Misunderstandings, communicative expectations and resources in illness narratives: insights from beyond interview...

Area of Science:

• Sociolinguistics
• Qualitative Research Methods
• Health Communication

Background:

• Interactional misunderstandings in interviews are frequently overlooked in narrative analysis.
• These misunderstandings significantly influence interview discourse and shape researcher-generated knowledge.
• Existing analysis often fails to capture crucial contextual data beyond transcripts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how analyzing interactional misunderstandings alongside contextual data can enhance interpretations of illness narratives.
• To investigate the manifestation and consequences of misunderstandings in research interviews.
• To demonstrate how incorporating ethnographic features can reveal pertinent discourses not evident in transcripts.

Main Methods:

• Employed linguistic-ethnographic methods.
• Analyzed research interviews with individuals with asthma.
• Focused on interactional tensions and misunderstandings between interviewers and interviewees.

Main Results:

• Interactional misunderstandings can signal inequalities in communicative expectations and resources.
• Such misunderstandings may lead to misidentification of participants' narratives.
• Ethnographic context illuminates discourses not overtly present in interview transcripts.

Conclusions:

• Analyzing misunderstandings in conjunction with ethnographic context enriches the interpretation of illness narratives.
• This integrated approach can prevent mischaracterization of participant talk.
• Interview talk, including health and illness narratives, should be understood within intersecting cycles of discourse.