STABILITY OF THE VERBAL EXCHANGE STRUCTURE OF MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS

A verbal exchange is a set of speech act categories that occur togethe r and are used to accomplish some task within a particular type of enc ounter. A review of research suggests that the repertoire of verbal ex changes used in medical consultations is remarkably stable across sett ings, across varied types of medical problems, and even across countri es, but that it changes systematically when the presenting problem is psychological rather than physical.