Talking About Friends, Drugs, and Change: Meanings of Friendship in Substance Abusers’ Change Talk

Abstract

This article explores the meanings of substance-abusing clients attach to friendships during motivational treatment sessions in Probation Service. Sessions (98) were videotaped in 12 probation service offices in Finland in 2007 to 2009. By using semiotic framework, this qualitative study examines client's change talk utterance about friendships as a symbolic sign. The findings indicate that the friendships play an important role in the substance-abusing clients’ motivation to change and in their treatment outcome. The study suggests that the personal meanings of clients’ utterances in motivational treatment sessions could be seen as potential predictors of their future behavior.

Keywords :

• friendships
• substance abuse treatment
• motivation
• outcome
• change talk
• semiotics
• qualitative study

THE AUTHORS

Harri Sarpavaara, Ph.D., is an Academy Research Fellow of the Academy of Finland. He is working at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Tampere in Finland. He is also an Adjunct Professor (Docent) of sociology. His current research focuses on the semiotic analysis of interaction in MI-based consultations with substance abusers in the probation service.

GLOSSARY

• Change talk: An individual's utterances that indicate the recognition of a reason, need, ability, desire, commitment, or taking a step to change.

• Motivational interviewing (MI): A collaborative, person-centered, directive clinical method and style to elicit and strengthen motivation for change.

• Semiotics: The theory and study of signs and sign-using behavior.

• Symbolic sign: One of three main sign types in Charles S. Peirce's semiotic theory of signs.

Notes

1 Quotations from Peirce (1965) are referenced in the standard manner of Peirce scholarship, parenthesized within the text. The first numeral in the citation is the volume number of Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce (CP), and the number to the right of the point is the paragraph. Thus, 2.274 refers to paragraph 274 of volume 2.

2 Co stands for the counselor, Cl for the client.