Ninth Edition CoverGraziano & Raulin
Research Methods (9th edition)

Phases of Research: Example #2
Doctor/Patient Conversations

Idea-Generating Phase:

Doctor/patient interactions are very complex. Patients come in with descriptions of what is wrong with them (the symptoms). However, they also present their own explanations for the illness (the diagnosis). How the doctor and patient interact, what they say to each other, and what each is willing to accept from the other may have important bearing on the treatment that is eventually prescribed. Can we study this interaction?

Problem-Definition Phase:

The researchers reasoned that both patients and doctors have expectations about what each has to say, and they may have some unstated understandings of their relative roles and of what are the "proper" domains of competency for each of them. Basically, this is a complicated social interaction. Can we determine patterns in these social activities? In this research, the goal was to identify areas of competence that are implicitly accepted by the two parties in their social interaction.

Procedures-Design Phase:

This research is at the case study level of research. It is descriptive in nature. The researchers planned to make videotape recordings of doctor/patient conversations. The videotapes would then be observed and evaluated by the researchers, who would analyze the speech sequences. In this way, they would determine the content of each participant's communications, and identify the type of information each is willing to present to, and to accept from, the other. Of course, great care was taken to obtain the informed consent of the doctors and the patients.

Observation Phase:

As planned in the procedures-design phase, the data were collected by videotaping doctor/patient discussions.

Data-Analysis Phase:

A qualitative, rather than a statistical, analysis of the sequences of statements was carried out. The procedure is a descriptive approach known as conversation analysis.

Interpretation Phase:

Doctors accept the validity and competence of the patients' presentations of the facts--the descriptions of their symptoms. That is, they accept the patients' knowledge about their own physical experiences. The realm of valid knowledge that doctors ascribe to their patients is a narrow one--one that is restricted to describing facts and presenting evidence.

Communication Phase:

These descriptive case findings are communicated to other researchers in the journal publication:

Gill, V. T. (1999). Doing attributions in medical interactions: Patients' explanations for illness and doctor's responses. Social Psychology Quarterly, 61, 342-360.