Social Representations of Diagnosis in the Consultation

Sanders, Tom and Roberts, Diane (2018) Social Representations of Diagnosis in the Consultation. Sociology, 52 (6). pp. 1185-1199. ISSN 0038-0385

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Abstract

Observations of physiotherapy consultations and qualitative interviews with patients were conducted to explore the clinical explanation for sciatic pain. We report three themes which illustrate the contested and negotiated order of the clinical explanation: anchoring, resistance and normalisation. We show using the theory of social representations how the social order in the physiotherapy consultation is maintained, contested and rearticulated. We highlight the importance of agency in patients’ ability to resist the clinical explanation and in turn shape the clinical discourse within the consultation. Social representations offer insights into how the world is viewed by different individuals, in our case physiotherapists and patients with sciatic pain symptoms. The negotiation about the diagnosis reveals the malleable and socially constructed nature of pain and the meaning making process underpinning it. The study has implications for understanding inequalities in the consultation and the key ingredients of consensus.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	clinician–patient communication, diagnosis, labelling, medicalisation, social representations
Subjects:	B900 Others in Subjects allied to Medicine C800 Psychology
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Depositing User:	Paul Burns
Date Deposited:	18 Jan 2019 14:58
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 22:45
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/37660

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