scholarly journals The risk of metacommunication to manage interactional trouble in online chat counseling

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margot Jager ◽  
Wyke Stommel

The main handbook on online counseling used in the Netherlands recommends counselors to use metacommunication, i. e. to state what happens during the interaction, in case of interactional trouble. The aim of this study was to explore this interactional strategy by describing how counselors may use metacommunication to respond to interactional problems in online counseling of the “helpline” type (single chat sessions). Data were derived from a corpus of 197 sessions of the Dutch information chat service on alcohol and drugs and 348 sessions from a Dutch general chat help service. The theoretical and analytical framework of (digital) conversation analysis (CA) was used to analyze the data. The analyses show that metacommunication is used, but only rarely. Clients tend to log out from problematic sessions, often even before the counselor is able to identify interactional trouble at all. This means online counselors operate under the constant risk of clients’ disengagement. Second, we identified and described three metacommunicative practices counselors use to respond to problematic interaction: 1) Self-criticizing; the counselor is regretting (s)he was not able to help due to a lack of useful advice or to the boundaries of the institutional context. This strategy seems to elicit client acknowledgement followed by an aligned closing; 2) Accusing: the counselor is questioning the client’s advice recipiency. This strategy seems to elicit even more client resistance. 3) Explaining: the counselor explains the institutional tasks and responsibilities and/or suggests the client has unrealistic expectations. We conclude that although metacommunication can be useful to restore the relationship with the client when it is apologetic, it can also be counterproductive to deal with problematic interaction when the counselor questions the client’s willingness or ability to accept the advice. For this reason, our analysis warrants the advice to avoid metacommunication as a strategy in single session counseling.

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 1041-1049 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilvânia Patrícia do Nascimento Paixão ◽  
Nadirlene Pereira Gomes ◽  
Normélia Maria Freire Diniz ◽  
Telmara Menezes Couto ◽  
Lucila Amaral Carneiro Vianna ◽  
...  

This study aimed to analyze the situations that precipitate and/or intensify conflicts in the conjugal relationship. Interviews were held with 19 women experiencing conjugal violence. The Discourse of the Collective Subject was used as the method of organization, making it possible to find the central ideas, and gender was used as the analytical framework. Summary: the women report the man's control and domination of the woman, jealousy, the male partner's infidelity, unplanned fatherhood and motherhood, and the use of alcohol and drugs. These situations are related to the construction of the conjugal violence and/or the woman's remaining in the relationship, with preventive actions being essential so as to avoid this phenomenon and its repercussions on the health of the woman and the family. The work of the professional nurse is indispensable in the programs for harm prevention and for the promotion and assistance of the health of women and families, through social and health service means and facilities existing in the community.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wyke Stommel ◽  
Fleur Van der Houwen

In this article, we examine problem presentations in e-mail and chat counseling. Previous studies of online counseling have found that the medium (e.g., chat, email) impacts the unfolding interaction. However, the implications for counseling are unclear. We focus on problem presentations and use conversation analysis to compare 15 chat and 22 e-mail interactions from the same counseling program. We find that in e-mail counseling, counselors open up the interactional space to discuss various issues, whereas in chat, counselors restrict problem presentations and give the client less space to elaborate. We also find that in e-mail counseling, clients use narratives to present their problem and orient to its seriousness and legitimacy, while in chat counseling, they construct problem presentations using a symptom or a diagnosis. Furthermore, in email counseling, clients close their problem presentations stating completeness, while in chat counseling, counselors treat clients’ problem presentations as incomplete. Our findings shed light on how the medium has implications for counseling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-164
Author(s):  
Claudio Baraldi ◽  
Laura Gavioli

This paper analyses healthcare interactions involving doctors, migrant patients and ‘intercultural mediators’ who provide interpreting services. Our study is based on a collection of 300 interactions involving two language pairs, Arabic–Italian and English–Italian. The analytical framework includes conversation analysis combined with insights from social systems theory. We look at question-answer sequences, where (1) the doctors ask questions about patients’ problems or history, (2) the doctors’ questions are responded to and (3) the doctor closes the sequence, moving on to another question. We analyse the ways in which mediators help doctors design questions for patients and patients understand and eventually respond to the doctors’ design. While the doctor’s question design aims at obtaining details which are relevant for the patients’ care, it is argued that collecting such details involves complex interactional work. In particular, doctors need help in displaying their attention to their patients’ problems and in guiding patients’ responses into medically relevant directions. Likewise, patients need help in reacting appropriately. Mediators help manage communicative uncertainty both by showing the doctor’s interest in what the patient says, and by exploring and rendering the patient’s incomplete, extended and ambiguous answers to the doctor’s questions.


Author(s):  
Nguyen Thu Ha ◽  
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen

The retail market in Vietnam continues to grow with the entry of foreign retail brands and the strong rise of domestic businesses in expanding distribution networks and conquering consumer confidence. The appearance of more retail brands has created a fiercely competitive market. Based on the outcomes of previous research results on brand choice intention combined with a customer survey, the paper proposes an analytical framework and scales to examine the relationship of five elements including store image, price perception, risk perception, brand attitudes, brand awareness and retail brand choice intention with a case study of the Hanoi-based Circle K convenience store chain. These five elements are the precondition for retail businesses to develop their brands so as to attract customers.


Pragmatics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 499-517 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleni Petraki ◽  
Sarah Bayes

Research in English language teaching has highlighted the importance of teaching communication skills in the language classroom. Against the backdrop of extensive research in everyday communication, the goal of this research was to explore whether current discourse analytic research is reflected in the lessons and communication examples of five English language teaching textbooks, by using spoken requests as the subject of investigation. The textbooks were evaluated on five criteria deriving from research on politeness, speech act theory and conversation analysis. These included whether and the extent to which the textbooks discussed the cultural appropriateness of requests, discussed the relationship of requests and other contextual factors, explained pre-sequences and re-requests and provided adequate practice activities. This study found that none of the coursebooks covered all of the criteria and that some coursebooks actually had very inadequate lessons. The results of the textbook analysis demonstrate that teachers using these five coursebooks and designers of future coursebooks must improve their lessons on requests by using pragmatics research and authentic examples as a guide.


Author(s):  
Marco Tonti ◽  
Omar C.G. Gelo

This study investigates the relationship between a client’s rate of speech (ROS) and emotional-cognitive regulation during a psychotherapy session. The ROS was measured in words per second on the timed transcript of a single session of psychodynamic psychotherapy. Emotional-cognitive regulation was assessed using the therapeutic cycles model on emotional tone (ET), abstraction (AB), and their combination in emotion-abstraction patterns (EAPs). The results were mostly consistent with our hypotheses and showed that: i) the ROS negatively correlated with the conjoined ET and AB; and ii) the ROS in the connecting EAP (high ET and high AB) was significantly lower than in other EAPs. The results support the hypothesis that a significant reduction in the client’s ROS may be a reliable marker of in-session change processes. Clinical implications and future developments are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Liu ◽  
Xiaoxing Huang

Academic resilience refers to the ability to recover and achieve high academic outcomes despite environmental adversity in the academic setting. At the same time, self-determination theory (SDT) offers a human agency model to understand individuals' autonomy to achieve in various fields. The present longitudinal study explored the factors influencing resilience from the analytical framework of SDT to investigate how basic psychological needs strengthen students' resilience. A mediation model was proposed that resilience may mediate the relationship between basic psychological needs and academic performance. The results from 450 10th grade Chinese students showed that three basic psychological needs (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) facilitate academic resilience; academic resilience thus increases subsequent academic performance after controlling for previous test scores.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alexandra Cooper

<p>Double taxation agreements pose a particular analytical problem. While they provide a coherent structure that encourages cross-border investment, the agreements also provide opportunities for taxpayers to avoid their domestic tax obligations. To prevent tax avoidance, some countries enact domestic general anti-avoidance rules to protect their domestic interests. These rules raise questions as to what the relationship between the domestic law and the double tax agreement is. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Committee on Fiscal Affairs provides Commentary on the Organisation for Cooperation and Economic Development Model Double Tax Agreement. This Commentary sets out an analytical framework from which this relationship is to be evaluated. This paper argues that the framework is of little practical significance. The paper concludes that the weight and usefulness of the Commentary lies in a guiding principle set out in the Commentary. Consequently, the wider interpretative approaches do not practically add to the analysis and should be given little weight.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasti Holstun ◽  
Neil Rigsbee ◽  
Lynn Bohecker

This correlational study explored the relationship between feedback and counselor self-efficacy during online counselor education residency. Participants (N=145) were students from eight Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited online counseling programs who completed instruments on perceptions of positive and corrective feedback, attitudes towards corrective feedback, and counselor self-efficacy. Results showed a significant positive correlation between perceptions of corrective feedback and self-efficacy. Two factors related to perceptions of corrective feedback also showed significant correlations with self-efficacy. Implications concerning providing corrective feedback in supervision for counselor in training are discussed.


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