Ford2018a
| Ford2018a | |
|---|---|
| BibType | INCOLLECTION |
| Key | Ford2018a |
| Author(s) | Joseph Ford |
| Title | Empathy as a way of acknowledging patients’ personhood in palliative care interactions |
| Editor(s) | Elizabeth Peel, Carol Holland, Michael Murray |
| Tag(s) | EMCA, Discursive psychology, Discourse analysis, Empathy, Medical interaction, Palliative care |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Year | 2018 |
| Language | English |
| City | Cham |
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| Pages | 79–104 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-3-319-97034-9_4 |
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| Howpublished | |
| Book title | Psychologies of Ageing: Theory, Research and Practice |
| Chapter | |
Abstract
The so-called discursive turn in social psychology has provided a framework for understanding psychological processes as interactional phenomena. This chapter considers how doctors actually provide support, focusing particularly on how they empathise with their older patients during end-of-life or palliative care. Using conversation analysis to examine recordings of actual doctor-patient consultations taken from a hospice, this research demonstrates that empathy is an omnipresent feature of palliative care interaction. This means that doctors display it both when responding to patients’ emotional disclosures, and when recognising the concerns that patients might have regarding, for example, difficult-to-follow advice. These findings build upon earlier research showing the end stages of life to be individual and varied, rather than adhering to generic, one-size-fits-all conceptions of what constitutes “good death.” They also have practical implications, as well as illustrating the benefits that an approach grounded in discourse (rather than cognition) can have for research in the psychology of ageing.
Notes
