This article develops a perspective for studying conversational behavior in geriatric institutions. The discussion first considers why conversation is a theoretically significant focus for communications researchers concerned with the aged, and then the article presents data from ethnographic studies of two nursing facilities. Symbolic interactionism underlies the analyses discussed here, for it is suggested that conversations are a means by which interactants communicate about (and so, “construct”) their social reality, their relative social statuses, etc. The importance of conversational (more broadly, communicational) behavior for staff-patient relationships in nursing homes is especially highlighted by the data, which were collected over a fifteen-month period.
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