Affiliations: Welsh Centre for Learning Disabilities Applied
Research Unit University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, UK | Centre for Language and Communication Research,
Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Mark Kilsby, Welsh Centre for
Learning Disabilities Applied research Unit, University of Wales College of
Medicine, Meridian Court, North Road, Cardiff CF14 3BC, UK. Tel.: +44 29
20691795; Fax: +44 29 20610812; E-mail: Kilsbyms@cf.ac.uk
Abstract: Discourse analysts have shown that interview interactions between
staff and people with mental retardation are especially subject to problems of
'acquiescence'. The interviewer's interactional dominance as well as the way
questions are phrased and sequenced on questionnaires have been shown to
encourage potentially acquiescent behaviours. These observations imply a need
to develop procedures for measuring the extent of this phenomenon during
vocational profiling conducted by job coaches and for finding effective methods
for its reduction. Kilsby and Beyer (2002) demonstrated how a
self-determination package could be used by job-coaches to reduce the incidence
of question formats most associated with producing acquiescent responses during
job selection interviews. However, the quantitative method of coding the type
and frequency of the questions asked by job-coaches does not provide conclusive
evidence that job-seekers' acquiescence was actually reduced. This paper aims
to highlight the problems of acquiescence in supported employment by using the
insights gained from fine-grained interactional analysis using a sample of the
first time job-seekers from the Kilsby and Beyer study. Results indicate that
the interventions did indeed reduce the occurrence of potentially acquiescent
responses on the part of job-seekers, thus adding validity to the observational
data and suggesting effective ways forward for practice and research.
