When technological affordances meet interactional norms: The value of pre-screening in online chat counseling

Wyke Stommel, Hedwig te Molder*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We present a conversation analysis of openings sequences of online text-based chat counseling. Particular about this chat counseling is that the clients made available their help question through pre-screening. The data consisted of 40 chat sessions with pre-screening and 34 sessions without pre-screening from the Dutch alcohol and drugs chat service. In the chat sessions with pre-screening, the participants displayed accountability with regard to the norms relevant to pre-given information, which took up space and time and frequently involved interactional misalignment. In chat sessions without pre-screening of the question, the openings followed a more fluent interactional course. We discuss how affordances of digital communication media may work as constraints when the participants orient to interactional norms known from other, offline environments.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-258
Number of pages24
JournalPsychNology Journal
Volume13
Issue number2-3
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Chat
  • Conversation analysis
  • Conversational norms
  • Online counseling
  • Openings
  • Pre-screening
  • Technological affordances

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