Interpretative repertoires in the ‘educating children about violence against women’ debate

The sociological concept of interpretative repertoires (Gilbert & Mulkay, 1984) was imported into social psychology by Potter and Wetherell (1987) to understand the ‘register of terms and metaphors drawn upon to characterize and evaluate actions and events’ (1987:138). That is, when people think and talk they tend to borrow already available linguistic resources such as quotations, metaphors and figures of speech, so that they can achieve a shared social understanding. Within this communication process, coherent common sense patterns or interpretative repertoires can be seen. We can see two of these in the debate about whether children should be taught about violence against women. Reader’s responses (Extracts 1-4 below) to the Daily Mail’s article ‘Pupils aged 11 debate rape, pornography and prostitution’ provides two quite distinct interpretative repertoires about children in common circulation.

Extract 1
I would be appalled if my thirteen year old daughter was given stuff like this in school, let alone an eleven year old. I’m still trying to let her have her innocent childhood – there’s plenty of time to learn about stuff like this later.
- Anne, Wimborne, Dorset, 24/5/2010 12:32

Extract 2
Well I have an innocent 11 year old who really doesn’t need to read stuff like this! We discuss things together and when she asks I’m honest – she certainly doesn’t need it rammed down her throat before she’s ready! To be brutally honest, why on earth does she need to know about genital mutilation at 11?????????
- Welsh Woman, Wales, 24/5/2010 9:53

Extract 3
I have a 14 year old daughter and the things she tells me about other girls exploits makes me wish there was more education about it. They see rape scenes on TV, they see sexualised music videos and they can see hardcore porn on the web…. we need to counter balance this!
- Becki, High Wycombe, 24/5/2010 11:05

Extract 4
I hate to say this but it’s true, girls at 11 are indeed already sexualised. As a 17 year old, I can remember hearing in Year 7 at the age of 11 that a few of girls had already lost their virginity and a couple actually openly admitted it.
So an article like this comes as no surprise to me. Sad but true.
- Annie Kalmes, Essex, 24/5/2010 11:52

The first interpretative repertoire can be seen in Extracts 1-2, in which children are portrayed as ‘innocent’ and unknowing of sexual matters ‘there’s plenty of time to learn about stuff like this’. By comparison, the second interpretative repertoire (Extracts 3-4) is richer and more complex. It typically includes details of how children are knowing of sexual material ‘They see rape scenes on TV, they see sexualised music videos and they can see hardcore porn on the web’ and already sexually active ‘I can remember hearing in Year 7 at the age of 11 that a few of girls had already lost their virginity and a couple actually openly admitted it’. What is also evident is that these two repertoires are drawn upon in a number of ways including stating what children are ‘really’ like and what others have said. Although throughout the 40 comments originally posted there was a variety of perspectives, there is a high degree of consistency in terms of how children were constructed. Therefore their importance for social psychology is in providing us with an understanding of the limitations that exist for the construction of self and other.

Pupils aged 11 debate rape, pornography and prostitution

Reader’s comments

Rape Crisis

Phenomenology and Critical Social Psychology: Directions and Debates in Theory and Research

Discourse Analysis and interpretive repertoires

Mind reading gone awry

There are times when individuals are well synchronized with each other that they can finish each other’s sentences. These interactions seem almost magical in that people understand how each other feels about a topic or event. There are instances however when it is difficult to understand where the miscommunication occurred. How a simple exchange of words could go so wrong is anyone’s guess, but the fact that the individuals made up their mind about the event or another individual can be strikingly clear.

Take the example that the media popularized between an English politician and a political constituent. After a few words relating to political concerns were exchanged, the politician went on his way. Upon entering the vehicle, presumably a safe place to express his personal opinion with a microphone still on, the politician uttered how he perceived his constituent (refer to May 1^st post).

One can only imagine how the politician made his conclusion about the interaction. Epley (2008) suggests that misinterpretations are likely to occur when individuals are under high cognitive load, where schemas seem to be the default interpretation of events. Further, Eyal and Epley (2010) suggests that when two strangers interact they seem to focus on different parts of the context (i.e. self or other). In the context of the political concern the constituent focused on the perceived problem, while the politician focused on his constituent. A solution to misunderstandings is to take part in perspective taking and to take more time to reduce the likelihood of biased interpretation (Epley, 2008).

Eyal & Epley (2010). How to Seem Telepathic – Enabling Mind Reading by Matching Construal.

Epley, N. (2008). Solving the (real) other minds problem.

“Me a bigot? No way, I hate them!”

See more: Brown overheard calling voter ‘bigoted’

The evolution of language

Doctor John Dolittle satisfied a nagging curiosity for young readers: What are animals saying? Even scientists can appreciate the premise behind Hugh Lofting’s children books, though not many likely seek the secret language of squid. For social psychologists, the evolution of language has been a fascination at least since the pragmatists.

The New York Times reports efforts to decipher early traces of language development among non-human primates. The review comes over 30 years after a Times reporter allegedly used sign language to communicate with a chimpanzee. More recently, scientists differentiated alarm calls by vervet monkeys, each one indicating a specific predator. Others suggested that baboons understand social hierarchy based on the order of sounds among their peers. And Campbell’s monkeys seem to add suffixes to alarm calls to signify whether a threat has been directly or indirectly observed.

Given that many non-human primates are physically able to generate human language sounds, the findings beg the question: How do we develop language while our relatives fail? Or in the words of the article author, Nicholas Wade, “What is it that has kept all other primates locked in the prison of their own thoughts?”

George Herbert Mead suggested that language development stems from a child’s ability, through early role-playing games, to take on the role of the other. The development of the self relates to the ability to recognize how others’ actions affect one’s own. Contrary to Wade’s suggestion that non-human primates simply cannot communicate their thoughts, Mead suggests that communication is at the root of, and in some sense precedes, human thought.

While the presence of primitive communication does not necessarily mean that Campbell’s monkeys are able to think like humans, we can still learn about language development by observing, following Ludwig Wittgenstein, how the words are used.

Virtual Conference Report: Day Two (20 Oct, 2009)

by paulabowles

The second day of the conference has been filled with three more interesting and innovative papers. David Crystal’s (University of Bangor) keynote lecture entitled ‘Language Death: A Problem for All’ highlights the troubling statistics that ‘96% of the world’s languages are spoken by just 4% of the people’. Given the interdisciplinary nature, and the methodology of this virtual conference, Crystal’s paper draws attention to the use of language as a way to ‘break down barriers’.

The two other papers presented today relate to disability, albeit with very different approaches. The first was given by Wendy Turner (Augusta State University) and is entitled: ‘Human Rights, Royal Rights and the Mentally Disabled in Late Medieval England.’ In her paper Turner suggests that modern preconceptions of medieval disability are not generally supported by the empirical evidence. The second paper ‘The Status of the Learning Disabled in Philosophy of Mind and Disability Studies’ by Maeve M. O’Donovan (College of Notre Dame of Maryland), approaches the subject of learning disability through personal and academic experience and research.

As well, as the ongoing ‘battle of the bands’ competition – plenty of time still to vote! – today also saw the first ‘winning comment’ prize awarded to Rebecca Wheeler.

Virtual Conference Report: Day One (19 Oct, 2009)

by Paula Bowles

Welcome to the first day of the 2009 Compass Interdisciplinary Virtual Conference. Regenia Gagnier (University of Exeter) opened the conference by asking: ‘Why Interdisciplinarity?’ As part of her introductory remarks, Professor Gagnier discusses the definitions of Interdisciplinarity, as well as outlining some of the benefits of interdisciplinary research and praxis.

Roger Griffin’s (Oxford Brookes University) keynote paper: ‘The Rainbow Bridge’: Reflections on Interdisciplinarity in the Cybernetic Age’ highlights the opportunities offered by the novel concept of a virtual conference. By reflecting on his own research into fascism, Griffin recognises the need to make cross-disciplinary connections, or as he describes it academics operating ‘flexibly as both splitters and lumpers, according to the situation’.

Two other conference papers have been presented today. The first ‘Communicating about Communication – Multidisciplinary Approaches to Educating Educators about Language Variation’ by Anne H. Charity Hudley (The College of William and Mary) and Christine Mallinson (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and the second
‘Language and Communication in the Spanish Conquest of America’ by Daniel Wasserman Soler(University of Virginia).

Finally, Professor of Human Geography, Mike Bradshaw (University of Leicester) has contributed a Publishing Workshop entitled ‘Why Write a Review Paper? And how to do it!’. As well as all of these academic gems, conference delegates have also taken the opportunity to meet the speakers in Second Life and cast their votes in the ‘Battle of the Bands’.

Being a Good Girl Is Bad?

Bing a good girl is bad? If you think that a good girl should be dependent, quiet, obedient, and shy, then Rachel Simmons, the author of the best sellers Odd Girl Out and The Curse of the Good Girl, might tell you:  No! Simmons talked with TIME that girls were taught early on to suppress their emotions and not live as loudly as they might be inclined to, and her new book aims to show how to raise girls who aren’t afraid to be assertive and even a little less than perfect.

The good-girl identity is associated with traditional femininity gender role which refers to the attitudes and behaviors that class a woman’s stereotypical identity. Girls internalized their gender role during the process of socialization. In western culture, femininity has been associated with traits such as dependence, intuition, submissiveness, and emotionality whereas masculinity has been associated with traits such as independence, rationality, competitiveness, and objectivity. Thus,  a good girl used to be expected to act elegantly and restrainedly, and repress their strong emotions and feelings.

However, the content of socially accepted gender roles changes over time, and roles that may have not been acceptable at an earlier point in one’s life may become socially desirable at a later point. A recent meta-analysis of changes in masculine and feminine traits among college student found that since 1973 women have increasingly reported stereotyped masculine personality traits for themselves (Twenge, 1997). At the same time, some researches shows that women who were gender role typed as stereotypically masculine or androgynous would exhibit significantly greater levels of psychological well-being than women who were typed as stereotypically feminine or undifferentiated. It seems likely that being “good” is no longer the only or preferred option for girls.

When Being a Good Girl Is Bad (TIME)

 

Kendra J. Saunders, K.J., & Kashubeck-West, S. (2006). The relations among feminist identity development, gender-role orientation, and psychological well-being in women.

 

Tang, T.N., & Tang, C. (2003). Gender role internalization, multiple roles, and Chinese women’s mental health.