A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Qualitative Research by David Silverman

Author:David Silverman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781446289570
Publisher: Sage Publisher
Published: 2013-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Eventually, this doctor concludes that Simon’s relaxed manner is merely ‘a cover-up’ for his self-consciousness about his appearance. Although this is rather an odd conclusion since Simon has freely admitted that he is concerned about his appearance, it generates general consent and all the doctors present agree that Simon is ‘motivated’ and should have his operation.

This deviant case considerably added to my understanding of the mechanics of decision making in the cleft-palate clinic. The English data had suggested that asking young people about their appearance tended to set them problems which could lead away from the cosmetic surgery they might want. The Australian data showed that, even where a patient confidently reported his concern about his appearance, this created a further complication. In this case, the doctors worried about how someone so concerned could present themselves in such a confident (or ‘sunny’) manner.

A Catch-22 situation was now revealed. The doctor’s practical reasoning unintentionally resulted in the following impasse:

1 To get surgery, you needed to complain about your appearance.

2 Those who were most troubled about their appearance would often be the least able to complain, so they would not get surgery.

3 Patients who did complain would be viewed as self-confident, hence their underlying troubles were open to doubt and they too might not get surgery.

The impasse derived from the coupling of the doctors’ understandable desire to elicit their patients’ own views with psychological versions of the meaning of what their patients actually said. This underlines the importance of understanding the versions that participants actually employ in their interactions and avoiding the search for a stable mental state ‘behind’ someone’s talk.

Once again, by locating single utterances within a sequence of talk, we are able to see the process through which they take on meaning. It remains to explore how far this process is purely interactional. To do this, I will take one further case which, although it is from a very different setting, seems to be very similar to what we have seen in the Australian cleft-palate clinic.

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