Work

The morality of anxiety: Emotion and credibility in helpline interaction.

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Research in discursive psychology examines naturally occurring interactions to see how people deal with psychological matters, such as emotions.In the current article, we use examples from a study conducted in a helpline setting to illustrate how discursive psychology provides insights into the moral dimensions of anxiety.Although individuals may use expressions of worry to emphasize the seriousness of a problem in their lives, they also counter a hearing of their problem as existing solely in their mind-that is, as anxiety.Our findings show that callers work to maintain credibility while presenting themselves as anxious and that call takers can support them by acknowledging anxiety as an external force that can overpower individuals, even when they are aware of its nature.By demonstrating how the morality of attributing a problem to the subject can be negotiated through interactional practices that distribute responsibility, this study highlights the value of analyzing emotion in naturally occurring interactions.

Source: Qualitative Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/qup0000351

Authors: Clara Iversen, Marie Flinkfeldt, Klara Bertils

Institution: Uppsala University

Language: English

Topic: Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Vetenskapsrådet, Forskningsrådet om Hälsa, Arbetsliv och Välfärd

Award: Meaningful conversations in the sunset years: Developing suicide preventive communication tools for productive responses to older helpline callers