“I Don’t Need Advice or Lectures” A Discursive Psychological Analysis of Men’s Posts in an Online Discussion Forum for Depression

Abstract

Australian men are diagnosed with depression at half the rate of Australian women and, as such, depression in men has received less attention historically. Depression is often positioned as gendered, that is, as a psychological condition that women are more likely to experience. Many argue however that the disparity in depression diagnosis rates is not presentative of depression prevalence. Rather, such disparities have been suggested to be an artefact of inappropriate diagnostic criteria and societal norms about masculinity and help-seeking. The challenging nature of improving understanding of these gender differences, is that typical features of male depression which make diagnosis difficult (for example, reticence to discuss psychological distress openly), also make it difficult to study. Increasing use of online discussion forums on depression provides an opportunity to investigate how men describe their experiences with depression in ways that are not directed or influenced by researchers’ concerns. This thesis aims to examine how men routinely describe their experiences of depression and position themselves in relation to the condition in an online forum. A discursive psychological approach informed by membership categorisation analysis is used to analyse how men formulate initial posts on an online discussion forum for depression.