Classification of Dentists' Types of Talk and Their Application in Doctor-patient Conversation—In the Case of Pediatric Dental Treatment

• Main Authors: Zhe-yuan Liang, 梁哲源
• Other Authors: Shin-Mei Kao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/89214390753916654010

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 外國語文學系碩博士班 === 96 === Previous literature points out that the content of dentists' talk influences the behavior of the child patients, especially that of the anxious ones (Nash, 2006). However, few studies have been conducted to examine the effects of anxiety, age, and gender of child patients on the talk types of dentists. Two distinct views concerning the talk types have been proposed: dichotomy and multifunctionality. In favor of multifunctionality, Holmes (2000) proposes a continuum with the “core business talk” and “phatic communion” at the two ends based on workplace discourse. By modifying the continuum framework proposed by Holmes (2000), the present study aims to create a suitable framework of talk types in clinical discourse, and to investigate the relationships of three sets of variables: the correlation of the talk types of the pediatric dentists with (1) the anxiety and non-cooperativity levels, (2) age, and (3) gender of their child patients. The data were obtained from 13 treatment sessions conducted by two pediatric dentists (one male and one female) with their child patients (7 boys and 6 girls) at a private dental clinic in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Based on the collected data, a matrix system was developed. This matrix is composed of three criteria, relevance, phaticity, and informativity, for locating four talk types of the pediatric dentists on a continuum from medicine-focused talk, medicine-related talk, relational talk to phatic communion. Based on the talk types, the quantitative analysis was conducted through Spearman correlation to find the relationships between the three sets of variables aforementioned. The major findings are as follows. 1. A significant and negative correlation was found between relational talk of the pediatric dentists and the anxiety and non-cooperativity levels of their child patients. 2. A significant and positive correlation was obtained between medicine-related talk of the pediatric dentists and the anxiety and non-cooperativity levels of their child patients. 3. A significant and negative correlation was found between medicine-related talk of the pediatric dentists and the age of their child patients. 4. A significant and negative correlation was found between relational talk of the pediatric dentists and the anxiety and non-cooperativity levels of the boys, while a significant and positive correlation was obtained between medicine-related talk of the pediatric dentists and the anxiety and non-cooperativity levels of the girls. These findings demonstrate that the talk types of the pediatric dentists have a great effect on the performance of the child patients. These results may be explained by considering developmental changes in children and the gender difference in their socialization processes. In conclusion, this study may be of importance in providing a more specific and quantifiable coding system, as well as explaining the dynamic relationships of the talk types of the pediatric dentists with the anxiety and non-cooperativity levels, age, and gender of their child patients through quantitative analysis of the coding system.