Forests, Trees, and Streams: Why an Integration of Discursive Psychological Frameworks and Gender Role Strain...

The current article provides commentary on Wetherell and Edley's (2014) article, "A Discursive Psychological Framework for Analyzing Men and Masculinities." Using examples from their published research, the authors present and challenge methodologies stemming from the gender role strain paradigm (GRSP). The core argument presented in their article is that discursive psychological approach (DP) provides a better framework for capturing situational masculinities. In this commentary, I argue for less methodological essentialism in the psychology of men and masculinities. DP has great utility for examining the ways men talk about situational enactment of masculinities. However, they do not resolve all of our methodological dilemmas. Chiefly, I suggest that we have more to gain from integrating DP frameworks and GRSP than from using either of these methods alone.