Calling time: a discursive analysis of telephone calls to an alcohol helpline
Mandi Hodges
2134/7994
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/thesis/Calling_time_a_discursive_analysis_of_telephone_calls_to_an_alcohol_helpline/9480638
This thesis takes Discursive Psychology as its main theoretical influence. Drawing on the resources of Discursive Psychology and
utilising analytic tools provided by Conversation Analysis, these principles are applied to the study of addiction, and specifically alcohol problems. The data explored are telephone calls to an alcohol helpline. Four analytic chapters are presented. The first focuses on the concept of loss of control over drinking, identifying features of how this concept is constructed in talk and suggests possible functions of control talk for both callers and Advice Workers. The second analytic chapter examines how Advice Workers respond to callers' professed impaired control over
their drinking and I demonstrate that embedded in discursive sequences
of problem formulation and advice giving are issues of agency, accountability and responsibility. The thesis moves on to explore the role of knowledge in calls to an alcohol helpline and the analysis reveals
that both the expert status of the Advice Worker and the speciality of the
topic are co-constructed between the speakers on the helpline. The final
analytic chapter features just one telephone call and demonstrates the application of such an analysis for alcohol service providers. The thesis ends with a discussion of the main overall findings and the
implications of the research for clinical practice. I close by arguing that
initial agency contact is a very important site of study and recommend that this should be explored utilising naturally-occurring talk.
2011-02-10 11:01:55
Discursive psychology
Alcohol
Addiction
Telephone helpline
Initial agency contact
Naturally-occurring talk
Alcohol treatment services
Language, Communication and Culture not elsewhere classified
Studies in Human Society not elsewhere classified