1st Edition
Research Methods in Health Communication Principles and Application
This volume provides an essential roster of primary research methods as they apply to health communication inquiry. Editor Bryan B. Whaley brings together key health communication researchers to write about their primary methodological areas. Their chapters offer guidance and insights for a variety of approaches to answering research questions. The methods included here cover:
- Exploration and Description: interview/focus groups, case study, ethnography, and surveys;
- Examining Messages and Interpersonal Exchanges: narrative analysis, conversational analysis, analyzing physician-patient interactions, social network analysis, and content analysis;
- Causal Explication: experimental research, meta-analysis, and meta-synthesis; and
- Cultural, Population, and Critical Concerns: rhetorical methods and criticism, and methodological issues when investigating stigmatized populations, and groups with health disparities.
Chapters cite or use examples from allied health areas -- nursing, public health, sociology, medicine -- to demonstrate the breadth of health communication studies.
This work highlights the importance of methodology in health communication research in multiple contexts. Developed to provide a fundamental reference for investigating health communication, this volume will serve as an invaluable tool for researchers and students across the social science and health disciplines.
METHOD MATTERS
Teresa L. Thompson, Louis P. Cusella, Brian G. Southwell
EXPLORATON AND DESCRIPTION
Interview/Focus Group
Erin E. Donovan, Laura E. Miller, Daena J. Goldsmith
Case Study
Leigh Arden Ford, Mindi Ann Golden, Eileen Berlin Ray
Ethnography
Laura E. Ellingson, William K. Rawlins
Surveys
Susan E. Morgan, Nicholas L. Carcioppolo
EXAMINING MESSAGES AND INTERPERSONAL EXCHANGES
Narrative Analysis
Jill Yamasaki, Barbara F. Sharf, Lynn M. Harter
Conversation Analysis
Christopher J. Koenig, Jeffrey D. Robinson
Analyzing Physician-Patient Interactions
Robert A. Bell, Richard L. Kravitz
Social Network Analysis
Rachel A. Smith
Content Analysis
Yan Tian, James D. Robinson
CAUSAL EXPLICATION
Experimental
Christopher R. Morse, Bryant University, Brian L. Quick, Julie E. Volkman, Edith Nourse, Bryan B. Whaley
Meta-Analysis
Seth M. Noar, Leslie B. Snyde
Meta-Synthesis
Anne M. Stone, Aaron T. Seaman
CULTURAL, POPULATION, AND CRITICAL CONCERNS
Rhetorical Methods and Criticism
Ashli Quesinberry Stokes
Methodological Issues: Stigmatized Populations
Kathryn L. Greene, Magsamen-Conrad
Methodological Issues: Health Disparities
Lisa Sparks, Michelle Miller-Day
METHOD REFLECTIONS
Joan A. Jurich, Austin S. Babrow, Lindsey M. Rose, Spencer D. Patterson
Biography
Bryan B. Whaley (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Professor of Communication, and Clinical Research Associate in the School of Nursing and Health Professions at University of San Francisco. His research concerns linguistic factors related to explaining illness and complex health-related information, the function and design of interpersonal messages to patients, and language/message variables in social influence.
