Difference between revisions of "Antaki1996"

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Revision as of 05:00, 14 October 2018

Antaki1996
BibType ARTICLE
Key Antaki1996
Author(s) Charles Antaki, Mark Rapley
Title ‘Quality of Life’ Talk: The Liberal Paradox of Psychological Testing
Editor(s)
Tag(s) Discursive Psychology
Publisher
Year 1996
Language
City
Month
Journal Discourse & Society
Volume 7
Number 3
Pages 293–316
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/0957926596007003002
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

The new discourse of `quality of life' is highly consequential for those whose lives are regulated by medical and psychological services, but at the heart of it there is a paradox. On the one hand, psychologists are committed to assessing the wellbeing of their clients; on the other hand, their theorization of `quality of life' and their diagnostic interview procedures cordon off its official definition from ordinary usages. This paper explores how interviewers try to solve the paradox by `naturalizing' their questioning, in spite of interviewees' orientation to the clinical test that motivates it. We pay close attention to the actual practice of assessment interviews and show how troubles arise due to mismatches between the `natural' and the official in two crucial aspects: the motivation for asking about someone's quality of life and how to deal with the `irrelevant' material and troubles talk that the client might provide as an answer. We show how interviewers use cover identifications, pro-verbs and prodescriptions to solve the paradox they face. We conclude that whatever such interviews achieve, it is not so much a record of the respondent's quality of life but of the interviewer and interviewee's joint management of a paradoxical encounter.

Notes