Theoretically as well as alongside an empirical research idea, this paper outlines conditions for the development of social scientific empirical methods able to further exploit the iconic potential of the image. Reconstructing the role of formal pictorial elements for the standards of understanding within the medium “image” is considered pivotal in this endeavor. Within the context of language, standards of communication have already been extensively researched. The linguistic format of the narrative, for instance, is well studied. Up to now, though, comparable formal vehicles of iconic semantics have only been examined in aesthetics and art history. Nevertheless, standards of iconic understanding are part of our implicit knowledge, are incessantly in use in everyday practice and, thus, the basis of everyday identity formation. With the help of empirical methods based on an iconic logos we can deepen our understanding of orientations, longings, and anxieties of our time that are often silently conveyed by images. Fashion will be outlined as a prototypical field, in which an empirically based development of such methods might start off.

Theoretically as well as alongside empirical research, this paper outlines a reflective research stance that has been thriving among cultural psychologists in Vienna since the turn of the millennium. The focus is on a specific methodological facet of this stance tentatively termed ‘tracking one’s own path’ – a metaphor for taking the starting point of research in one’s own life world, for a re-embedding of reasoning into the socio-cultural context out of which we reason, and thus for situated knowledge. The text brings forward epistemological considerations from deconstruction and phenomenology to support the methodological argument and unfolds implications for teaching and research. Three connected examples are provided to document how such research can be conducted within a critical discourse analytical frame. Upon this basis, the final section discusses the potential of the approach for cultural psychology, in particular in regard to conceptualizing an encompassing meta-theoretical frame and a coherent research programmatic.

This article critically examines the four patterns of shared medical decision making (physician-dominated; physician-defined, patient-made; patient-defined, physician-made; and patient-dominated) suggested by Lippa et al. (2017). The aim of the study is to challenge these patterns with a new data set of conversations between physicians and cancer patients in a hospital ward. We recorded 13 physician–patient-conversations during the medical round in an Austrian hospital, which in total lasted about 1.5 h (language: German). We then categorized the medical decisions found in the data following Lippa et al.’s instructions and further analyzed them with a fine-grained linguistic approach. The study revealed no patient-dominated decisions and one decision, which could not be categorized with one of the patterns. Results from the linguistic approach call into question the generalizability, distinctiveness and validity of the patterns. Finally, the relationship between shared decision making and clinical distributed cognition is discussed.