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The article presents the authors' comments on a paper by Housley and Fitzgerald about discursive psychology (DP). In order to understand the intellectual place of DP, the authors suggest taking the kinds of fragmentary focus on psychological matters found in the work of Harvey Sacks. The authors present their response to the paper's claim that DP suffers from theoretical amnesia with respect to the analysis of accounts and motives and that that amnesia is confronted by re-emphasizing the sociological canon of interactionism, phenomenology and ethnomethodology. They say that the problem with the paper is that it is organized around disciplinary allegiance and sacred texts rather than around the specific arguments and analytic developments.

One of the tasks for a critical social psychology is to describe the contradictory social matrix of intimacy in capitalist societies. That is particularly necessary in order to understand the social experiences of women, since they continue to have the principal responsibility for expressive functions. The present paper is concerned with the structuration of intimacy through the giving of gifts. It is suggested that this is a useful vantage point from which to explore thc extent of the autonomy of the private family. Gift giving is described as a means through which individuals communicate the values which they assign to their significant others. It is suggested that the intersubjective signs of value employed in gift transactions are affected by the characteristics of an industrial capitalist society. The symbolic process therefore demonstrates the limits to the autonomy of familial culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between gender identity and verbal behavior in same-sex interactions. Using structural symbolic interactionism (Stryker, 1980), it is argued that gender identity, as the set of meanings individuals attribute to themselves as modes or females, is more important for shaping role performance than gender per se. Using a technique developed by Burke and Tully (1977), the gender identities of 91 college undergraduates were measured. A sample of these students (30 females, 26 males) participated in dyadic role-playing exercises, and their conversations were recorded and coded for the use of overlaps and interruptions by the speakers. An event history model was estimated in order to assess the impact of the gender identity scores on the rate of overlaps and interruptions produced. Findings indicate that the more "male like" a person's gender definition, regardless of the person's sex, the greater the risk that the person will overlap or interrupt the speech of another. The findings of this study have implications for the analysis of structure and process in day-to-day interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joining ideas from structural exchange theory and symbolic interaction theory, this paper addresses two questions: (a) How does a justice norm form? and (b) Why do variations among justice norms arise? Exchange theory clarifies the objective, structural, and largely "material" contexts in which justice norms originate. Symbolic interaction theory illuminates the subjective, intersubjective, and mainly "ideal" process through which justice norms emerge. Context variations in structural exchange (whether a setting entails distributive or productive exchange, equal or unequal power-dependence) help account for the formation of specific justice norms: equal opportunity, equality, Status-rank inequality, need, and equity. We link our theoretical account to existing data and suggest experimental tests of its key implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]