Title
“Well, You Can’t Force Them”: Altercasting in the Home Health Care Context
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Home health aides are often low-paid, low-status workers, performing their job in an isolated and interpersonally complex environment. This study, made up of semistructured interviews with 36 home health aides, explores compliance-gaining challenges faced by “low status, remote workers.” It was found that altercasting, a compliance-gaining technique using social roles to govern behavior, is well suited for the home care context. Aides were found to activate four altercast roles, including parent, trainer, employee, and friend. It is suggested that by using positive altercasting as a compliance-gaining technique, aides are able to both persuade their client to complete necessary tasks of daily living at the same time they construct and maintain the moral identity of a good caregiver.
Department(s)
Communication Studies
Publication Title
Communication Studies
Volume
70
Issue
1
First Page
99
Last Page
113
Publication Date
2019
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2018.1462838
ISSN
1051-0974
E-ISSN
1745-1035
Recommended Citation
Kendall, Peggy S.; Scott, Muriel; and Jolivette, Krista, "“Well, You Can’t Force Them”: Altercasting in the Home Health Care Context" (2019). Communication Studies Faculty Publications. 1.
https://spark.bethel.edu/communication-faculty/1