Social psychology and discourse is a textbook that introduces a discourse-analysis approach to social psychology. Widely drawing on examples of discursive research from across the world, the book is intended to provide the reader with the state of the art in social psychology. The book defines social psychology as “a branch of psychology, … in which the nature and causes of people's behavior are considered in relation to social situation” (2), and discourse, either spoken utterances (talk) or written utterances (text), as “a phenomenon which has its own properties, properties which have an impact on people and their social interaction”(8). To highlight the relevance of discursive research to social psychology, the book is organized around central themes (identity, relationships, prejudice, the law, and health) in social psychology, rather than around different aspects of discursive research (conversational analysis, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, Foucauldian discourse analysis, narrative analysis, etc.).

The book has thirteen chapters, with Ch. 1 presenting general introductory information about social psychology and discursive research. Chs. 2–8 describe the contribution of discursive research to central topics of social psychology: self and identity (Ch. 2), social groups (Ch. 3), attractions and relationships (Ch. 4), social cognition (Ch. 5), attitudes and pervasion (Ch. 6), prejudice (Ch. 7), and dispute and aggression (Ch. 8). Chs. 9–11 present the findings of discursive research in three applied settings: the legal setting (Ch. 9), the health setting (Ch. 10), and discourse of organizations (Ch. 11). The last two chapters switch emphasis from practical research to theoretical debate. C. 12 addresses several of the areas in which discursive researchers fail to reach consensus, and Ch. 13 broadens the theoretical discussion by considering the relationship between discursive research and experimental social psychology.

Social psychology and discourse is creative in that it introduces a discursive turn to hard-science-minded social psychology. This provides fresh insight for both discursive research and social psychology as a discipline and distinguishes the current book from other texts on discourse and social psychology in general. The book is exceptionally reader-friendly. With a host of user-friendly features such as chapter outlines, key terms, descriptions of classic studies, activity questions, further reading, and a glossary, the book, though dealing with massive numbers of studies and complex theories, appears highly accessible to newcomers to this field. And the inclusion of up-to-date discursive research findings, alongside wide coverage of the foundational notions of social psychology, contributes to the uniqueness of the book.

The book has its shortcomings. For one thing, as teaching material, the text provides no reference answers to activity questions, thus making it difficult for students to evaluate themselves. Further, the examples included in the book are mainly drawn from conversation analysis. To those interested in how textual analysis could contribute to social psychology, the book does not offer a satisfactory answer. Given that discourse refers to both talk and text, this thin treatment of textual analysis weakens the explanatory force of the book. Despite these problems, Social psychology and discourse is a commendable textbook for students, teachers, and researchers who embark on discourse projects.