Conversation Analytic Research at Plymouth (CARP)

Examining the organisation of social interaction
alumni

Background

CARP has been running for many years. It brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds with an interest in conversation analysis. Currently the group has lecturers, research staff, postgraduate and undergraduate participants within the fields of social psychology, clinical psychology, medicine, psychotherapy, speech and language therapy and health psychology. We welcome participants with a background in these or other fields within the human sciences and who wish to develop their understanding of conversation analysis.

Conversation analysis is an approach which closely examines the organisation of social interaction. Its data is based on recordings and transcriptions of naturalistic interactions. These interactions can be drawn from everyday informal conversations as well as the more formalised interactions that occur within societal institutions. Informal conversations provide the baseline for understanding the practices that ordinary folk use and orient to in managing and progressing everyday social interaction. These conversational practices can then be examined for how they are shaped and adapted to institutional interactions.

As such our group currently examines interactions within multidisciplinary teams in the health and social care sector, problem solving meetings which occur in the lower courts of law, consultations between student doctors and patients as well as how the conversation partners of those with illnesses which affect speech (for example, Parkinson’s disease) manage everyday conversations.

Our group is highly collaborative and supportive. The typical way in which we run our group meetings is as data sessions. A member of the group will be identified to lead a session; they will bring some extracts of recorded talk from their research project along with transcriptions of these extracts which use Jeffersonian transcription conventions. These extracts will be played and other members of the group then discuss noteworthy features of the extracts with a particular focus on how the participants are managing the interaction to bring off their personal or institutional projects.

Members

  • Tim Auburn, Associate Professor in Social Psychology
  • Cordet Smart, Lecturer in Clinical Psychology
  • Lynsey Williams, Research Fellow
  • Maddie Tremblett, Psychology Teaching and Research Associate
  • Nancy Froomberg, Research Assistant
  • Nneamaka Ekebuisi, Trainee Clinical Psychologist
  • Emma Newton, Trainee Clinical Psychologist

  • Holly Reed, final year psychology undergraduate
  • Miranda Heath, final year psychology undergraduate
  • Bianka Kolevska, final year psychology undergraduate
  • Rebecca Baines, Faculty of Health
  • Christianne Pollock, CA Transcription Services
  • Melissa Sidebotham, Psychotherapist, Cornwall
  • Rebecca Barnes, University of Bristol
  • Sarah Griffiths, Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy, Plymouth Marjon University

Publications

Annison, J., Auburn, T., Gilling, D. and Hanley Santos, G. (2018) The Ambiguity of Therapeutic Justice and Women Offenders in England and Wales. In P. Ugwudike, P. Raynor and J. Annison (Eds.) Evidence-Based Skills in Criminal Justice: International Research on Supporting Rehabilitation and Desistance. Bristol, UK: Policy Press

Auburn, T. (2010) Cognitive distortions as social practices: an examination of cognitive distortions in sex offender treatment from a discursive psychology perspective. Psychology, Crime and Law, 16, 103-123

Auburn, T. and Pollock, C. (2013) Laughter and Competence: Children with Severe Autism using Laughter to Joke and Tease. In Glenn, P. & Holt, E. (eds.) Studies of Laughter in Interaction. London: Bloomsbury (135-160)

Auburn, T., Hay, W. & Wilkinson, T. (2011) The Place of an Advice Service in a Magistrates’ Court. The Probation Journal, 58 (2), 112-125

Auburn, T., Smart, C., Hanley Santos, G., Annison, J. and Gilling, D. (2016) Mental health and problem solving in an English Magistrates’ court. In O’Reilly, M. & Lester, J. (eds.) Adult Mental Health Handbook: Discourse and Conversation Studies. Basingtoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan

Blanchard, G., Auburn, T. & Dallos, R. (2015) Playing the blame game: Accounting and the construction of disruptive behaviour in family interviews. Human Systems, 26, 44-65

Bryne, J., Smart, C. and Watson, G. (2017). How Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Make Sense of the Perinatal Period Through Their Narratives. Journal of Childhood Sexual Abuse. In Press.

Crix, D., Stedmon,, J., Smart, C., & Dallos, R. (2012). Knowing ‘ME’ Knowing You: The Discursive Negotiation of Contested Illness within a Family. Journal of Depression & Anxiety, 01(04). doi:10.4172/2167-1044.1000119

Dallos, R., Denman, K., Stedmon, J., & Smart, C. (2012). The Construction of ADHD: Family Dynamics, Conversations and Attachment Patterns.. Human Systems, 23, 5.

Dallos, R., & Smart, C. (2011). An exploration of family dynamics and attachment strategies in a family with ADHD/conduct problems. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16(4), 535-550. doi:10.1177/1359104510387391

Denman, K., Smart, C., Dallos, R., & Levett, P. (2016). How Families Make Sense of Their Child’s Behaviour When on an Autism Assessment and Diagnosis Waiting List. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi:10.1007/s10803-016-2873-7

Elliot, H., Brannen, J., Phoenix, A., Barlow, A., Morris, P., Smart, C. A., . . . Bauer, E. (2013). Analysing qualitative data in groups: process and practice. National Centre for Research Methods..

Gibson, S., & Smart, C. A. (2017). Social Influence. In B. Gough (Ed.), Handbook of Critical Social Psychology (Vol. Handbook of Critical Social Psychology). Pallgrave.

Griffiths, S. and Bannigan, K. (2016) Enabling rewarding conversations, Bulletin: Royal College of Speech and Language therapists. 04 April 2016: 20-21.

Griffiths, S. and Burtenshaw, E. 2011. Dysarthria and group intervention. Bulletin: The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists. January: 20-22.

Griffiths, S., Barnes, R., Britten, N and Wilkinson, R. (2011). Investigating interactional competencies in Parkinson's disease: the benefits of a conversation analytic approach. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 46 (5), 497-509.

Griffiths, S., Barnes, R., Britten, N and Wilkinson, R. (2012). Potential causes and consequences of overlap in talk between speakers with Parkinson's Disease and their familiar conversation partners. Seminars in Speech and Language. 33 (1), 27-41.

Griffiths, S., Barnes, R., Britten, N and Wilkinson, R. (2015) Multiple repair sequences in everyday conversations involving people with Parkinson’s Disease. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. 50 (6), 814-829.

Phoenix, A., Brannen, J., Elliott, H., Smithson, J., Morris, P., Smart, C. A., . . . Bauer, E. (2016). Group Analysis in Practice: Narrative Approaches. Forum: Qualitative Social Research.

Smart, C. and Auburn, T. (Eds). Interprofessional Care and Mental Health: Team Meeting Practices. Pallgrave MacMillan (Forthcoming, Summer 2018).

Smart, C. A., & Denman, K. (2017). Student and supervisor experiences of learning and teaching CA and DP for autism focused research: A reflective approach. In M. O'Reilly & J. Lester (Eds.), A Practical Guide to social interaction research in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Stuart, K., Smart, C. A., Dallos, R., & Williams, F. (2015). Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: How Families Talk about Psychological Phenomena, a ‘Delicate’ and Protected’ Topic. Human Systems: The Journal of Therapy, Consultation and Training.

Snow, K., Cheston, R., & Smart, C. (2015). Making sense of dementia: Exploring the use of the Markers of Assimilation of Problematic Experiences in Dementia scale to understand how couples process a diagnosis of dementia. Dementia. doi:10.1177/1471301214564447

Thompson C, Bacon AM, & Auburn T (2015) Disabled or differently-enabled? Dyslexic identities in an online forum. Disability and Society, 30(9), 1328 - 1344

Williams L & Auburn T (2016) Accessible polyvocality and paired talk: how family therapists talk positive connotation into being Journal of Family Therapy, 38, 535-554