Intelligibility of Pain in Question Design:Interactional Analysis in Home Massage

Abstract

This paper describes how conversational analysis was used to clarify how practitioners and clients manage “pain” in home massage situations. It demonstrates how the practitioner asks about the client’s pain during the course of a massage, and how this interaction affects the course of the massage. First, questions about pain are considered. In particular, “questions regarding the progress of procedures” while touching the client’s body are investigated. Whether these questions are asked with an “interrogative-negative” or “interrogative-positive” perspective is also considered. When asking a “question regarding the progress of treatment”, using an interrogative-negative question is considered to be optimal. Moreover, “interrogative-positive” questions are characterized as being designed to make it easier for clients to report pain. In addition, the use of clients’ facial expressions as a resource for designing questions depending on the situation, was also investigated. The study concludes that one of the practices that practitioners perform when designing questions is monitoring the client’s face.