Boyd H. Davis

Measuring Guest Satisfaction and Competitive Position in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry An Application of Stance-Shift Analysis to Travel Blog Narratives

The measurement of guest satisfaction and delight is the focus of this article. An application of a quantitative methodology known as stance-shift analysis is proposed and demonstrated on data composed of Internet blog narratives. The authors argue that the method provides both an efficient and effective means to determine a firm’s competitive position in producing satisfied guests who will not only come back but also recommend the firm to others. Specifically, the method produces relatively detailed evaluations to determine the following: How satisfied are my guests? What are they telling others about their experiences? How is my property performing in creating satisfying guest experiences when compared with the competition? What are my property’s strengths and weaknesses in its competitive environment?

Narratives and self-identity in later life: Two rural American older women

Abstract Older adults often draw on memories to construct stories about themselves that help them to retain and validate their self-identities, doing this within the cultural contexts that have shaped their lives. In this paper, we examine the life history narratives of two working class, rural American older women and the ways in which those narratives are similar despite one major difference: one has dementia. In both cases, major themes that are consistent with gender-based, working class, rural American cultural values are dominant, including closeness of family, hard work, ties to the land, and religious faith. In the first case, she reconstructs memories of her life in accordance with dominant cultural and personal values, downplaying the ways in which her experiences were “out of step” with these values. In the second case, her sense of identity remains and is expressed through her co-constructed memories although she is experiencing cognitive loss.

Examining Pauses in Alzheimer's Discourse

This discussion examines how speaker pauses, both filled and silent, are keyed to functions within a conversation and to functions within narration. In Alzheimers discourse, pause-fillers can be both placeholders and hesitation markers; they may be ohs and ums or longer formulaic phrases. Extracts from the speech of 4 older women from the United States and from New Zealand are reviewed for changes in syntactic complexity, for retention of story components, and for pauses. The extracts illustrate these functions for silent pauses: as word-finding; as planning at word, phrase, and narrative component levels; and as pragmatic compensation as other interactional and narrative skills decrease.

More than the Words: Using Stance-Shift Analysis to Identify Crucial Opinions and Attitudes in Online Focus Groups

ABSTRACT Advertisers, marketers, and researchers all wrestle with finding the personal human presence in text-based online communication. Social features are present, if subtle. Users of online research must work to identify when and how unseen writers are or are not strongly committed to what they have just written, and must work even harder to keep from reading themselves and their own biases into the text being analyzed. Our discussion illustrates how stance-shift analysis, as a type of quantitative content analysis, maximizes understanding of online communication through its identification of key language patterns that highlight consumer evaluation, attitudes, and attribution of behaviors or opinions.

“It’s a Wild Thing, Waiting to Get Me”: Stance Analysis of African Americans With Diabetes:

Purpose This mixed methods study uses a unique approach from social science and linguistics methodologies, a combination of positioning theory and stance analysis, to examine how 20 African Americans with type 2 diabetes make sense of the practices that led to recurrent emergency department visits to identify needs for more effective intervention. Methods In a purposive sample of postemergency department visit interviews with a same-race interviewer, people responded to open-ended questions reflecting on the decision to seek emergency department care. As applied to diabetes education, positioning theory explains that people use their language to position themselves toward their disease, their medications, and the changes in their lives. Transcriptions were coded using discourse analysis to categorize themes. As a form of triangulation, stance analysis measured language patterns using factor analysis to see when and how speakers revealed affect, attitude, and agentive choices for action. Conclusion Final analysis revealed that one third of the sample exhibited high scores for positive agency or capacity for decision-making and self-management, while the rest expressed less control and more negative emotions and fears that may preclude self-management. This approach suggests a means to tailor diabetes education considering alternative approaches focused on communication for those facing barriers.

Finding a balance: The Carolinas Conversation Collection

Abstract The Carolinas Conversations Collection is a password-protected digital collection of transcribed audio and video recordings of conversations about health, supported by the National Libraries of Medicine. It has two cohorts: 125 unimpaired multiethnic older speakers with any of 12 chronic conditions and a longitudinal set of 400 conversations with 125 persons having dementia. Information about health literacy, health status, and cognitive function requires high standards for privacy and confidentiality, and restricted data use agreements. Since contents are housed in an adaptation of the well-established ONZE Miner, users can search and perform online analysis of sound, word or syntax with increasing specificity.

Stance-shifting in language used by sex offenders: Five case studies

Abstract Attempts to classify sex offenders for the purpose of investigating sexual assaults or formulating treatment strategies often use evidence left at crime scenes, victims’ statements, and case studies to organize sex offenders’ personality characteristics into categories. Typologies of offenders may vary in the degree to which they are empirical or incorporate offender language. In the treatment of sex offenders, some focus has been placed on the offenders spoken attribution of responsibility. The current study uses multidimensional analysis of shifts in stance to outline a framework that overlays the basic motivations of sex offenders as classified by MTC:R3 and the offenders’ process of attributing blame. Applied to five cases of sexual assault, markers of stance successfully signal diminution or reassignment of personal agency in aggressor and victim pre-trial oral statements, suggesting how rapists push personal responsibility aside in order to justify the ‘reasonableness’ of their actions.

Developing Culturally Diverse Direct Caregivers for Care Work With Older Adults: Challenges and Potential Strategies

This discussion presents real-world examples of challenges that occur in geriatric training as a contribution to the ongoing conversation about tailored training for direct caregivers. Numerous discussions are available on the need for more geriatric training in nursing, including aspects of care for patients with dementia, but few if any studies have identified a similar need on behalf of direct care workers, including home health care aides,personal care aides, and nursing assistants who are not part of a licensure track or a baccalaureate-based nursing curriculum. This discussion examines three cultural factors that underlie challenges for nursing educators and supervisors in dementia care who oversee direct care workers: (1) the effect of immigrant cultures and languages; (2) the effect of different intergenerational cultural constructs; and (3) the effect of culturally derived attitudes about aging and dementia. Strategies to address these challenges are offered.

Infusing Cultural Competence Training into the Curriculum: Describing the Development of Culturally Sensitive Training on Dementia Communication

The need for training in cultural sensitivity and cultural competence exists at every level of medical care. This discussion reports on an interdisciplinary project to infuse cultural competence training in dementia communication care into nursing and nurse assistant training. We describe the core curriculum and its subsequent cross‐cultural and linguistic adaptations to meet multiple educational and training needs of language‐challenged learners, and discuss implications for others developing cross‐disciplinary curricula.

In Their Own Words: Using Narrativesto Teach Gerontology

ABSTRACT In narrative constructed in conversations, older adults often present “small stories.” These narrative fragments provide extensive information about their experiences, values, and aspects of their lives that can be used to help learners understand key concepts about aging and the life course. The authors provide an overview of approaches including exercises and activities keyed to a corpus of oral narratives, targeting graduate and undergraduate students.