Discourse analysis, as I understand it, is a way to investigate the psychosocial context of a theory by analysing communication (such as speech, body language, written language etc).
The study I have chosen investigated the ways in which physicians’ interpreted patient autonomy in the context of end of life decision making. After interviewing the doctors it was found that there were 3 types of discourses used by them; the ‘informers’ saw their patients as objective decision makers; the ‘supporters’ saw their patients as vulnerable and so took a patient-centred approach to supporting their through the decision making process; the ‘analysts’ saw their patients as too subjective in decision making and so took a leading role. The use of these discourses illustrates how the physicians had different interpretations of their patients’ autonomy.
This study has improved my understanding by highlighting the different way that doctors consider to what extent the patients autonomy should be questioned or readily accepted, and the degree to which patient’s ability to subjectively or objectively make decisions should be presumed.
Source- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2563364/
