/approach - Using discourse analysis, the paper examines data obtained from semi-structured interviews conducted with human resources managers and personnel managers. Participants' descriptions of diversity in relation to one particular group of (potential) employees, namely older jobseekers, are analysed for their function and effects in relation to organizational knowledge and practices. Findings - Diversity in employment provides organizational managers with a resource that can more usefully be viewed as linguistic than as knowledge based. Its use offers organizations a means of accounting for existing practices and should not be taken to signal commitment to organizational change. Originality/value - Work that has treated discourse of diversity as evidence of efforts to promote inclusion and competitiveness has failed to consider fully the effects of language use. A focus on language as action in its own right shows how diversity in employment as used accomplished outcomes that are totally divergent from the usually assumed benefits of diversity. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Passive and active non-employment: Age, employment and the identities of older non-working people
(2008-08) McVittie, Chris; McKinlay, Andy; Widdicombe, S.
The declining participation of older people in the workforce has become a matter of concern in many parts of the world, including the European Union. Steps however taken to date to increase the participation of older people have proceeded on the basis of a limited understanding of the identities of these individuals and the consequences for employment. We report findings from a discourse analytic study of the understandings of 15 older non-employed individuals. Participants negotiated two different forms of identity, either drawing upon age discrimination or in minimising the relevance of employment to them. Both forms of identity orient to employment as a moral issue but each has different effects for the importance of finding employment and for the actions that are appropriate to the individual. Future efforts to promote greater participation of older people in the workforce need to acknowledge the various identities available to older non-employed people. 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Resisting having learning disabilities by managing relative abilities
(Blackwell Publishing, 2008) McVittie, Chris; Goodall, Karen; McKinlay, Andy
- People who attended a community centre for people with learning disabilities talked to researchers about the centre, their school and personal experiences. - The researchers were interested in what the people in the study said about learning disabili