The coconstruction of interpersonal recognition in the clinical dialogue of the diagnostic process: A multilevel analysis of the verbal content and vocal nonverbal dimension

The present study is an empirical evaluation of a clinical setting from a particular point of view, able to integrate the vocal dimension—used in different fields of psychology as an indicator of rational phenomena—with the linguistic dimension of contents. Starting from the “interpersonal recognition” extracted from the contents of the verbatim transcripts of some diagnostic processes using the Strumento di Valutazione del Riconoscimento Interpersonale (Evaluation Tool for Interpersonal Recognition), the variation of vocal parameters both in the clinician and in the patient were analyzed. The goal consists in identifying possible nonverbal vocal micro indicators used in the dyadic process of interpersonal recognition. Specific and bidimensional nonverbal vocal patterns and strategies are hypothetically matched with different efficacy levels of recognition, both for the clinician and the patient.