This article first provides an overview and brief history of relational dialectics theory (RDT) before turning to a presentation of RDT's basic tenets and theoretical utility. In addition, it also examines how RDT...
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This article first provides an overview and brief history of relational dialectics theory (RDT) before turning to a presentation of RDT's basic tenets and theoretical utility. In addition, it also examines how RDT has been applied in studying family contexts and offers suggestions for future directions of RDT-based research.
作者:
Conrad, Jordan B.Coohey, CarolUniv Iowa
Dept Commun Studies Iowa City IA 52245 USA Univ Iowa
Sch Social Work Iowa City IA 52245 USA Univ Iowa
Natl Resource Ctr Family Ctr Practice Iowa City IA 52245 USA Univ Iowa
Iowa Ctr Sch Mental Hlth Iowa City IA 52245 USA
Examining synchronous chats from an online suicide crisis intervention, we used contrapuntal analysis to identify competing discourses of meaning among online suicide chat users. Contrapuntal analysis revealed two eme...
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Examining synchronous chats from an online suicide crisis intervention, we used contrapuntal analysis to identify competing discourses of meaning among online suicide chat users. Contrapuntal analysis revealed two emergent discourses in competition to make meaning of suicide among crisis chat users: Discourses of the Precious Life (DPL) and Discourses of Life as a Thing (DLT). The results provide a nuanced understanding of the cultural meaning of suicide presented in chat visitors' discourse. Aside from the theoretical implications for RDT 2.0 focused research, this study extends a growing body of suicide research that foregrounds culture as a basis for understanding the meaning of suicide from the perspective of the lived experience.
With the development of social media, parents must figure out how to guide their children's use or even whether to allow it. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 30 parents of daughters aged ...
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With the development of social media, parents must figure out how to guide their children's use or even whether to allow it. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 30 parents of daughters aged 12-18. relational dialectics theory 2.0 was used to analyze how parents' talk revealed their sense-making of their role in adolescent daughters' social media use. Analysis revealed that parents voiced competing discourses pertaining to "bad" versus "good" parents and monitoring versus trusting daughters. Discourses that take place at the distal level compete with those at the proximal site of the utterance chain, challenging parents to engage in sense-making. Findings suggest that the advice of open communication between parent and adolescent addresses only the proximal level and not the distal level of societal expectations for monitoring and close involvement required of the "good parent." To make sense of and manage competing discourses, parents appear to couple conversations with daughters with voicing discourses of daughter uniqueness as a way to favor trusting over monitoring and still maintain a "good" parent identity.
Framed by relational dialectics theory, the current investigation sought to understand women's meaning making processes in publicly shared stories about birth trauma. Contrapuntal analysis was used to identify cul...
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Framed by relational dialectics theory, the current investigation sought to understand women's meaning making processes in publicly shared stories about birth trauma. Contrapuntal analysis was used to identify culturally dominant systems of meaning embedded in women's talk about traumatic birth. Forty-one stories recounting traumatic births were analyzed within a variety of contexts (e.g., natural birth, cesarean, preemie). The dominant discourse of traumatic birth as incongruent with intensive motherhood informed much of women's communication about traumatic birth. Discursive interplay was also identified through the struggle between the discourse of traumatic birth as incongruent with intensive motherhood and the discourse of individualism.
Heterosexual women have intersecting identities that are privileged (i.e., sexuality) and marginalized (i.e., gender), suggesting a complicated site to examine power in the process of dating where meaning has become t...
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Heterosexual women have intersecting identities that are privileged (i.e., sexuality) and marginalized (i.e., gender), suggesting a complicated site to examine power in the process of dating where meaning has become taken-for-granted over time. In this study, we utilized relational dialectics theory's (RDT's) corresponding method, contrapuntal analysis, to examine a group that holds fluctuating societal power in the context of heterosexuality and dating. Findings from the responses of women (n = 104) revealed two discourses that competed to illuminate the meaning of heterosexual dating from the perspective of women: the dominant Discourse that Dating is Romantic and Necessary (DDRN) and the marginal Discourse that Dating is Restrictive and Unrealistic (DDRU). These discourses interplayed through contractive practices (i.e., disqualification and naturalization), diachronic separation, synchronic interplay (i.e., entertaining, countering, and negating), and dialogic transformation (i.e., discursive hybridization and aesthetic moment), illuminating a discursive struggle that both reified and resisted the DDRN.
What misinformation means and what it means to be someone who corrects it is socially contested, especially in interpersonal contexts where politeness expectations complicate correction. Given this flux in meaning, we...
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What misinformation means and what it means to be someone who corrects it is socially contested, especially in interpersonal contexts where politeness expectations complicate correction. Given this flux in meaning, we analyze posts about misinformation correction in interpersonal contexts from the AmItheAsshole subreddit through a relational dialectics theory (RDT) lens. Findings revealed that discourses of misinformation as harmful and as innocuous and potentially helpful constituted the meaning of misinformation, while discourses of misinformation correctors as inconsiderate and as communal guardians constituted the meaning of misinformation correctors. The latter meaning was dependent on the meaning of misinformation and the adjacent ideology of politeness. Thus, we extend RDT by elucidating how the meaning of a semantic object is predicated on a web of larger intertextual meaning.
Military and veteran-connected family scholarship focusing on transitions has a lengthy history across disciplines. Much of this research involves normative military center dot families (i.e., a service member husband...
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Military and veteran-connected family scholarship focusing on transitions has a lengthy history across disciplines. Much of this research involves normative military center dot families (i.e., a service member husband and civilian wife with biological children);however, military families are diverse, due in part to societal and military policy changes (e.g., marriage equality;repeal of "don't ask, don't tell"). Although theories used in the past might still apply, we argue that critical theories are useful, even necessary, for studying the experiences of normative and nonnormative military families (e.g., those with same gender spouses or parents, stepfamilies), as both are nontraditional relative to their civilian counterparts. We share an approach developed within communication, relational dialectics theory (RDT), that focuses on power from a critical perspective and offers ideas for potential positive social change. RDT also provides contrapuntal analysis, a method ideal for studying relational turning points and transitional periods of military center dot and veteran-connected families.
The majority of existing research regarding birth and the transition to motherhood focuses on the physical health outcomes of mother and baby, often ignoring the social and emotional impact of the birth process (Legge...
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The majority of existing research regarding birth and the transition to motherhood focuses on the physical health outcomes of mother and baby, often ignoring the social and emotional impact of the birth process (Leggett, 2014). The lack of focus on social and emotional outcomes for new mothers may be especially harmful for those who experience traumatic birth, as it is subjective in nature and is often overlooked as a routine birth by health professionals (Alder, Stadlmayr, Tschudin, & Bitzer, 2006; Beck, 2004a). Traumatic childbirth is defined as an event occurring during the labor and delivery process that involves actual or threatened serious injury or death to the mother or her infant (Beck, 2004a). Framed by relational dialectics theory (Baxter, 2011), the current investigation sought to understand women's meaning making processes in publicly shared stories about birth trauma and transition to motherhood. Contrapuntal analysis (Baxter, 2011) was used to identify culturally dominant systems of meaning embedded in women's talk about traumatic birth and their transition to motherhood. Forty-one women's stories recounting traumatic births were analyzed within a variety of contexts (e. g., natural birth, cesarean, preemie). The dominant discourse of intensive motherhood informed much of women's talk about pregnancy, traumatic birth, and transition to motherhood. Discursive interplay was also identified during pregnancy, birth, and motherhood communication through the struggle between the discourse of intensive motherhood and the discourse of individualism through negating, countering, and entertaining. Mothers only distanced themselves from the discourse of intensive motherhood when they spoke about their traumatic birth on an individual level, outside their role as mother, as women were largely supported intensive motherhood.
Despite modest growth in interpretive research, the study of family communication remains predominantly situated within postpositivism to the relative neglect of critical approaches. We argue that this inattention der...
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Despite modest growth in interpretive research, the study of family communication remains predominantly situated within postpositivism to the relative neglect of critical approaches. We argue that this inattention derives partly from the limited number of critically inflected family communication theories. In this article, we seek to encourage critical family communication theorizing. We do so by explicating the critical underpinnings of the recent rearticulation of relational dialectics theory, RDT version 2.0 (Baxter, 2011). We frame our (re)reading in terms of critical family communication considerations of power;connection of private familial spheres to larger public discourses and structures;and inherent openness to critique, resistance, and transformation of the status quo (Suter, 2016).
This research examines how family discourse or talk about severe mental illness (SMI) creates and animates familial identity. More specifically, we sought to understand the interplay of competing discourses present in...
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This research examines how family discourse or talk about severe mental illness (SMI) creates and animates familial identity. More specifically, we sought to understand the interplay of competing discourses present in family members' talk about their experiences of living with and caring for a family member with SMI. We gathered data through ethnographic interviews with 20 family members of persons with SMI and a history of violent behavior. Our analysis revealed two primary discursive struggles: a normal yet abnormal family and physically/emotionally close yet distant family relationships. Our findings highlight how participants use various discourses to co-create a sense of who they are and what it means to be part of a family defined by SMI and violence.
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