Mind, mousse and moderation

Abstract

This chapter is about the ways that psychology appears in, and is used in, the process of research. More particularly we will be considering the way psychological terms, orientations, constructions, and displays are manifest, and practically drawn on, in market research focus groups. This study reflects a broader concern with what psychology is for in the different practices, everyday and institutional, intimate and public, that it appears. The interest here is to contribute to the literature on method as an interactional and discursive accomplishment and at the same time to contribute to the broader literature of discursive psychology. We will start with some comments on the general approach of discursive psychology and then consider research on the interactional accomplishment of research methods.