Roosmaryn Pilgram is a lecturer / PhD student ( docent / promovendus ) at the department of Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory and Rhetoric. She teaches undergraduate courses in argumentation and communication. Her PhD-research concerns the reasonableness of a doctor's argument by authority in medical consultation.

• Research project "Argumentation in Discourse"

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A doctor’s argument by authority: An analytical and empirical pragma-dialectical study of authority argumentation in medical consultation

In medical consultation, the doctor’s advice (or the support for it) is not always immediately or fully accepted by the patient. The patient might, for instance, have to drastically change his behaviour. An important way in which the doctor can nonetheless make his advice acceptable is by presenting argumentation in support of it.

One type of argumentation is particularly interesting in the context of a medical consultation: a doctor’s argument by authority. In an argument by authority, a discussant refers to his own authority to indicate the acceptability of his standpoint. If advanced by a doctor in medical consultation, a patient might place particular weight on the argument, as he requested the consultation because of the doctor’s authority on health problems. Conversely, this kind of argument allows the doctor to avoid a detailed discussing of the patient’s health problem.

The question arises under which conditions a doctor’s argument by authority can be considered a reasonable and effective discussion contribution in medical consultation. This question is central to my PhD project.

Courses 2014-2015

• Argumentatie en persuasie

• Argumentatie-analyse en taalhandelingstheorie

• Methodologie

• Onderzoekswerkgroep Taalbeheersing

• Skills lab I: Argumentative and rhetorical strategies

• Verbale communicatie en wetenschappelijk schrijven

No known ancillary activities