Welcome & Course Summary
Basic Course Information
Course Title: Microanalysis of Therapeutic Dialogues
Instructors: Janet Bavelas, Peter De Jong, Sara Healing, & Sara Smock Jordan
Welcome to the online course on microanalysis of face-to-face dialogues, with a focus on the dialogues that happen in psychotherapy sessions. We are pleased you have decided to join us and have every hope that the work we do together will have productive applications to your professional work. This course summary will help you get started in the course. First we describe the course requirements and the course website. Further on, we summarize the course content and give your assignments for the first week.
Format of the Course
This is a 16-week, completely online course, with weekly assignments to be completed by specified days each week.
Course Description
In this course, you will be learning how to put video of face-to-face dialogues under the microscope. Drawing on basic research, you will learn to see the details of how dialogue unfolds, moment by moment. You will be analyzing familiar tools of therapists, such as their questions, their paraphrases and summaries, and their topic choices within a session. Every week, you will use microanalysis to observe closely how therapists and clients establish mutual understanding and new meanings in their dialogues.
This course is intended for practitioners of different therapeutic approaches as well as any others interested in analyzing the details of face-to-face dialogues, including researchers, medical professionals, and practitioners in other fields.
Instructors: Janet Bavelas, Peter De Jong, Sara Healing, & Sara Smock Jordan
Welcome to the online course on microanalysis of face-to-face dialogues, with a focus on the dialogues that happen in psychotherapy sessions. We are pleased you have decided to join us and have every hope that the work we do together will have productive applications to your professional work. This course summary will help you get started in the course. First we describe the course requirements and the course website. Further on, we summarize the course content and give your assignments for the first week.
Format of the Course
This is a 16-week, completely online course, with weekly assignments to be completed by specified days each week.
Course Description
In this course, you will be learning how to put video of face-to-face dialogues under the microscope. Drawing on basic research, you will learn to see the details of how dialogue unfolds, moment by moment. You will be analyzing familiar tools of therapists, such as their questions, their paraphrases and summaries, and their topic choices within a session. Every week, you will use microanalysis to observe closely how therapists and clients establish mutual understanding and new meanings in their dialogues.
This course is intended for practitioners of different therapeutic approaches as well as any others interested in analyzing the details of face-to-face dialogues, including researchers, medical professionals, and practitioners in other fields.
Learning OUTCOMES
- Learn and use ELAN software to analyze digitized video of therapy dialogues of other practitioners and, later, of your own work.
- Learn about evidence-based principles of communication in face-to-face dialogue.
- Learn how the practitioner’s questions, paraphrases and summaries, and topic choices within a session function in therapy dialogues.
- Learn how participants in a face-to-face dialogue create mutual understanding and new meanings together, moment by moment.
- Learn how to create your own analyzable videos and to apply knowledge of the microanalysis of therapeutic dialogues to your own practice, supervision, and/or research.
- Practice inductively generating new ideas on how co-construction happens, from direct observation of face-to-face dialogues.
Textbook/Materials and Equipment
There are no textbooks for this course. Sections of a comprehensive chapter on the method of microanalysis of face-to-face dialogue (MFD) will often introduce a week's material, and there will be other assigned articles as well. All course materials (including the videos) will be available for downloading online.
Because this is a completely online course, it is essential that you have regular access to a computer and the Internet. (We recommend a high speed connection such as DSL or cable modem). You will download and learn a free software program called ELAN during the first week and then use this program every week to analyze and annotate video clips of face-to-face dialogues. When doing the weekly exercises, some of you may prefer to print out the instructions and use your screen to work on the relevant video in ELAN. Others may prefer to use two monitors so that one screen can display the instructions and the other can display the video clip you are working on in ELAN.
Because this is a completely online course, it is essential that you have regular access to a computer and the Internet. (We recommend a high speed connection such as DSL or cable modem). You will download and learn a free software program called ELAN during the first week and then use this program every week to analyze and annotate video clips of face-to-face dialogues. When doing the weekly exercises, some of you may prefer to print out the instructions and use your screen to work on the relevant video in ELAN. Others may prefer to use two monitors so that one screen can display the instructions and the other can display the video clip you are working on in ELAN.
Course Requirements
Each week throughout the course, you begin by reading an introduction to the week’s topic, completing assigned readings, and downloading the week’s video files and demonstration ELAN files from one shared Dropbox folder. (See below for information about the use of Dropbox folders.) You copy this material to your own computer and then do an assigned exercise, which requires you to apply the week's readings by doing your own microanalysis in ELAN. Then you upload your completed exercise to a second shared Dropbox folder by midnight Saturday in your time zone.
After every week's assigned exercise, there is a "Posting" section with instructions for weekly postings on the course website (see the details about the course website below).
After every week's assigned exercise, there is a "Posting" section with instructions for weekly postings on the course website (see the details about the course website below).
- Most weeks you complete a first post in which you answer some assigned questions about your own completed exercise. The deadline for this first post is the same as for uploading your completed exercise in ELAN (i.e., midnight Saturday evening in your time zone).
- You then return to the second shared Dropbox older to which you uploaded your completed exercise in Elan for the week and download two of three exercises completed by others in the class.
- You review their ELAN analyses and select one to compare to your own.
- You then post your responses to the specific comparisons we ask you to make. (i.e., a second post that week). The deadline for this second post is midnight the following Monday evening in your time zone.
Introduction to the Course Website
The course website, which will be activates on February 3 includes headings for each week of the course and a heading called Discussion Forums.
When you click on the heading for a given week, you will see the following material:
When you click on Discussion Forums, there are three choices:
When you click on the heading for a given week, you will see the following material:
- Introduction to this week's topic
- Learning Objectives for the week
- Required Readings (and sometimes additional or optional readings)
- An assigned Exercise
- Postings required for the week.
When you click on Discussion Forums, there are three choices:
- Introductions of Course Members. This is where you will briefly introduce yourself to other members of the course. The details for this posting are given at the end of this document
- Postings on Weekly Assignments. There are sub-folders for each week in this forum. These are where you make your weekly post answering any assigned questions and a post comparing your completed ELAN exercise to that of another person in the class (as described above). Instructors will regularly read your posts and then post their thoughts on your comparisons and answers in the same sub-folder.
- Technical Issues and Other Questions. As you work on the material, you may have technical questions about ELAN, uploading and downloading files, or other technical problems. You can post your questions here. Someone, usually Sara Healing, will respond to these as soon as she can. In addition to technical issues, you may have questions about a given week’s assignment. You can also post these questions to this forum and the instructor who is in charge of this week's topic will respond. These questions and answers will accumulate over the entire course, remaining available for others who may have the same questions.
Deadlines
You are not required to be online at the same time as others in the course; this would be difficult with our international group. Instead, you can complete your work at your convenience as long as you adhere to the following weekly schedule of uploading completed exercises in ELAN and posting on them:
As stated above, the course instructors will provide comments on your posted work. Please note that we are in the following time zones:
Bavelas & Healing (Victoria, BC, Canada), Pacific Standard Time
Smock Jordan (Lubbock, Texas), Central Standard Time
De Jong (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Eastern Standard Time
One instructor will be the main resource each week, but the other can provide comments as well.
If you wish to ask one or more instructors a question not directly related to a weekly topic, you can use our course gmail account: [email protected].
- Upload your completed ELAN every Saturday by midnight in your time zone.
- Post your answers to any assigned questions every Saturday by midnight in your time zone.
- Post your observations on comparing your ELAN with another's every Monday by midnight in your time zone.
As stated above, the course instructors will provide comments on your posted work. Please note that we are in the following time zones:
Bavelas & Healing (Victoria, BC, Canada), Pacific Standard Time
Smock Jordan (Lubbock, Texas), Central Standard Time
De Jong (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Eastern Standard Time
One instructor will be the main resource each week, but the other can provide comments as well.
If you wish to ask one or more instructors a question not directly related to a weekly topic, you can use our course gmail account: [email protected].
DRopbox Folders
Everyone enrolled in the course will have access to two Dropbox folders starting on Friday, February 3. On that date, you will receive an invitation by e-mail to share the two Dropbox folders described below. Simply accept the invitation to share each folder.
The first folder is named “Downloads, IMA Online Course.” The sub-folders for each week of the course contain readings, video files, and demonstration ELAN files for that week's exercise. Each sub-folder will be available on the Monday of that week. In order to keep your course materials organized, we suggest that you create a folder on the desktop of your computer just for this course, with sub-folders for Weeks 1 through 16. When you download files each week, put them in your sub-folder for the appropriate week and do not delete them because some readings and videos will be used again in later weeks. For your convenience, the course website, which will be activated on Friday, February 3, will provide a Dropbox link in each week's instructions. Simply click on that link and it will take you to the sub-folder for that week. You can then download files by right clicking on a given file and selecting "Download" from the window that pops up.
You can also download files by clicking on the Dropbox icon that was placed on your desktop when you originally installed Dropbox. Once you have connected to Dropbox, find "Downloads, IMA Online Course" and clinck on the desired week's sub-folder. You can download a single file or select all of the files in the Dropbox sub-folder.
IMPORTANT: Complete the download by copying the file(s) and then pasting them to your desktop folder. Do not drag files from the Dropbox folder because that will remove them from the folder and others will no longer have access to the file(s). Remember, too, that if you are copying and pasting a large file, the download takes time, so you must leave your computer on until Dropbox has had time to sync with your computer.
The second folder is “Uploads, IMA Online Course.” It too has weekly sub-folders and is the place to where you will upload your completed microanalyses in ELAN each week. When you are ready to upload your completed ELAN analysis, simply click on the Dropbox icon on your desktop and it will take you to Dropbox. Then find “Uploads, IMA online course” and the appropriate sub-folder and upload your ELAN.
As explained above, each week you will not only upload your own ELAN analysis, but you will also go to this folder to download others' completed ELANs for your second posting each week.
IMPORTANT: As emphasized above, whether you are uploading your own file to "Uploads, IMA Online Course" or downloading someone else's file from it, do not drag a file to or from the Dropbox folder. That will remove the file from the source. Always copy and paste files.
The first folder is named “Downloads, IMA Online Course.” The sub-folders for each week of the course contain readings, video files, and demonstration ELAN files for that week's exercise. Each sub-folder will be available on the Monday of that week. In order to keep your course materials organized, we suggest that you create a folder on the desktop of your computer just for this course, with sub-folders for Weeks 1 through 16. When you download files each week, put them in your sub-folder for the appropriate week and do not delete them because some readings and videos will be used again in later weeks. For your convenience, the course website, which will be activated on Friday, February 3, will provide a Dropbox link in each week's instructions. Simply click on that link and it will take you to the sub-folder for that week. You can then download files by right clicking on a given file and selecting "Download" from the window that pops up.
You can also download files by clicking on the Dropbox icon that was placed on your desktop when you originally installed Dropbox. Once you have connected to Dropbox, find "Downloads, IMA Online Course" and clinck on the desired week's sub-folder. You can download a single file or select all of the files in the Dropbox sub-folder.
IMPORTANT: Complete the download by copying the file(s) and then pasting them to your desktop folder. Do not drag files from the Dropbox folder because that will remove them from the folder and others will no longer have access to the file(s). Remember, too, that if you are copying and pasting a large file, the download takes time, so you must leave your computer on until Dropbox has had time to sync with your computer.
The second folder is “Uploads, IMA Online Course.” It too has weekly sub-folders and is the place to where you will upload your completed microanalyses in ELAN each week. When you are ready to upload your completed ELAN analysis, simply click on the Dropbox icon on your desktop and it will take you to Dropbox. Then find “Uploads, IMA online course” and the appropriate sub-folder and upload your ELAN.
As explained above, each week you will not only upload your own ELAN analysis, but you will also go to this folder to download others' completed ELANs for your second posting each week.
IMPORTANT: As emphasized above, whether you are uploading your own file to "Uploads, IMA Online Course" or downloading someone else's file from it, do not drag a file to or from the Dropbox folder. That will remove the file from the source. Always copy and paste files.
Course Content, Week by Week
Week 1: Teaches how to use ELAN software for analyzing digitized video of face-to-face dialogues. You read about and download ELAN (free on the internet site provided) as well as learn its basic functions, including how to select and annotate specific events in the video. The assigned exercise involves annotating a video in ELAN.
Week 2: Devoted to exploring the differences between the autonomous and collaborative views of face-to-face dialogue. The readings review relevant experiments from the psycholinguistics literature. For the exercise, you create an annotated ELAN file that contrasts these two views of a therapeutic dialogue in the same video excerpt.
Week 3: Focuses on replacing frequently taught misinformation about nonverbal communication with contemporary research on visible co-speech acts. The readings are an overview with examples and a published research article about the function of gaze in dialogue. There is also a demonstration ELAN that illustrates how these co-speech acts function in face-to-face dialogue. The exercise involves locating and annotating specific co-speech acts in ELAN.
Week 4: With the above background and practice, the course begins in-depth analysis of what therapists do. This is the first of two weeks devoted to how therapists from different approaches make different topic choices. The reading is the first part of a published research study that compared the topic choices by CBT and SFBT experts. The exercise is your own ELAN replication of the method described in this article.
Week 5: The second week on topic choice explores clients’ responses to therapists’ topic choices. The reading is the latter part of the article assigned for Week 4. The exercise involves analyzing (in ELAN) how the topic choices that therapists made in the videos used in Week 4 affected the clients' next topic choice.
Week 6: Formulation is a technical term for therapists’ paraphrases and summaries of what their clients say. The readings are the first part of a research article on formulations and a manual that describes how to identify therapists' formulations. The exercise involves identifying each therapist formulation in a video using ELAN and then annotating the exact words in each formulation.
Week 7: The second week on formulations specifies the ways in which therapists’ formulations transform what clients have said. The readings are the latter parts of the article and manual from Week 6, and the exercise involves analyzing the transformations in the therapist formulations identified in the previous week's exercise.
Week 8: This is the first of two weeks devoted to questions. The readings include the first part of an article on how questions function in therapeutic dialogues, focusing particularly on how to distinguish between the explicit request a question makes and the embedded presuppositions in the question. The required readings also include a choice of one of three articles on experiments showing the effects of the embedded presuppositions in questions. The exercise involves identifying the explicit request and the embedded presuppositions in the questions of a therapist in a video and annotating them in ELAN.
Week 9: Continues the analysis of questions by completing the latter part of the article in the previous readings, which describes a ten-step model of the co-constructive effects of therapists’ questions. The exercise involves using ELAN to identify and annotate all ten steps in a therapist’s question and the ensuing dialogue.
Week 10: This is the first of three weeks devoted to applying some very new research to how the therapeutic toolds studied so far become part of the ongoing dialogue. Moment by moment, therapist and client calibrate their mutual understanding in an observable three-step micro-process. This week focuses on calibration of topic choices introduced by the therapist. The reading describes the analysis of this three-step process, with examples in ELAN. The exercise involves identifying and annotating these three steps in a video.
Week 11: This week is devoted to how calibrating makes therapists' formulations a mutually accepted part of the dialogue. The reading illustrates calibrating of formulations and provides instructions on how to analyze these variations, which are the topic of this week's exercise. You are invited to think about how calibrating may contribute to co-construction.
Week 12: This week applies the analysis of calibrating to the interactive model of questions you learned earlier. Again, the emphasis is on the steps by which what the therapist introduces (i.e., embedded presuppositions) become part of the dialogue. You are invited to think about how calibrating may contribute to co-construction.
Week 13: This week focuses on how to make your own video recordings in a format that is optimal for microanalysis (especially on having both or all participants on camera at all times). Topics include the variety of recording options as well as camera angles, file format for the video, basic editing, and obtaining appropriate releases from participants. The exercise is for each person to make a video of her or his own role-played session (e.g., therapy, supervision, consultation). The video should be one that will be useful for the individual to microanalyze in the following weeks.
Week 14: This week focuses on inductive observation as a process by which to discover entirely new phenomena in face-to-face dialogue. The readings explain the inductive approach and its advantages. The exercise uses each individual’s own video from Week 13 to find something new and different that she or he would be interested in investigating using microanalysis.
Week 15: This week is devoted to applying microanalysis to practice and supervision. The readings for the week describe how to use ELAN and the microanalysis of video to enhance skills. The exercise requires individuals to create two sections of video approximately three minutes each from their own videos recorded for Week 13. One should be part of the session where you think things were going well and the other a part where you think things were not going as well or where you think responding to the client/supervisee's language was particularly challenging or interesting. The rest of the exercise is to analyze two parts in ELAN, identifying and discussing your topic choices, formulations, questions, and/or anything else you found of interest in Week 14.
Week 16: The final week is devoted to helping individuals articulate their next steps in applying microanalysis to their own professional work. Their next steps could involve using microanalysis to improve their own professional skills, to conduct peer or other forms of supervision or consultation, or to begin a formal research project. Individuals describe what they envision and the instructors offer responses and ideas aimed at encouraging and refining the application of microanalysis in each individual’s goals.
Week 2: Devoted to exploring the differences between the autonomous and collaborative views of face-to-face dialogue. The readings review relevant experiments from the psycholinguistics literature. For the exercise, you create an annotated ELAN file that contrasts these two views of a therapeutic dialogue in the same video excerpt.
Week 3: Focuses on replacing frequently taught misinformation about nonverbal communication with contemporary research on visible co-speech acts. The readings are an overview with examples and a published research article about the function of gaze in dialogue. There is also a demonstration ELAN that illustrates how these co-speech acts function in face-to-face dialogue. The exercise involves locating and annotating specific co-speech acts in ELAN.
Week 4: With the above background and practice, the course begins in-depth analysis of what therapists do. This is the first of two weeks devoted to how therapists from different approaches make different topic choices. The reading is the first part of a published research study that compared the topic choices by CBT and SFBT experts. The exercise is your own ELAN replication of the method described in this article.
Week 5: The second week on topic choice explores clients’ responses to therapists’ topic choices. The reading is the latter part of the article assigned for Week 4. The exercise involves analyzing (in ELAN) how the topic choices that therapists made in the videos used in Week 4 affected the clients' next topic choice.
Week 6: Formulation is a technical term for therapists’ paraphrases and summaries of what their clients say. The readings are the first part of a research article on formulations and a manual that describes how to identify therapists' formulations. The exercise involves identifying each therapist formulation in a video using ELAN and then annotating the exact words in each formulation.
Week 7: The second week on formulations specifies the ways in which therapists’ formulations transform what clients have said. The readings are the latter parts of the article and manual from Week 6, and the exercise involves analyzing the transformations in the therapist formulations identified in the previous week's exercise.
Week 8: This is the first of two weeks devoted to questions. The readings include the first part of an article on how questions function in therapeutic dialogues, focusing particularly on how to distinguish between the explicit request a question makes and the embedded presuppositions in the question. The required readings also include a choice of one of three articles on experiments showing the effects of the embedded presuppositions in questions. The exercise involves identifying the explicit request and the embedded presuppositions in the questions of a therapist in a video and annotating them in ELAN.
Week 9: Continues the analysis of questions by completing the latter part of the article in the previous readings, which describes a ten-step model of the co-constructive effects of therapists’ questions. The exercise involves using ELAN to identify and annotate all ten steps in a therapist’s question and the ensuing dialogue.
Week 10: This is the first of three weeks devoted to applying some very new research to how the therapeutic toolds studied so far become part of the ongoing dialogue. Moment by moment, therapist and client calibrate their mutual understanding in an observable three-step micro-process. This week focuses on calibration of topic choices introduced by the therapist. The reading describes the analysis of this three-step process, with examples in ELAN. The exercise involves identifying and annotating these three steps in a video.
Week 11: This week is devoted to how calibrating makes therapists' formulations a mutually accepted part of the dialogue. The reading illustrates calibrating of formulations and provides instructions on how to analyze these variations, which are the topic of this week's exercise. You are invited to think about how calibrating may contribute to co-construction.
Week 12: This week applies the analysis of calibrating to the interactive model of questions you learned earlier. Again, the emphasis is on the steps by which what the therapist introduces (i.e., embedded presuppositions) become part of the dialogue. You are invited to think about how calibrating may contribute to co-construction.
Week 13: This week focuses on how to make your own video recordings in a format that is optimal for microanalysis (especially on having both or all participants on camera at all times). Topics include the variety of recording options as well as camera angles, file format for the video, basic editing, and obtaining appropriate releases from participants. The exercise is for each person to make a video of her or his own role-played session (e.g., therapy, supervision, consultation). The video should be one that will be useful for the individual to microanalyze in the following weeks.
Week 14: This week focuses on inductive observation as a process by which to discover entirely new phenomena in face-to-face dialogue. The readings explain the inductive approach and its advantages. The exercise uses each individual’s own video from Week 13 to find something new and different that she or he would be interested in investigating using microanalysis.
Week 15: This week is devoted to applying microanalysis to practice and supervision. The readings for the week describe how to use ELAN and the microanalysis of video to enhance skills. The exercise requires individuals to create two sections of video approximately three minutes each from their own videos recorded for Week 13. One should be part of the session where you think things were going well and the other a part where you think things were not going as well or where you think responding to the client/supervisee's language was particularly challenging or interesting. The rest of the exercise is to analyze two parts in ELAN, identifying and discussing your topic choices, formulations, questions, and/or anything else you found of interest in Week 14.
Week 16: The final week is devoted to helping individuals articulate their next steps in applying microanalysis to their own professional work. Their next steps could involve using microanalysis to improve their own professional skills, to conduct peer or other forms of supervision or consultation, or to begin a formal research project. Individuals describe what they envision and the instructors offer responses and ideas aimed at encouraging and refining the application of microanalysis in each individual’s goals.
References, Copyright and Contact Info
Confidentiality
It is important to remember that information we put on the web (e.g., about oneself, others, clients, colleagues, or one's organization) is no longer private. In principle, it could be forwarded anywhere. The best solution is to treat this setting with the same respect and caution as any other professional setting. Post only information that would be appropriate for others to see.
References
Full citations are given in the Readings for each week of the course.
Copyright
Please note that all materials included in this course (Introductions, Readings, Exercises, Videos, etc.) are protected by copyrights, either by International Microanalysis Associates (contact Janet Bavelas; [email protected]), by book and journal publishers, or by various professional associations. Do not copy or use any of these materials without written permission from their source. Thank you.
Participants with Disabilities
If you need accommodation in order to meet any of the requirements of this course, please inform the instructors as soon as possible.
Contacting Us
If you wish to contact the instructors apart from the website options, you can do so by e-mailing [email protected]
It is important to remember that information we put on the web (e.g., about oneself, others, clients, colleagues, or one's organization) is no longer private. In principle, it could be forwarded anywhere. The best solution is to treat this setting with the same respect and caution as any other professional setting. Post only information that would be appropriate for others to see.
References
Full citations are given in the Readings for each week of the course.
Copyright
Please note that all materials included in this course (Introductions, Readings, Exercises, Videos, etc.) are protected by copyrights, either by International Microanalysis Associates (contact Janet Bavelas; [email protected]), by book and journal publishers, or by various professional associations. Do not copy or use any of these materials without written permission from their source. Thank you.
Participants with Disabilities
If you need accommodation in order to meet any of the requirements of this course, please inform the instructors as soon as possible.
Contacting Us
If you wish to contact the instructors apart from the website options, you can do so by e-mailing [email protected]
Re: Assignment for Week 1 (February 7-13)
Before you plunge into the work for week one, we invite each of you to introduce yourself to others in the course. Please post two paragraphs, one that briefly describes your current professional role and activities and a second that describes what led you to sign up for this course including your best hopes for how the course will be useful to you. You can post these paragraphs to the Discussion Forum called “Introductions of Course Members.”
Once you have posted your individual introduction, move out of the Discussions Forums and over to the heading “Week 1 (February 7-13).” Click on that heading, read the Instructions for that week, and then start to work on the week’s Readings and Exercise. Remember, if you have difficulties getting started with ELAN, post your questions to the “Technical Issues and Other Questions” discussion forum which Sara Healing and the other instructors will be monitoring. And, if you are new to ELAN, please be patient with yourself through the initial learning curve. We believe you will find this new skill lets you see a new world in dialogue. And, while often challenging, we hope you will find the work of the course enjoyable and exciting!
Once you have posted your individual introduction, move out of the Discussions Forums and over to the heading “Week 1 (February 7-13).” Click on that heading, read the Instructions for that week, and then start to work on the week’s Readings and Exercise. Remember, if you have difficulties getting started with ELAN, post your questions to the “Technical Issues and Other Questions” discussion forum which Sara Healing and the other instructors will be monitoring. And, if you are new to ELAN, please be patient with yourself through the initial learning curve. We believe you will find this new skill lets you see a new world in dialogue. And, while often challenging, we hope you will find the work of the course enjoyable and exciting!
