Integrating quantitative methods into conversation analysis

This paper explores integrating quantitative methods into Conversation Analysis (CA) to examine psychological

reactance in face-to-face interactions. Although extensively studied in mediated contexts, psychological reactance – a

motivational state triggered by perceived threats to autonomy – remains underexplored in natural conversations. Addressing this

gap, the study investigates how reactance manifests and affects conversational dynamics, such as stance-taking and disalignments.

Video-recorded interactions were collected where participants faced reactance-inducing conditions (e.g., limiting

smartphone use). Using GAT2 transcription and multimodal annotations, a systematic triple manual coding was used to identify

markers of reactance. For statistical tests, the averages of the coding decisions were used to utilize the interpretative

flexibility inherent in coding. Quantitative analyses showed significant relationships: reactance correlated positively with

perceived freedom restriction, negatively with stance, and predicted conversational disalignment. Findings demonstrate that

integrating quantitative methods into CA enhances its capacity to analyze complex phenomena like reactance, linking interactional

practices with psychological concepts and advancing methodological discussions within CA.