"Whoever increases his knowledge merely increases his heartache." Moral tensions in heart surgery patients' and their spouses' talk about information seeking. Discourse analysis, Social constructionism, Heart surgery, Information seeking

The paper analyses accounts of information behaviour that are produced by 20 heart surgery patients and their spouses. It is shown that patients and their significant others have to act in a context in which health ideologies stressing self sufficiency and patient compliance play a strong role. Thus...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tuominen Kimmo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Borås 2004-01-01
Series:Information Research: An International Electronic Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://informationr.net/ir/10-1/paper202.html
Description
Summary:The paper analyses accounts of information behaviour that are produced by 20 heart surgery patients and their spouses. It is shown that patients and their significant others have to act in a context in which health ideologies stressing self sufficiency and patient compliance play a strong role. Thus, the analysed accounts and narratives of information seeking reflect moral demands that ill persons and their significant others are facing in contemporary society. The author uses social constructionist discourse analysis to examine how the interviewees have to relate their descriptions of information practices to existing moral presuppositions on how rational individuals should behave.
ISSN:1368-1613