Abstract

SPINK, Mary Jane Paris; MENEGON, Vera Mincoff; SOUZA BERNARDES, Jefferson de  and  COELHO, Angela Elizabeth Lapa. The language of risk in psychology: a social constructionist analysis of a psychological database. Interam. j. psychol. [online]. 2007, vol.41, n.2, pp. 151-160. ISSN 0034-9690.

This paper discusses psychology's contribution to the language of risk - the set of historically constructed discursive practices used to refer to behaviour in situations open to the possibility of gains or losses. A sample of 433 PsycINFO abstracts published between 1887 and 1998 was analysed considering the growth rate for publications with risk^* in title and the use of the risk concept in different areas of psychology. The distribution of references per area suggests that there were four periods of incorporation of the risk concept in psychological literature: 1887-1949; 1950-1969; 1970-1989 and 1990-1998. Publications tended to address two issues - who is at risk and why people take risks reflecting psychology's concern with subjectivity. Results also suggested that the risk concept has been imported a-critically from other disciplines without discussion of its implications for governmentality.

Keywords : Discursive practices; Language of risk; Psychological databases; PsycINFO; Governmentality.

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