Stephen Gibson
My research is informed by discursive and rhetorical approaches to social psychology, and I have used these to address a number of issues:
1. (Dis)obedience: My current focus is a project applying the insights of rhetorical and discursive psychology to the original recordings and transcripts from Stanley Milgram’s ‘obedience’ experiments, conducted at Yale University in the 1960s.
2. Citizenship and national identity: I have a longstanding interest in analysing the rhetorical construction of social identities, with a specific focus on the mobilization and construction of national identity and citizenship. Most recently I have explored these issues in the context of political discourse surrounding the UK’s relationship with the European Union.
3. Everyday understandings of social citizenship, welfare and (un)employment: Arising from my broader interest in citizenship, I also have interests in the construction of welfare, welfare recipients, and (un)employment, issues which have been comparatively neglected in social psychology.
4. Discourse, rhetoric and peace psychology: This strand of my work has developed the application of discursive and rhetorical approaches to matters of international peace and conflict. Specifically, I have used these approaches in an analysis of a series of televised debates surrounding the Iraq War.
Primary Interests:
- Aggression, Conflict, Peace
- Applied Social Psychology
- Attitudes and Beliefs
- Communication, Language
- Culture and Ethnicity
- Group Processes
- Intergroup Relations
- Political Psychology
- Prejudice and Stereotyping
- Research Methods, Assessment
- Self and Identity
Research Group or Laboratory:
Books:
- Gibson, S. (Ed.). (2018). Discourse, peace and conflict: Discursive psychology perspectives. New York: Springer.
- Gibson, S. (2019). Arguing, obeying and defying: A rhetorical perspective on Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gibson, S. & Mollan, S. (Eds). (2012). Representations of peace and conflict. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
- Sullivan, C., Gibson, S. & Riley, S. (Eds). (2012). Doing your qualitative psychology project. London: Sage.
Journal Articles:
- Gibson, S. (2019). Obedience without orders: Expanding social psychology’s conception of ‘obedience’. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58, 241-259. doi: 10.1111/bjso.12272
- Gibson, S. (2017). Developing psychology’s archival sensibilities: Re-visiting Milgram’s ‘obedience’ experiments. Qualitative Psychology, 4, 73-89.
- Gibson. S. (2014). Discourse, defiance and rationality: 'Knowledge work' in the 'obedience' experiments. Journal of Social Issues, 70, 424-438.
- Gibson, S. (2013). Milgram’s obedience experiments: A rhetorical analysis. British Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 290-309.
- Gibson, S. (2013). ‘The last possible resort’: A forgotten prod and the in situ standardization of Stanley Milgram’s voice-feedback condition. History of Psychology, 16, 177-194.
- Gibson, S. (2012). ‘I’m not a war monger but…’: Discourse analysis and social psychological peace research. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 22, 159-173.
- Gibson, S. (2011). Dilemmas of citizenship: Young people's conceptions of un/employment rights and responsibilities. British Journal of Social Psychology, 50, 450-468.
- Gibson, S. (2011). Social psychology, war and peace: Towards a critical discursive peace psychology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5, 239-250.
- Gibson, S. (2009). The effortful citizen: Discursive social psychology and welfare reform. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 19, 393-410.
- Gibson, S., Blenkinsopp, G., Johnstone, E., & Marshall, A. (2018). Just following orders? The rhetorical invocation of ‘obedience’ in Stanley Milgram’s post-experiment interviews. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 585-599.
- Gibson, S., & Booth, R. (2018). ‘An Australian-style points system’: Individualizing immigration in radical right discourse in the 2015 UK General Election campaign. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 24, 389-397.
- Gibson, S., Crossland, M., & Hamilton, J. (2018). Social citizenship and immigration: Employment, welfare, and effortfulness in online discourse concerning migration to the United Kingdom. Qualitative Psychology, 5, 99-116.
- Gibson, S. & Hamilton, L. (2013). Knowledge, autonomy and maturity: Developmental and educational concerns as rhetorical resources in adolescents’ discussions regarding the age of electoral majority in England. Journal of Youth Studies, 16, 34-53.
- Gibson, S., & Hamilton, L. (2011). The rhetorical construction of polity membership: Identity, culture and citizenship in young people’s discussions of immigration in northern England. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 21, 228-242.
Other Publications:
- Gibson, S. (2015). From representations to representing: On social representations and discursive-rhetorical psychology. In G. Sammut, E. Andreouli, G. Gaskell, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of social representations (pp. 210-223). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gibson, S. & Smart, C. (2017). Social influence. In B. Gough (Ed.), The Palgrave handbook of critical social psychology (pp. 291-318). London: Palgrave.
Stephen Gibson
School of Psychological & Social Sciences
York St. John University
Lord Mayor's Walk
York YO31 7EX
United Kingdom
- Phone: +44 (0) 1904 876581