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Interaction Analysis, Quantitative

Human communication typically involves two or more persons engaged in some type of discourse or conversation. The normal expectation is that one person will take a turn, contributing information or comments, asking a question, or providing an answer to an inquiry. Then another person will respond and continue the dialog by creating a comment generally connected to the thread that has been ongoing or provide a means of transition to change a topic.

The process of understanding this interaction between persons involves a series of potentially interesting questions. For example, how does anyone change a topic or introduce a shift in the ongoing dialog? Clearly, a conversation once started does provide for shifts or changes in topics and moves or recognized means of shifting provide a signal for this change. A second issue involves the maintenance or continuation of an ongoing dialog. How does a person know that a comment becomes connected to the previous turn in the dialog? Rules for continuing or understanding of relevance must exist for persons to know how to participate appropriately. Persons in a conversation work to provide coherence or fit within the boundary conditions for the ongoing stream of utterances.

The use of quantitative tools to examine the structure of discourse does not necessarily contradict or make qualitative analyses or tools invalid or unnecessary. To examine any discourse, coherence and continuity are required; hence, a qualitative assessment is necessary before one can effectively examine structure. Once the necessary condition of coherence is established, the coding and assessment of the interaction can take place.

Assumption of Structure

In a formal meeting, the use of Robert’s Rules of Order provides a structure for the conduct of a meeting or session like that in Congress. The rules describe which person can speak, when they can speak, who makes the decision on the person to speak, and then on what topics a person is permitted to comment. The turns or utterances are labeled and must fit a particular format. The relevance of an utterance or a form operates on the basis of rules regarding the germaneness of utterances to the topic. The shift of a topic involves a set of formal rules. A chief element of the Rules of Order is that the rules require voting by the members engaged in the dialog when disagreements exist. Such a set of rules to guide discourse with formal procedures to resolve disagreements over the content and structure of the discourse is generally rare.

Informal dialog among friends usually possesses no such articulated rules to invoke the other extreme of example for conversation or discussion. Dialog or discussion in a classroom or in other venues may not be as highly structured as that in a meeting or in a court proceeding but not totally without structure as that among friends. Still the focus is on the ability of persons interacting to provide a structure and then act within that structure to accomplish some tasks and remain considered polite. The rules of discourse not only involve formal expectations for content but also contain expectations about when a person can speak, on what topic, and the vocabulary and level of formality required to participate.

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