In this study, the construction of rumour on Twitter during a specific crisis is analysed from a discursive psychological perspective. This perspective treats psychological concepts such as identities as discursive constructions. The selected case is the robbery of a jewellery store in Deurne, a village in the Netherlands. The jeweller’s wife was said to have shot two of the robbers. Although this fact was not officially confirmed, people used particular discursive strategies to present the act of the jeweller’s wife as factual, which influenced the way the media reported on this case, as well as the reaction of the prosecutor, which was described as premature. Four dominant discursive patterns were detected, that is: normalizing the act, evaluating the act, upgrading the act and anticipating on the consequences of the act. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how critical tweets, displaying a concern for nuancing the overall tendency of the tweets, were designed in a way that downplayed their overt critical character. Implications of the analysis for crisis communication professionals are discussed. In deze studie wordt geruchtvorming in kaart gebracht met behulp van discursieve psychologie, waarin psychologische concepten zoals identiteit worden behandeld als discursieve constructies. De casus betreft een juwelenrook in Deurne, Nederland, waarbij de vrouw van de juwelier ervan beschuldigd werd twee overvallers te hebben doodgeschoten. Deze beschuldiging werd als feit behandeld op sociale media, ook al was dit nog niet officieel bevestigd. Dit beïnvloedde zowel de nieuwsberichtgeving, als de reactie van de officier van justitie in de media. Vier dominante discursieve patronen werden ontdekt in de discussie over de vermeende daad: normaliseren, evalueren, upgraden en anticiperen op de gevolgen. Ook wordt gedemonstreerd hoe tweets die nuance aanbrengen in de discussie, voorzichtig worden geformuleerd, waardoor het kritische karakter ervan wordt geminimaliseerd. Implicaties voor professionals in risiscommunicatie worden besproken.
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Oncology healthcare professionals (HCPs) and cancer patients often have difficulties in navigating conversations about sexual changes and concerns due to cancer and its treatments. The present study draws on Discursive Psychology to analyze how the topic of sexuality is raised and managed in Dutch oncological consultations. Our corpus consists of 28 audio recordings. We analyzed the discursive practices used by cancer patients and oncology HCPs and to what effect. Patients, on the one hand, employ vagueness, pronouns, and ellipses, while HCPs attribute talk to others and use generalizations, and speech perturbations. Through these practices they collectively keep the topic of sexuality at a distance, thereby constructing it as a delicate topic. Moreover, we explicate the norms related to sexual behavior that cancer patients and oncology HCPs orient to in their talk. Finally, we address ways in which oncology HCPs can open the door on discussing sexual changes with their patients.
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Chronic pain rehabilitation programs are aimed at helping patients to increase their functioning despite being in pain, thereby improving their quality of life. However, conversations between patients and practitioners about how the patient could deal with his/her pain and pain-related disabilities in a different way can be interactionally challenging. This study adopts a discursive psychological perspective to explore how pain-related disability is negotiated by patients and practitioners during consultations. The analysis shows that pain-related disability is treated by both patients and practitioners as negotiable rather than a fixed reality. Moreover, it shows that patients’ and practitioners’ negotiations of disability are subject to issues of agency, accountability, and blame, and it provides insight into the interactional dilemmas that are at stake, both for patients and practitioners. Revalidatieprogramma’s voor patiënten met chronische pijn zijn gericht op het verbeteren van het functioneren ondanks de pijn, waardoor kwaliteit van leven wordt bevorderd. Conversaties tussen patiënten en behandelaars over de manier waarop de patiënt kan omgaan met de pijn en gerelateerde beperkingen kunnen interactionele uitdagingen met zich meebrengen. Dit hoofdstuk verkent vanuit discursief-psychologisch perspectief hoe beperkingen worden onderhandeld door patiënten en behandelaars in consulten. De analyse toont aan dat de beperkingen worden behandeld als onderhandelbaar in plaats van als een onveranderbare werkelijkheid. Bovendien toont de analyse dat in deze onderhandelingen bepaalde issues relevant worden gemaakt, zoals ‘agency’, verantwoordelijkheid en schuld. Inzicht wordt geboden in de interactionele dilemma’s die op het spel staan voor zowel patiënten als behandelaars.
