Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to submit your manuscript to SPPS

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (3)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Beach, W. A.
Right arrow Articles by Good, J. S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Uncertain Family Trajectories: Interactional Consequences of Cancer Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis

Wayne A. Beach

Jeffrey S. Good

San Diego State University

Analysis of a corpus of family phone calls reveals how family members routinely address uncertain issues when attempting to understand cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. A large collection of moments are overviewed and organized into three prominent social activities: biomedical reportings about anonymous medical staff; references to doctors in anticipation of explanations; and assessing the care provided by doctors and medical staff. Specific attention is drawn to how reportings include lay depictions about lack of knowledge, ambiguities associated with the passage of time, and emergent troubles with pain and medication. These instances make clear how family cancer journeys are interactionally organized events, comprised of distinct communication practices for raising and resolving illness dilemmas.

Key Words: conversation analysis • family cancer • illness and uncertainty • lay understandings of technical procedures

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Vol. 21, No. 1, 8-32 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0265407504039839
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Qual Health ResHome page
E. Donovan-Kicken and J. J. Bute
Uncertainty of Social Network Members in the Case of Communication-Debilitating Illness or Injury
Qual Health Res, January 1, 2008; 18(1): 5 - 18.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Communication ResearchHome page
L. K. Knobloch and D. H. Solomon
Relational Uncertainty and Relational Information Processing: Questions without Answers?
Communication Research, June 1, 2005; 32(3): 349 - 388.
[Abstract] [PDF]