The present thesis examines how people manage difficult conversations in daily life through online surveys, live interaction studies, field studies, text analysis methods, topic models, and multilevel linear regression models. The thesis consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 establishes a process model of conversation avoidance, investigating people’s motivations, emotions, and behaviors when they are put into an unwanted conversation. I find that when people are concerned about their privacy, they are more likely to feel anxious and to stay quiet in the conversation. At the same time, when people are concerned about creating a conflict, they are more likely to feel angry and to leave the conversation. Chapter 2 evaluates the effectiveness of delaying conversations as an avoidance strategy. I find that although people prefer their partners to confess to them immediately after the events happened, people often delay their confessions. The waiting time is not associated with positive outcomes of the conversation or how their conversation partner reacts. Chapter 3 investigate a socio-ecological factor that predicts conversation avoidance and conversation seeking behaviors using the concept of relational mobility. I find that individuals with the ability to choose who they want to affiliate with are less concerned about their privacy or creating a conflict in a conversation. However, these individuals tend to have shallow conversations. Individuals with the ability to meet many new people tend to have deep conversations. Overall, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of how people handle difficult conversations in daily lives.

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Yes / Audio recordings of meetings of two community groups in a deprived inner-city area were analysed, using discursive psychological and conversation analytic techniques to explore situated enactments of ‘community’. Participants situated themselves as members; of a geographical community; of an “imagined” community; and, of other constitutive communities. A sense of community was enacted through five interactional strategies: affirming moral codes, ‘defending’ other members, distinguishing insiders from outsiders, enacting empowerment and challenging institutions. Participants regularly employed emotional displays and affirmed moral positions, both to constitute ‘community’ and to take action in it. In so doing they worked up social capital and positioned community concerns in ways more reflective of their own situated values than of criminal law or government policy.

The study aims to explore whether gender stereotypes are reflected, questioned, or redefined in the podcast medium. The research question specifically investigates differences in these patterns between male and female participants and examines the language used to express them. The study is theoretically grounded in Kerstin Nordenstam’s (1990), Catrin Norrby’s (2014) and Deborah Tannen’s (2013) observations regarding gender differences in conversation topics and styles. The research involves conducting a conversational analysis to explore gender stereotypical conversational patterns on six of Sweden's prominent podcast episodes; Alex och Sigges podcast, Aldrig ensam, Wahlgren & Wistam, 30's in the City, Kafferepet and Helvetet med Walden och Parisa. It involved a dual-level approach, initially a broad analysis was conducted of short segments from all six episodes. Subsequently, a more in-depth examination was carried out on two specific episodes, involving the analysis of more extensive portions of each conversation. The analysis reveals that gender stereotypes emerge in podcasts through topic choices, support signals, overlapping speech and word distribution. For instance, women often focus on personal relationships and use more support signals, while men exhibit more dominance, especially in overlapping speech. The analysis of word distribution also confirms previous research on longer male utterances. Conclusions are drawn regarding how these patterns are reinforced by the podcast's structure and content choices. The results provide insights into gender related conversational patterns. Scientifically, the study fills a gap by applying previous theories to the modern podcast medium, opening new avenues for research on gender and communication. Societally, the study highlights how these patterns contribute to maintaining gender norms and specific expectations.

Yes / Objective This study explores whether the profile of patients’ interactional behaviour in memory clinic conversations with a doctor can contribute to the clinical differentiation between functional memory disorders (FMD) and memory problems related to neurodegenerative diseases. Methods Conversation Analysis of video recordings of neurologists’ interactions with patients attending a specialist memory clinic. “Gold standard” diagnoses were made independently of CA findings by a multi-disciplinary team based on clinical assessment, neuropsychological testing and brain imaging. Results Two discrete conversational profiles for patients with memory complaints emerged, including (i) who attends the clinic (i.e., whether or not patients are accompanied), and (ii) patients’ responses to neurologists’ questions about memory problems, such as difficulties with compound questions and providing specific and elaborated examples and frequent “I don’t know” responses. Conclusion Specific communicative difficulties are characteristic of the interaction patterns of patients with a neurodegenerative pathology. Those difficulties are manifest in memory clinic interactions with neurologists, thereby helping to differentiate patients with dementia from those with FMD. Practical implications Our findings demonstrate that conversational profiles based on patients’ contributions to memory clinic encounters have diagnostic potential to assist the screening and referral process from primary care, and the diagnostic service in secondary care.

Yes / Objectives: In the UK dementia is under-diagnosed, there is limited access to specialist memory clinics, and many of the patients referred to such clinics are ultimately found to have functional (non-progressive) memory disorders (FMD), rather than a neurodegenerative disorder. Government initiatives on ‘timely diagnosis’ aim to improve the rate and quality of diagnosis for those with dementia. This study seeks to improve the screening and diagnostic process by analysing communication between clinicians and patients during initial specialist clinic visits. Establishing differential conversational profiles could help the timely differential diagnosis of memory complaints. Method: This study is based on video- and audio recordings of 25 initial consultations between neurologists and patients referred to a UK memory clinic. Conversation analysis was used to explore recurrent communicative practices associated with each diagnostic group. Results: Two discrete conversational profiles began to emerge, to help differentiate between patients with dementia and functional memory complaints, based on (1) whether the patient is able to answer questions about personal information; (2) whether they can display working memory in interaction; (3) whether they are able to respond to compound questions; (4) the time taken to respond to questions; and (5) the level of detail they offer when providing an account of their memory failure experiences. Conclusion: The distinctive conversational profiles observed in patients with functional memory complaints on the one hand and neurodegenerative memory conditions on the other suggest that conversational profiling can support the differential diagnosis of functional and neurodegenerative memory disorders.

I föreliggande studie undersöktes samtal där tre personer som stammar deltog i interaktioner med olika deltagarstrukturer; med en annan person som stammar, med en närstående person samt med en person i en institutionell kontext. Studien syftade till att analysera likheter och skillnader mellan samtal med olika deltagarstrukturer, med avseende på fenomenen samkonstruktion, blickkontakt vid samkonstruktion och uppbackning. Sammanlagt medverkade tolv personer, i totalt nio dyader. De nio samtalen, som var mellan 35 och 55 minuter långa, spelades in och analyserades enligt principer från Conversation Analysis (CA). Även beräkningar utfördes på fenomenen verbala uppbackningar, samkonstruktion och blickkontakt vid samkonstruktion. Av resultatet framkommer att det genomförs färre samkonstruktioner i de institutionella samtalen, och en tendens till att det görs fler samkonstruktioner i närståendesamtalen. Personerna som stammar gör färre samkonstruktioner i de institutionella samtalen, och gör flest samkonstruktioner i samtalen mellan två personer som stammar. Närståendesamtalen är den deltagarstruktur där det förekommer lägst antal stamningsrelaterade samkonstruktioner. Vid samkonstruktion har deltagarna vanligtvis blickkontakt. Genomgående gäller att samtalspartnern gör fler verbala uppbackningar än personerna som stammar. Det förekommer fler verbala uppbackningar i de samtal där samtalspartnerna inte känner varandra, än i de samtal då de känner varandra. Det är relativt ovanligt att verbal uppbackning förekommer i samband med stamning. / In the present study recordings of three people who stutter in interaction with different interlocutors were analysed. The participant frameworks were the person who stutters with another person who stutters, with a close friend and with an unknown person in an institutional context. The aim of the present study was to analyse similarities and differences among the interactions with different participant frameworks, regarding acknowledgement tokens, joint productions and eye contact in joint productions. In all, there were twelve participants taking part in nine dyads. The nine interactions were between 35 and 55 minutes long, and analysed according to the principles of Conversation Analysis (CA). Calculations were performed on the phenomena verbal acknowledgement tokens, joint productions and eye contact in joint productions. The result shows that there are fewer cases of joint productions in the institutional conversations and that there is a tendency that joint productions are most frequent in the conversations with a close friend. The people who stutter perform fewer joint productions in the institutional conversations and the most joint productions in the conversations between two people who stutter. The conversation with a close friend is the type of conversation with the lowest prevalence of joint productions related to stuttering. The participants mainly have eye contact when participating in joint productions. A consistent feature in all conversations is that the conversational partner produces more verbal acknowledgement tokens than the people who stutter. There are more verbal acknowledgement tokens in the conversations where the interlocutors are not acquainted. It is rather uncommon that verbal acknowledgement tokens appear in instances of stuttering.

Föreliggande studie syftar till att med hjälp av interaktionsanalys utifrån CA-principer (Conversation Analysis) undersöka interaktion i logopedisk gruppbehandling för barn med språkstörning samt att undersöka huruvida behandling implementeras i hemmiljö. Interaktion mellan såväl barn, logopeder som vårdnadshavare belyses. Materialet i föreliggande studie samlades in på en logopedmottagning i södra Sverige samt i deltagarnas hemmiljö. Totalt filmades sju behandlingstillfällen, fördelat på två olika grupper. Fem behandlingstillfällen filmandes från en av grupperna varav de resterande två spelades in i den andra gruppen. Totalt deltog tre logopeder, åtta barn och elva vårdnadshavare. Två av de deltagande logopederna intervjuades. Utöver detta genomfördes intervjuer med två av de deltagande vårdnadshavarna via telefon. Filmer från två av de deltagande barnens hemmiljö samlades in varpå samtliga filmer grovtranskriberades och delar valdes ut för fintranskription och vidare analys utifrån CA-principer. I studien framkommer att logopeder använder sig av eliciteringsstrategier i form av imitationsbaserade strategier samt modellmeningar för att elicitera språklig produktion. Behandlingsstrategier som förekommer är tecken till tal samt omformuleringar. Ytterligare fenomen som belyses är reparationer, återkopplingar samt ansiktsbevarande interaktionsstrategier. Studien visar att det finns en asymmetri i interaktionen mellan barn och logopeder, men att interaktionen stundvis avviker från samtal av det institutionella slaget. Utifrån hemmafilmer indikeras att behandlingsstrategier i form av tecken har implementerats hos en av vårdnadshavarna samt att omformuleringar används i interaktionen mellan två av vårdnadshavarna och deras barn. / The study objective was to investigate interaction in speech and language therapy groups for children with language impairment and to investigate whether treatment was implemented in the home environment. The material was collected from a speech and language therapy center in the south of Sweden and from the participants’ home environment. In total, seven video recordings were made of speech and language therapy sessions in two different groups. Five sessions were recorded in one of the groups, and the remaining two were recorded in the second group. Three SLPs, eight children and eleven parents participated in the study. Interviews with two of the participating SLPs and two of the participating parents were conducted. Video recordings from a home setting were collected from two of the participating children. All of the collected video recorded material was transcribed and analyzed according to principles of Conversation Analysis. The results show that the SLPs in therapy use imitation-based and modelling strategies to elicitate language production. Manual signs and recasts were found to be used as treatment strategies. Other phenomena in treatment were repairs, feedback and face-saving strategies. The study highlights the asymmetry in the interaction between children and SLPs, but also shows that the interaction sometimes departs from interaction of an institutional kind. The results indicate that one of the participating parents has implemented manual signs in the interaction during treatment as well as in the home environment. The study shows that two parents use recasts in the interaction with their children.

Det övergripande syftet med denna studie var att öka kunskapen om hur små barn med Cerebral Pares (CP) deltar, kommunicerar och interagerar med sina vardagliga samtalspartners på förskolan. I studien deltog två små pojkar (2;4 och 4;3 år) med grav CP (GMFCS 5) med lite/inget talat språk. De filmades på förskolan i olika vardagliga aktiviteter tillsammans med de andra barnen och personalen. Vid analysen studerades pojkarnas samlade kommunikativa resurser och återkommande mönster i samtalen på ett detaljerat plan med hjälp av Conversation Analysis (CA). Analysen visade att samtalspartnern hade en viktig roll för att underlätta i samtalet genom att tolka och tillskriva pojkarnas bidrag betydelse. När pojkarna använde en kombination av flera kommunikativa resurser föreföll det vara lättare för samtalspartnern att tillskriva bidragen betydelse. Vilken betydelse som tillskrevs kunde bland annat påverkas av hur barnens bidrag producerades, vilken aktivitet deltagarna var involverade i, eller vilken kunskap samtalspartnern hade om pojkarna sedan tidigare. Det framkom också att pojkarnas oförmåga att sitta självständigt påverkade deltagarstukturen som i sin tur påverkade interaktionen och kommunikationen. Kvalitativa närstudier av interaktion med barn med svår motorisk nedsättning till följd av CP är viktiga då dessa kan demonstrera vilka metoder som omgivningen använder för att skapa mening i interaktion trots barnens begränsade kommunikativa resurser. Barnens signaler kan till exempel vara svårtolkade för omgivningen på grund av den motoriska funktionsnedsättningen, men de vuxna använder den aktuella aktiviteten eller samtalet för att skapa en meningsfull kontext för barnens bidrag. Detta leder till att barnen blir mindre passiva i sin kommunikation och att kommunikationen blir lättare att förstå. Nyckelord: Interaktion, Kommunikation, Cerebral Pares (CP), Conversation Analysis (CA), Kommunikativa resurser. / The aim of this study was to increase the knowledge on how young children with severe Cerebral Palsy (CP) participate, interact and communicate with naturally speaking communication partners at preechool. Two young boys (2;4 and 4;3 years) with severe CP (GMFCS 5) with little or no spoken language participated in the study. They were recorded at preschool in various everyday activities and the recorded material arose from ordinary conversations with other children or staff at the preeschool. When analyzing the data, the principals and procedures of Conversation Analysis (CA), was used to study the childrens communicative resourses and the repeating conversational patterns on a detailed level. The analysis showed that the interlocutor had a very important role in the interaction with the child. The interlocutor attributed meaning to the boys' contributions and this was closely linked to the combination of different communicative resources by the boys. Which meaning that was attributed could, among other things be affected by how the children's contributions were produced, what activity the participants were involved in, or the interlocutors previous knowledge about the boys. In addition, the boys' bodily position relative to the other participants had an influence on communication. The boys inability to sit independently affected the participants positions in interaction, witch affected interaction and communication.  Qualitative detailed studies of interaction with children with severe motor impairment, (CP) is important since these can demonstrate which methods the communicative surround uses to create meaning in interaction despite the children's limited communication resources. Children’s signals can for example be difficult for the communication partners to interpret because of the motor function, but the adults are using the current activity or conversation to create a meaningful context for the children's contributions . This leads to children becoming less passive in their communication and communication becomes easier to understand. Keywords: Interaction, Communication, Cerebral Palsy (CP), Conversation Analysis (CA), Communicative resources

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