This article discusses a series of telephone interactions between callers with AIDS-related queries and listeners on a telephone response hot line in Trinidad and Tobago. The calls were analyzed according to established criteria for medical and telephone discourse with specific focus on the communication process and its outcome and effectiveness. It was found that success was highest on single-sex calls in which empathy between caller and listener was high. It was deduced that listeners interacted best with callers whose social reality they were able to share. A synonymity of worldview related to sexuality and gender is clearly useful in interactions of this kind, but must be mitigated by trained judgment as to the appropriateness of the support offered.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ainsworth-VaughanN.1992. Topic transitions in physician-patient interviews: Power, gender and discourse change. Language in Society21: 409–26
2.
BlatterW.CleghornF. R.1998. Misleading claims about AIDS. Trinidad Guardian (March, p. 8)
3.
CamaraB.2000. An overview of the AIDS/HIV/STD situation in the Caribbean. In The Caribbean AIDS epidemic, edited by HoweG. A.CobleyA., 110–21. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press.
4.
CameronD.1997. Performing gender: Young men's talk and the construction of heterosexual masculinity. In Language and masculinity, edited by JohnsonS.MeinhofU. H., 47–64. Oxford, UK: Blackwell's.
5.
CarballoM.MillerD.1989. HIV counseling: Problems and opportunities in defining the new agenda for the 1990s. AIDS Care1(2): 117–23
6.
ChesterR.1987. Advice, support & counseling for the HIV positive. A report for the DHSS Department of Social Policy and Professional Studies, University of Hull, UK
7.
CoatesJ.1997a. Gossip revisited: Language in all-female groups. In Language and gender, edited by CoatesJ., 226–53. Oxford, UK: Blackwell's.
8.
CoatesJ.1997b. Language and gender.Oxford, UK: Blackwell's.
9.
FaircloughN.1998. Discourse and social change.Cambridge, MA: Polity.
10.
FelthamC.1995. What is counseling?London: Sage.
11.
FishmanP.1975. Interaction: The work women do. Presented at the ASA Annual Meetings, San Francisco, August
12.
FoucaultMichel. 1980. Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972-1977.Brighton, UK: The Harvester Press.
13.
GoodingI.1998. HIV may not be the only cause of AIDS. Trinidad Guardian (March, p. 24)
14.
HeritageJ.1984. A change of state token and its sequential placement. In AtkinsonJ.M.HeritageJ. (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversational analysis (299–345). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
15.
HeritageJ.SefiS.1992. Dilemmas of advice: Aspects of the delivery and reception of advice in interactions between health visitors and first-time mothers. In Talk at work, edited by DrewP.HeritageJ.. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
16.
JohnsonF.AriesE.1997. The talk of women friends. In Language and gender, edited by CoatesJ., 215–25. Oxford: Blackwells.
PilkingtonJ.1997. “Don't try and make out that I'm nice!” The different strategies women and men use when gossiping. In Language and gender, edited by CoatesJ., 254–69. Oxford: Blackwells.
19.
RogersC.1975. Empathic: An unappreciated way of being. Counseling Psychologist5(2): 2–10
20.
DassH. Roop1995. Too much misinformation about AIDS-psychologist. Trinidad Guardian (July, p. 16)
21.
RostantN.1997. AIDS spreading, no longer a “gay” disease. Trinidad Guardian (December, p. 23)
22.
Russell-BrownP.1998. Evaluating the quality of services offered by the National AIDS Hotline.CAREC/GTZ, Trinidad. Mimeographed
23.
SacksH.1992. Lectures on conversation. Edited by JeffersonG.. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
24.
SchegloffE.1968. Sequencing in conversational openings. American Anthropologist70: 1075–95
25.
SchegloffE.1979. Identification and recognition in telephone conversation openings. In Everyday language: Studies in Ethnomethodology, edited by PsathasG. (23–78). New York: Irvington.
26.
SilvermanD.1997. Discourses of counseling: HIV counseling as social interaction.London: Sage.
27.
HaveP. Ten1991. Talk and institution: A reconsideration of the “asymmetry” of doctor-patient interaction. In Talk and social structure, edited by BodenD.ZimmermanD.. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
28.
WestC.1997. “Not just doctor's orders”: Directive-response sequences in patient's visits to women and men physicians. In Language and gender, edited by CoatesJ., 328–53. Oxford: Blackwells.
29.
YoussefV.SilvermanD.1992. Normative expectations for medical talk. Language and Communication12(2): 123–31
30.
ZimmermanD.WestC.1975. Sex roles, interruptions and silences in conversation. In Language & sex: Difference and dominance, edited by ThorneB., HenleyN., 105–29. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
