Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:52:11.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Doing Micro-Analysis of Discourse: The Case of Ageing and Wellbeing

from Part II - Perspectives and Modes of Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2020

By
Rachel Heinrichsmeier
Edited by
Anna De Fina  and
Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Anna De Fina
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Alexandra Georgakopoulou
Affiliation:
King's College London
Get access

Summary

Wellbeing is generally conceptualized as being essentially inner to an individual; discourse analysis would seem to have nothing to say here. In this chapter, we take the case of ageing and wellbeing as a case study for examining just what micro-analysis of interaction can offer us in terms of both understanding and researching states like wellbeing in later life. Drawing on the micro-analytic toolbox of conversation analysis, this chapter helps us see how wellbeing can be at least partly co-constructed in everyday interactions, specifically in quality interactions. The chapter examines some of the key findings of research into quality interaction among older populations in care settings and the links made to wellbeing. It then turns its attention to everyday settings in the community, still the majority experience for older people but the minority focus of interactionally orientated research studies. Discussions of such studies are interwoven with detailed analyses of naturally occurring audio-recorded interactions in a hair salon with older clients. Wellbeing, it is argued, is partly achieved through both the immediate fulfillment offered through talk – whether laughing together or telling troubles – and the positive identities that are afforded. The wider research implications are then discussed, in particular with respect to the ways in which interviews are used and the kinds of setting that need to be studied.

Keywords

Micro discourse analysisapplied conversation analysisquality interactionidentity/iesageing and later lifecare homeseveryday settingsinterviewslaughtertroubles telling
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies , pp. 143 - 164
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

This collection encompasses studies of communication with older people in different care settings. The range of approaches allows readers to appreciate the insights afforded by different methods.

This is a very influential study in the field of discursive approaches to later life. The data are experimental, but the authors show clearly how detailed analysis of participants’ actual talk reveals more nuance about what is going on in particular exchanges than simple quantitative measures.

This collection offers multiple perspectives on narrative and older age, encompassing not only narrative as therapy but also the way different groups construct themselves through narrative.

This is an excellent collection of essays encompassing a wide range of aspects of communication and ageing. Although the chapters do not explicitly focus on wellbeing, many argue that wellbeing is at issue (for example those by Coupland and Grainger).

This volume explores representations of ageing from several different disciplinary perspectives. Although not all the authors adopt a strictly language-based discourse-analytic approach, the chapters, as a whole, offer insights into the way everyday discourses connect with wider societal discourses.

Backhaus, P. (ed.) (2011). Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Coupland, N., Coupland, J. and Giles, H. (1991). Language, Society and the Elderly. Oxford, UK/Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kenyon, G.M., Bohlmeijer, E. and Randall, W.L. (eds.) (2011). Storying Later Life: Issues, Investigations, and Interventions in Narrative Gerontology. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, J. F. and Coupland, J. (eds.) (2004). Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Ylänne, V. (2012). Representing Ageing: Images and Identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar

References

Agren, A. (2017). What Are We Talking About? Constructions of Loneliness among Older People in the Swedish News-Press. Journal of Aging Studies 41: 18–27.Google Scholar
Andrews, F. M. and Robinson, J. P. (1991). Measures of Subjective Wellbeing. In Robinson, J. P., Shaver, P. R. and Wrightsman, L. S. (eds.) Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. 61–114.Google Scholar
Antaki, C. (2011). Six Kinds of Applied Conversation Analysis. In Antaki, C. (ed.) Applied Conversation Analysis: Intervention and Change in Institutional Talk. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 1–14.Google Scholar
Ashida, S., Sewell, D., Schafer, E. and Schroer, A. and Friberg, J. (2018). Social Network Members Who Engage in Activities with Older Adults: Do They Bring More Social Benefits than Other Members? Ageing and Society 39(5): 1050–69.Google Scholar
Backhaus, P. (2011a). “Me Nurse, You Resident”: Institutional Role-Play in a Japanese Caring Facility. In Backhaus, P. (ed.) Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Kindle ed. London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Backhaus, P. (ed.) (2011b). Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Kindle ed. London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Blanchflower, D. G. and Oswald, A. J. (2008). Is Well-Being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle? Social Science & Medicine 66(8): 1733–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005). Identity and Interaction: A Sociolinguistic Linguistic Approach. Discourse Studies 7 (4–5): 585–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calasanti, T., Sorensen, A. and King, N. (2012). Anti-ageing Advertisements and Perceptions of Ageing. In Ylänne, V. (ed.) Representing Ageing: Images and Identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 19–35.Google Scholar
Charalambidou, A. (2011). Language and the Ageing Self: A Social Interactional Approach to Identity Constructions of Greek Cypriot Older Women. Unpublished PhD thesis, King’s College London.Google Scholar
Chatwin, J. (2014). Conversation Analysis as a Method for Investigating Interaction in Care Home Environment. Dementia 13(6): 737–46.Google Scholar
Coupland, J. and Gwyn, R. (eds.) (2003). Discourse, the Body, and Identity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. (2004). Age in Social and Sociolinguistic Theory. In Nussbaum, J. F. and Coupland, J. (eds.) Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 69–90.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. (2011). Preface. In Backhaus, P. (ed.) Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Kindle ed. London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Coupland, N. and Coupland, J. (1999). Ageing, Ageism and Anti-ageism: Moral Stance in Geriatric Medical Discourse. In Hamilton, H. E. (ed.) Language and Communication in Old Age: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. New York/London: Garland. 177–208.Google Scholar
Coupland, N., Coupland, J. and Giles, H. (1991). Language, Society and the Elderly. Oxford, UK/Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Custers, A. F. J., Kuin, Y., Riksen-Walraven, M. and Westerhof, G. J. (2011). Need Support and Wellbeing during Morning Care Activities: An Observational Study on Resident–Staff Interaction in Nursing Homes. Ageing and Society 31(8): 1425–42.Google Scholar
De Fina, A. (2011). Special Issue: Researcher and Informant Roles in Narrative Interactions: Constructions of Belonging and Foreign-ness. Language in Society 40(1): 27–38.Google Scholar
Dickinson, A. and Gregor, P. (2006). Computer Use Has No Demonstrated Impact on the Well-Being of Older Adults. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 64(8): 744–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, D. and Potter, J. (1992). Discursive Psychology. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Engfer, H. (2011). Cake or Meat? A Case Study on Dinner Conversations in a Migrant-in-the-Family Household in Germany. In Backhaus, P. (ed.) Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Kindle ed. London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Fealy, G. et al. (2012). Constructing Ageing and Age Identities: A Case Study of Newspaper Discourses. Ageing and Society 32(1): 85–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gee, J. P. (2008). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, 3rd (Kindle) ed. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A. (2007). Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Goodwin, C. (2007). Interactive Footing. In Holt, E. and Clift, R. (eds.) Reporting Talk: Reported Speech in Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 16–46.Google Scholar
Grainger, K. (2004). Communication and the Institutionalized Elderly. In Nussbaum, J. F. and Coupland, J. (eds.) Handbook of Communication and Aging Research, Kindle ed. Mahwah, NJ/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 479–97.Google Scholar
Heinemann, T. (2011). From Home to Institution: Roles, Relations, and the Loss of Autonomy in the Care of Old People in Denmark. In Backhaus, P. (ed.) Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Kindle ed. London /New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Heinrichsmeier, R. (2016). The Interactional Construction of Ageing Identities: A Linguistic Ethnography of Older Women’s Narratives, Talk and Other Practices in a Hair Salon. Unpublished PhD thesis, King’s College London.Google Scholar
Heinrichsmeier, R. (2020). Ageing Identities and Women’s Everyday Talk in a Hair Salon. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. N. and Vesperi, M. D. (1995). The Culture of Long Term Care: Nursing Home Ethnography, Kindle ed. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Hydén, L. C. and Örulv, L. (2009). Narrative and Identity in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Case Study. Journal of Aging Studies 23(4): 205–14.Google Scholar
Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of Transcript Symbols with an Introduction. In Lerner, G. H. (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 13–31.Google Scholar
Jolanki, O. H. (2004). Moral Argumentation in Talk about Health and Old Age. Health 8(4): 483–503.Google Scholar
Keyes, C. L. M., Shmotkin, D. and Ryff, C. D. (2002). Optimizing Well-Being: The Empirical Encounter of Two Traditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82(6): 1007–22.Google Scholar
Kotthoff, H. (2006). Gender and Humor: The State of the Art. Journal of Pragmatics 38(1): 4–25.Google Scholar
Lumme-Sandt, (2011). Images of Ageing in a 50+ Magazine. Journal of Aging Studies 25(1): 45–51.Google Scholar
Marsden, S. and Holmes, J. (2014). Talking to the Elderly in New Zealand Residential Care Settings. Journal of Pragmatics 64: 17–34.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Y. (2009). Special Issue: Dealing with Life Changes: Humour in Painful Self-Disclosures by Elderly Japanese Women. Ageing & Society 29(6): 929–52.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, Y. (2019). Looking through the Glasses of Lee, a Woman with Alzheimer’s. Corpora in Language and Aging Research (CLARe4) (Helsinki, February 27–March 1).Google Scholar
Moremen, R. D. (2008). Best Friends: The Role of Confidantes in Older Women’s Health. Journal of Women & Aging 20(1–2): 149–67.Google Scholar
Näslund, S. (2017). Age Ascription as a Resource and a Source of Resistance: An Interactional Study of Health Professionals’ Castings of Patients into the Category “Old.” Journal of Aging Studies 41(Supplement C): 28–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, A. and Mandelbaum, J. (2005). Conversation Analytic Approaches to the Relevance and Uses of Relationship Categories in Interaction. In Fitch, K. L. and Sanders, R. E. (eds.) Handbook of Language and Social Interaction (e-book). Mahwah, NJ/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Rawlins, W. K. (2004). Friendships in Later Life. In Nussbaum, J. F. and Coupland, J. (eds.) Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Mahwah, NJ/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 273–99.Google Scholar
Ryan, E. B., Hummert, M. L. and Boich, L. H. (1995). Communication Predicaments of Aging: Patronizing Behavior toward Older Adults. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 14(1–2): 144–66.Google Scholar
Steptoe, A., Deaton, A. and Stone, A. A. (2015). Subjective Wellbeing, Health, and Ageing. The Lancet 385(9968): 640–8.Google Scholar
Uotila, H., Lumme-Sandt, K. and Saarenheimo, M. (2010). Lonely Older People as a Problem in Society: Construction in Finnish Media. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life 5(2): 103–30.Google Scholar
Ward, R., Vass, A., Aggarwal, N., Garfield, C. and Cybyk, B. (2008). A Different Story: Exploring Patterns of Communication in Residential Dementia Care. Ageing and Society 28(5): 629–51.Google Scholar
Wetherell, M. (2007). A Step Too Far: Discursive Psychology, Linguistic Ethnography and Questions of Identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 11(5): 661–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, K. N. (2011). Elderspeak in Institutional Care for Older Adults. In Backhaus, P. (ed.) Communication in Elderly Care: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Kindle ed. London/New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Wilson, C. (2018). Is It Love or Loneliness? Exploring the Impact of Everyday Digital Technology Use on the Wellbeing of Older Adults. Ageing and Society 38(7): 1307–31.Google Scholar
Wooffitt, R. and Widdicombe, S. (2006). Interaction in Interviews. In Drew, P., Raymond, G. and Weinberg, D. (eds.) Talk and Interaction in Social Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 28–49.Google Scholar
Wright, K. B. and Query, J. L. (2004). Online Support and Older Adults: A Theoretical Examination of Benefits and Limitations of Computer-Mediated Support Networks for Older Adults and Possible Health Outcomes. In Nussbaum, J. F. and Coupland, J. (eds.) Handbook of Communication and Aging Research. Mahwah, NJ/London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 499–519.Google Scholar
Ylänne, V. (2015). Representations of Ageing in the Media. In Twigg, J. and Martin, W. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. London: Routledge. 369–70.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×