Requesting examples in psychodiagnostic...

As part of a larger research paradigm on understanding change in helping professions from an interprofessional perspective, this paper applies a conversation analytic approach to investigate therapists’ requesting examples and their interactional and sequential contribution to clients’ change during the diagnostic evaluation process. The analyzed data comprises 15 videotaped intake interviews following the manual of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnosis system. Requesting examples by therapists in psychodiagnostic interviews explicitly or implicitly criticize the patient’s prior turn as insufficient. Such a request opens a retro-sequence and in the following turns provides for a description that helps clarify the meaning and evinces psychic or relational aspects of the topic at hand. While the therapist’s prior request initiates the patient’s insufficient presentation, the patient’s example presentation is regularly followed by the therapist’s summarizing comments or by further requests. Requesting examples thus are a particular case of requests that follow expandable responses regarding the sequential organization, yet, given that they make examples conditionally relevant, they are more specific. With the help of this sequential organization, participants co-construct common knowledge which allows the therapist to pursue the overall aim of therapy, i.e. to increase the patients’ awareness of their distorted perceptions, and thus to pave the way for change.