Open AccessΟμοφυλοφιλία, ουσιοποίηση και ταυτότητα στο λόγο ομοφυλόφιλων και ετεροφυλόφιλων ανδρών
Author(s) -
Ιωάννης Μίχος,
Λία Φίγγου
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
psychologia: to periodiko tīs ellīnikīs psychologikīs etaireias/psychologia. to periodiko tīs ellīnikīs psychologikīs etaireias
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2732-6640
pISSN - 1106-5737
DOI - 10.12681/psy_hps.23256
Subject(s) - essentialism , homosexuality , identity (music) , social psychology , social identity theory , sociology , psychology , rhetoric , discursive psychology , discourse analysis , gender studies , epistemology , social group , linguistics , philosophy , aesthetics
Essentialism of social categories and its consequences on intergroup relations constitute one of the most popular research topics in social psychology. Drawing upon the relevant literature, the present study explores essentialist and de-essentialist representations about homosexual men and their identity functions in discourse. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight men who identified themselves as homosexual and eight men who identified themselves as heterosexual. Interviews were analyzed by the use of the principles of discursive psychology and rhetoric. Analysis indicated the coexistence of essentialist and de-essentialist representations of homosexuality in the discourse of both groups as a result of the negotiation and reconceptualization of naturalness, historical stability and normality of social categories. However, similar essentialist representations –suchas the historical stability of homosexuality– perform different intergroup functions, whereas different entitative representations perform common intergroup functions in the discourse of homosexual and heterosexual participants.