Analysis of a corpus of family phone calls reveals how family members routinely address uncertain issues when attempting to understand cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. A large collection of moments are overviewed and organized into three prominent social activities: biomedical reportings about anonymous medical staff; references to doctors in anticipation of explanations; and assessing the care provided by doctors and medical staff. Specific attention is drawn to how reportings include lay depictions about lack of knowledge, ambiguities associated with the passage of time, and emergent troubles with pain and medication. These instances make clear how family cancer journeys are interactionally organized events, comprised of distinct communication practices for raising and resolving illness dilemmas.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Cancer Society (2002). Cancer facts and figures 2002. Available (accessed May 21, 2002): http:www.cancer.org
2.
Atkinson, J. M., & Heritage, J. (Eds.) (1984). Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis. London: Cambridge University Press .
3.
Babrow, A. S., Hines, S. C., & Kasch, C. R. (2000). Managing uncertainty in illness explanation: An application of problematic integration theory. In B. B. Whaley (Ed.), Explaining illness: Research, theory, and application(pp. 41–68). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
4.
Babrow, A. S., Kasch, C. R., & Ford, L. A. (1998). The many meanings of uncertaintyin illness: Toward a systematic accounting . Health Communication, 10, 1–23 .
5.
Babrow, A. S., & Kline, K. N. (2000). From ‘reducing’ to ‘coping with’ uncertainty: Reconceptualizing the central challenge in breast self-exams . Social Science and Medicine, 51, 1805–1816 .
6.
Beach, W. A. (1994). Orienting to the phenomenon. In F. L. Casmir (Ed.), Building communication theories: A socio-cultural approach(pp. 133–164). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum .
7.
Beach, W. A. (1995). Preserving and constraining options: ‘Okays’ and ‘official’ priorities in medical interviews. In G. H. Morris & R. Cheneil (Eds.), The talk of the clinic: Explorations in the analysis of medical and therapeutic discourse(pp. 259–289). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum .
8.
Beach, W. A. (2000). Inviting collaborations in stories about a woman . Language in Society, 29, 379–407 .
9.
Beach, W. A. (2001a). Introduction: Diagnosing lay diagnosis . Text, 21, 13–18 .
10.
Beach, W. A. (2001b). Stability and ambiguity: Managing uncertain moments when updating news about mom’s cancer . Text, 21, 221–250 .
11.
Beach, W. A. (2002). Between dad and son: Initiating, delivering, and assimilating bad cancer news . Health Communication, 14, 271–299 .
12.
Beach, W. A. (2003a). Managing optimism in talk about cancer. In P. Glenn, C. LeBaron & J. Mandelbaum (Eds.), Studies in language and social interaction: In honor of Robert Hopper(pp. 175–194). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
13.
Beach, W. A. (2003b). Phone openings, ‘gendered’ talk, and conversations about illness. In P. Glenn, C. LeBaron, & J. Mandelbaum (Eds.), Studies in language and social interaction: In honor of Robert Hopper(pp. 573–587). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
14.
Beach, W. A. (2003c). When few words are enough: Assimilating bad news about cancer. Unpublished manuscript.
15.
Beach, W. A. (in press). Understanding how family members talk through cancer. In B. Whaley & W. Samter (Eds.), Advancements in communication theory and research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum .
16.
Beach, W. A., & Anderson, J. (2003). Communication and cancer? Part I: The noticeable absence of interactional research . Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 21, 1–23 .
17.
Beach, W. A., & Dixson, C. (2001). Revealing moments: Formulating understandings of adverse experiences in a health appraisal interview . Social Science and Medicine, 52, 25–45 .
18.
Beach, W. A., & LeBaron, C. (2002). Body disclosures: Attending to personal problems and reported sexual abuse during a medical encounter . Journal of Communication, 52, 617–639 .
19.
Beach, W. A. & Lockwood, A. S. (2003). Making the case for airline compassion fares: The serial organization of problem narratives during a family crisis . Research on Language and Social Interaction, 36, 351–393 .
20.
Beach, W. A., & Metzger, T. R. (1997). Claiming insufficient knowledge . Human Communication Research, 23, 562–588 .
21.
Beach, W. A., Good, J., & Pigeron, E. (2003). Describing and responding to cancer ‘fears’ during oncology interviews. Manuscript submitted for publication.
22.
Clayman, S. E., & Heritage, J. (2002). Questioning presidents: Journalistic deference and adversarialness in the press conferences of U.S. Presidents Eisenhower and Reagan . Journal of Communication, 52, 749–775 .
23.
Couper-Kuhlen, E., & Selting, M. (1996). Towards an interactional perspective on prosody and a prosodic perspective on interaction. In E. Cooper-Kuhlen & M. Selting (Eds.), Prosody in conversation: Interactional studies(pp. 11–56). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
24.
Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (Eds.) (1992). Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
25.
Goffman, E. (1981). Footing. In Forms of talk(pp. 124–159). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press .
26.
Goodwin, C. (1987). Forgetfulness as an interactive resource . Social Psychology Quarterly, 50, 115–130 .
27.
Holt, E. (1996). Reporting on talk: The use of direct reported speech in conversation . Research on Language and Social Interaction, 29, 219–245 .
28.
Holt, E. (2000). Reporting and reacting: Concurrent responses to reported speech . Research on Language and Social Interaction, 33, 425–454 .
29.
Hopper, R. (1992). Telephone conversation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press .
30.
Jefferson, G. (1980). The analysis of conversations in which ‘troubles’ and ‘anxieties’ are expressed. Final report for the (British) Social Science Research Council: Report nos. HR 4805/1–2.
31.
Jefferson, G. (1984a). On the organization of laughter in talk about troubles. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis(pp. 347–369). London: Cambridge University Press .
32.
Jefferson, G. (1984b). On stepwise transition from talk about a trouble to inappropriately next-positioned matters. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis(pp. 191–222). London: Cambridge University Press .
33.
Jefferson, G. (1988). On the sequential organization of troubles talk in ordinary conversation . Social Problems, 35, 418–441 .
34.
Jefferson, G. (1990). List construction as a task and resource. In G. Psathas (Ed.), Interaction competence(pp. 63–92). Lanham, MD: University Press of America .
35.
Jones, C. M., & Beach, W. A. (in press). Patient’s attempts and doctors’ responses to premature solicitation of diagnostic information. In M. Maxwell (Ed.), Diagnosis as a cultural practice. New York: Mouton de Gruyter .
36.
Kristjanson, L. J., & Ashcroft, T. (1994). The family’s cancer journey: A literature review . Cancer Nursing, 17, 1–17 .
37.
Lutfey, K., & Maynard, D. W. (1998). Bad news in oncology: How physician and patient talk about death and dying without using those words . Psychological Quarterly, 61, 321–341 .
38.
Maynard, D. W. (1997). The news delivery sequence: Bad news and good news in conversational interaction . Research on Language and Social Interaction, 30, 93–130 .
39.
Maynard, D. W. (2003). Good news, bad news: A benign order in conversations, clinics, and everyday life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
40.
Ochs, E., Schegloff, E. A., & Thompson, S. A. (Eds.) (1996). Interaction and grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
41.
Pomerantz, A. (1986). Extreme case formulations: A way of legitimizing claims . Human Studies, 9, 219–229 .
42.
Sacks, H. (1992). Lectures on conversation: Volumes I & II. (G. Jefferson, Ed.). Oxford: Blackwell .
43.
Schegloff, E. A. (1968). Sequencing in conversational openings . American Anthropologist, 70, 1075–1095 .
44.
Schegloff, E. A. (1979). Identification and recognition in telephone conversation openings. In G. Psathas (Ed.), Everyday language: Studies in ethnomethodology(pp. 23–78). New York: Irvington .
45.
Schegloff, E. A. (1998). Reflections on studying prosody in talk-in-interaction . Language and Speech, 41, 235–263 .
