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Asymmetrical Relationship Construction in Medical Interactions - A Case Study of Advice-giving in Mandarin Chinese

Received: 20 February 2020     Accepted: 4 March 2020     Published: 17 March 2020
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Abstract

Social interactions are fundamental components of social life, and we as social members witness and participate in a myriad of social actions and activities. It is in and through these interactions that cultures are established, identities are constructed and relationships are created, maintained or changed. Conversation analysis (CA), as an emergent discipline and research method, is committed to pin down the refined details in social interaction, in the hope to develop systematic knowledge and analysis of what participants in social interactions do and what they achieve. Doctor-patient interaction has long been a much explored topic in CA, but there is still much to be probed into, as talks in the medical context can be a complicated process dependent on many contingencies arising right from that context. This paper adopts conversation analysis as its research method and takes advice-giving in doctor-patient talks as its focus. It is argued that despite the apparently fixed layman-professional relationship in clinical contexts, the professional and lay people relationship is continually created, maintained and adjusted. In medical contexts, a professional’s advice is given with displays of higher epistemic authority, but it may meet with resistances as a result of contingencies in the diagnosis or treatment process. To manage those resistances, a doctor can resort to different practices, including embedding the advice into stories or fusing the advice-giving action into information delivery, and so on. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of dynamic relationship construction and advice-giving practices in medical encounters.

Published in Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 6, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13
Page(s) 10-15
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Advice-giving, Asymmetry, Medical Interaction, Conversation Analysis

References
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[4] J. Heritage, and S. Sefi, “Dilemmas of advice: Aspects of the delivery and reception of advice in interactions between health visitors and first time mothers”, In Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, P. Drew and J. Heritage, Eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 359-419.
[5] A. Pilnick, (1999). “Patient counseling” by pharmacists: Advice, information, or instruction? Sociological Quarterly 40 (4): 613-622.
[6] A. Kinnell, and D. Maynard, (1996). The delivery and receipt of safer sex advice in pre-test counseling sessions for HIV and AIDS. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 35: 405-437.
[7] D. Silverman, Discourses of Counselling: HIV Counselling as Social Interaction. London, England: Sage, 1997.
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[11] I. Hutchby, (1995). Aspects of recipient design in expert advice-giving on call-in radio. Discourse Processes 19 (2): 219-238.
[12] J. Heritage, “Epistemics in conversation”, in The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, J. Sidnell and T. Stivers, Eds. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, pp. 370-394.
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  • APA Style

    Li Chuntao. (2020). Asymmetrical Relationship Construction in Medical Interactions - A Case Study of Advice-giving in Mandarin Chinese. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 6(1), 10-15. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13

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    ACS Style

    Li Chuntao. Asymmetrical Relationship Construction in Medical Interactions - A Case Study of Advice-giving in Mandarin Chinese. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2020, 6(1), 10-15. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13

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    AMA Style

    Li Chuntao. Asymmetrical Relationship Construction in Medical Interactions - A Case Study of Advice-giving in Mandarin Chinese. Commun Linguist Stud. 2020;6(1):10-15. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13,
      author = {Li Chuntao},
      title = {Asymmetrical Relationship Construction in Medical Interactions - A Case Study of Advice-giving in Mandarin Chinese},
      journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
      volume = {6},
      number = {1},
      pages = {10-15},
      doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20200601.13},
      abstract = {Social interactions are fundamental components of social life, and we as social members witness and participate in a myriad of social actions and activities. It is in and through these interactions that cultures are established, identities are constructed and relationships are created, maintained or changed. Conversation analysis (CA), as an emergent discipline and research method, is committed to pin down the refined details in social interaction, in the hope to develop systematic knowledge and analysis of what participants in social interactions do and what they achieve. Doctor-patient interaction has long been a much explored topic in CA, but there is still much to be probed into, as talks in the medical context can be a complicated process dependent on many contingencies arising right from that context. This paper adopts conversation analysis as its research method and takes advice-giving in doctor-patient talks as its focus. It is argued that despite the apparently fixed layman-professional relationship in clinical contexts, the professional and lay people relationship is continually created, maintained and adjusted. In medical contexts, a professional’s advice is given with displays of higher epistemic authority, but it may meet with resistances as a result of contingencies in the diagnosis or treatment process. To manage those resistances, a doctor can resort to different practices, including embedding the advice into stories or fusing the advice-giving action into information delivery, and so on. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of dynamic relationship construction and advice-giving practices in medical encounters.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Asymmetrical Relationship Construction in Medical Interactions - A Case Study of Advice-giving in Mandarin Chinese
    AU  - Li Chuntao
    Y1  - 2020/03/17
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.13
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    JF  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
    JO  - Communication and Linguistics Studies
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
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    AB  - Social interactions are fundamental components of social life, and we as social members witness and participate in a myriad of social actions and activities. It is in and through these interactions that cultures are established, identities are constructed and relationships are created, maintained or changed. Conversation analysis (CA), as an emergent discipline and research method, is committed to pin down the refined details in social interaction, in the hope to develop systematic knowledge and analysis of what participants in social interactions do and what they achieve. Doctor-patient interaction has long been a much explored topic in CA, but there is still much to be probed into, as talks in the medical context can be a complicated process dependent on many contingencies arising right from that context. This paper adopts conversation analysis as its research method and takes advice-giving in doctor-patient talks as its focus. It is argued that despite the apparently fixed layman-professional relationship in clinical contexts, the professional and lay people relationship is continually created, maintained and adjusted. In medical contexts, a professional’s advice is given with displays of higher epistemic authority, but it may meet with resistances as a result of contingencies in the diagnosis or treatment process. To manage those resistances, a doctor can resort to different practices, including embedding the advice into stories or fusing the advice-giving action into information delivery, and so on. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of dynamic relationship construction and advice-giving practices in medical encounters.
    VL  - 6
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Author Information
  • School of Foreign Languages, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China

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