Abstract
Serious illness of a loved one can disrupt a caregiver’s sense of self and relationships. We examined the language caregivers use to describe the cancer treatment decision making of a loved one to understand how caregivers frame their own identity relative to a patient’s illness. We analyzed transcripts from in-depth interviews conducted with caregivers (N = 58) of cancer patients to examine the intersection among language, identity, and illness. Caregivers with a patient-level personal identity frame used phrases such as their body, their decision. Caregivers with a relational identity frame used plural pronouns such as we or our when describing the treatment decision. Importantly, some caregivers perceived an illness identity gap in that the patients’ perceptions of their illness identity differed from their own. Illness identity gaps are theorized to be associated with treatment decision making more closely aligned with intergroup, rather than interpersonal, processes.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 640-656 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Language and Social Psychology |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2015.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute #U54 CA153604 (Appalachian Community Cancer Network).
Funders | Funder number |
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National Childhood Cancer Registry – National Cancer Institute | 54 CA153604 |
Keywords
- cancer clinical trials
- communication theory of identity
- family decision making
- illness identity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Education
- Language and Linguistics
- Anthropology
- Sociology and Political Science
- Linguistics and Language