Claiming Power in Doctor-patient Talk

Download or read book Claiming Power in Doctor-patient Talk written by Nancy Ainsworth-Vaughn and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1998 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are patients passive, or merely deferent? How does gender affect questioning and topic control in medical encounters? What does it sound like when physician and patient co-construct a diagnosis through storytelling? Nancy Ainsworth-Vaughn, a sociolinguist, ethnographer, and cancer survivor, answers questions such as these in a study of 100 medical encounters, with balanced numbers of men and women among physicians as well as patients. Ainsworth-Vaughn draws upon linguistics and medical ethics to develop a comprehensive theory of types of power. She engages critical problems in discourse theory, expanding our understanding of topic transitions, questions, ambiguity, and co-construction.