The linguistics of doctor-patient communication

This volume deals with theoretical and practical aspects of doctor - patient communication analysis. Two different and much used approaches to the analysis of doctor - patient communication are compared and contrasted, one social psychological (Bale's Interaction Process Analysis / Byrne & Long's method), the other sociolinguistic (Conversation Analysis). The discussion emphasizes central themes in doctor - patient communication research, such as power relations and outcomebased research. In addition, various approaches to the collecting, coding and analysing of data are discussed.