ABSTRACT
This chapter is a quantitative study of the behaviors in doctors’ and patients’ verbal communication. The study explores the similarities and differences between TCM and WM in relation to participants’ verbal communication. Transcripts were coded using RIAS. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all RIAS codes and then grouped into four communication clusters: data collection, information-giving and counseling, relationship-building, and partnership-building in doctors’ communication. In patients’ communication, the clusters were coded as information-seeking, information-giving, relationship-building, and partnership-building. The mean ratio of participants’ utterances in each cluster is reported. Three scores indicative of the communication patterns in medical encounters are also reported: biomedical to psychosocial talk, doctors’ verbal dominance, and patient-centeredness.
