Older women talk about anger
Date
2005-06-16
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
Very little is known about older women’s anger and, to date, nothing is known about how older women talk about anger. By limiting response options on questionnaires and using pre-determined categories to organize interview data, researchers have traditionally determined what constitutes anger and its expression. The unique focus on anger-talk in the current investigation sheds light on how the interviewer and interviewees co-construct anger within the context of a research interview. I conducted a discourse analysis of seven interview transcripts in order to explore two central questions: (1) how is anger co-constructed in participants’ discourse? and (2) what is accomplished by those constructions? The older women in the present study used minimizing and distancing strategies to construct anger as within their control, in the past, and forgotten. Through these constructions, the interviewees established that they were not “angry women.”
Description
Keywords
anger, talk, discourse, women
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Psychology
Program
Psychology