An Ethnographic Study Of The Role Of Humor In Health Care Transactions (Studies in Health and Human Services, 53)

This book examines conversational humor in communicative exchanges during the health care transaction. Our focus is on interactive humor at a specific cultural site as it actually occurs. This study is based on the assumption that the participants at this site routinely engage in some form of humor exchange during interpersonal communication in health care transactions. Given the prevalence of humor use in the health setting, as well as the lack of attention devoted to this important phenomenon in the extant literature, this study set out to explore two fundamental questions. The first question that must be addressed is: If the participants (nurse and resident) in a long term care relationship construct conversational humor or participate in humor exchanges, what are the humorous exchanges accomplishing? What functions do they serve? The second question deals with the humor strategies and their organization by the participants: How are the humor exchanges being accomplished? In other words, what humor strategies and communicative behaviors do the participants apply during health care transactions?

Dr. Lance R. Lippert has a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University and is currently an Assistant Professor of Communication at Illinois State University. He has published articles on several topics in the area of organizational communication, health communication, and instructional communication. Dr. Lippert's major research interests include organizational culture, humor use in various organizational and health contexts, leadership, and the communication needs of students at-risk. Dr. Stephen K. Hunt has a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University and is currently an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the basic communication course at Illinois State University. He has published articles on several topics including instructional communication, persuasion, and communication pedagogy. Dr. Hunt's major research interests include the communication needs of students at-risk, students learning/cognitive styles, compliance-gaining, and training/mentoring graduate students.