Jonathan Potter (born 8 June 1956)
is a British psychologist and Dean of the School of Communication and Information at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...
. He is one of the pioneers of
discursive psychology.
Life
Jonathan Potter was born in
Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the Borough of Ashford, Ashford district, in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Great Stour at the southern or Escarpment, scarp edge of the North Downs, about by road southeast of centr ...
, and spent most of his childhood in
Laughton, East Sussex. His father was a school teacher, and his mother was a
batik
Batik is a dyeing technique using wax Resist dyeing, resist. The term is also used to describe patterned textiles created with that technique. Batik is made by drawing or stamping wax on a cloth to prevent colour absorption during the dyein ...
artist. He attended school in
Lewes
Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...
and pursued a degree in Psychology at the
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
in 1974. During his studies, he became interested in alternative therapies and the emerging critical perspectives in social psychology, influenced by the work of John Shotter,
Kenneth Gergen, and
Rom Harré.
Potter then completed a master's degree in the philosophy of science at the
University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...
, where he studied speech act theory and post-structuralism, particularly the work of
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...
. His interest in the philosophy of science led him to the new
sociology of scientific knowledge
The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is the study of science as a social activity, especially dealing with "the social conditions and effects of science, and with the social structures and processes of scientific activity." The sociology ...
, engaging with the work of
Harry Collins
Harry Collins, FLSW (born 13 June 1943), is a British sociologist of science at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales. In 2012 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the Learne ...
,
Michael Mulkay, and
Steve Woolgar.
In 1979, Potter applied for PhD funding at the
University of Bath
The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...
to work with Harry Collins, but the offer was withdrawn due to budget cuts. He began a part-time PhD at the University of Surrey, studying the experiences of overseas tourists in Bath. During this period, he met and started living with
Margaret Wetherell, a prominent figure in British social psychology.
Potter later transferred to the University of York, working with Michael Mulkay on the sociology of scientific knowledge, focusing on scientific discourse analysis. He completed his DPhil in 1983.
Potter joined the University of St Andrews, where he taught statistics and developed a course on discourse, covering various theories and methods that influenced his later work. After four years of temporary contracts, he moved to Loughborough University in 1988. He progressed from lecturer to Professor of Discourse Analysis and eventually became Head of Department in 2010. At Loughborough, he collaborated with colleagues such as Derek Edwards,
Michael Billig
Michael Billig (born 1947) is a British academic. He is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University, working principally in contemporary social psychology although much of his work crosses disciplinary boundaries in the social ...
, Charles Antaki, and Elizabeth Stokoe.
Since 1996, Potter has lived with and collaborated with
Alexa Hepburn. He has conducted workshops and short courses internationally. In 2005, his book ''Cognition and Conversation'' (co-edited with Hedwig te Molder) received the inaugural prize of the American Sociological Association's Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis section. In 2008, he was elected to the UK Academy of Social Sciences.
Work
In 1984, Jonathan Potter published ''Social Texts and Context: Literature and Social Psychology'' with
Margaret Wetherell and Peter Stringer. This collaboration developed alongside Potter and Wetherell's PhD research.
Potter co-authored the influential book ''Discourse and Social Psychology'' with Margaret Wetherell, which is a foundational text in the development of a discourse analytic approach to social psychology, now known as
discursive psychology. The book introduced new ways to conceptualize fundamental social psychological concepts such as
attitudes, categories,
social representations, and rules. It has been cited over three thousand times in more than a hundred different journals. One of its key contributions was the development of the analytic notion of 'interpretative repertoires,' adapted from Gilbert and Mulkay's work on scientific discourse, and its application to social psychological topics. A joint grant led by Margaret Wetherell resulted in the 1992 volume ''Mapping the Language of Racism'', which examined how racism is expressed and legitimized in conversations, newspaper articles, and parliamentary debates.
In the early 1990s, Potter and Derek Edwards authored ''Discursive Psychology'', establishing a specific style of work now prevalent in social science journals. This approach challenged core notions in cognitive psychology, particularly memory and attribution, by demonstrating that cognitive processes and events are embedded in and part of language use. For example, they reanalyzed
Ulric Neisser
Ulric Richard Gustav Neisser (December 8, 1928 – February 17, 2012) was a German-American psychologist, Cornell University professor, and member of the US National Academy of Sciences. He has been referred to as the "father of cognitive ps ...
's work on the
Watergate testimony, showing how
John Dean
John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is a disbarred American attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scan ...
's accounts of his memory were used by counsel in building the case against
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
. This work differed from earlier discourse analytic approaches by using records of natural interaction rather than open-ended interviews and focusing on sequential interaction instead of identifying interpretative repertoires.
In 1996, Potter published ''Representing Reality'', which built on his engagement with the sociology of scientific knowledge and other approaches to factuality. The book provided an overview, extension, and critique of
social constructionism
Social constructionism is a term used in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory. The term can serve somewhat different functions in each field; however, the foundation of this Conceptual framework, theoretical framework suggests ...
in the social sciences, developing a discursive version of constructionism in contrast to the more familiar social constructionism of thinkers such as
Peter L. Berger and
Thomas Luckmann
Thomas Luckmann (; October 14, 1927 – May 10, 2016) was an American-Austrian sociologist of German and Slovene origin who taught mainly in Germany. Born in Jesenice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Luckmann studied philosophy and linguistics at the ...
.
Potter co-edited ''Conversation and Cognition'' with Hedwig te Molder, a collection that brought together conversation analysts, ethnomethodologists, and discursive psychologists, including Geoff Coulter, John Heritage, Anita Pomerantz, and Robert Hopper, to address fundamental issues at the intersection of cognition and interaction.
In 2007, Potter edited a three-volume set of books that compiled a wide range of studies in discursive psychology.
Recent Work
Much of Jonathan Potter's recent work has been in collaboration with
Alexa Hepburn. They have developed a research program using material collected from the UK
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity founded as the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (LSPCC) by Thomas Agnew on 19 April 1883. The NSPCC lobbies t ...
's child protection helpline. This research combines a theoretical interest in how concepts such as emotion and joint understanding are conceptualized in social psychological research with a focus on applied topics, such as advice resistance and its management.
Their paper on the problems and prospects of using qualitative interviews in psychology, published in ''Qualitative Research in Psychology'', sparked a debate with
Jonathan Smith, Wendy Hollway, and Elliot Mishler, and has been widely cited. This discourse stimulated further discussion in ''Qualitative Research'' with Chris Griffin and
Karen Henwood.
Potter and Hepburn's new research focuses on studying video records of mealtime interactions in families with young children. This work examines actions such as directives, requests, and threats, with a broader concern about how interaction analysis can contribute to the study of obesity.
In a 2010 paper in the
British Journal of Social Psychology
The ''British Journal of Social Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the British Psychological Society. It publishes original papers on subjects like social cognition, attitudes, group proces ...
,
Potter summarized and continued the debate over the status of discursive psychology concerning both traditional social psychology and alternative styles of critical work.
Bibliography
Books
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Book chapters
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Journal articles
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Pdf of pp. 615–646.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Jonathan
1956 births
Academics of Loughborough University
Alumni of the University of Surrey
Living people
Scottish psychologists
Sociolinguists
People from Ashford, Kent
People from Laughton, East Sussex