Conversation analysis offers valuable insight into how particular goals are achieved in conversation and is therefore a useful methodology to employ in psychological research. The aim of this article is to introduce the theoretical background and practice of conversation analysis. A review of some of the important literature in the area is introduced, after which the authors give some examples of psychological research which has combined conversation analysis with what is introduced broadly as ‘discourse-analytic research’. The authors' aim is to demonstrate that conversation analysis can and does make a significant contribution to psychological research. This is particularly important in South Africa (and elsewhere) where language is often used to obscure racist discourses and to hide different layers of meaning about conflicting interests. These strategic processes need to be explored, analysed, and published.
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