Values, skills, and decision-making: A cultural sociological approach to explaining diagnostic disclosure

Abstract

This paper provides an analytical framework for explaining the practice of diagnostic disclosure by drawing on theoretical developments regarding the question of “culture in action.” Based on ethnographic and interview data collected from fieldwork at a major cancer hospital in China from 2015 to 2019, this paper explains how doctors and family members make decisions about diagnostic disclosure. We argue that it is important to understand the practice of diagnostic disclosure as motivated by the actors' values on the one hand, and constrained and enabled by the actors’ skills on the other hand. It is also necessary to distinguish between personal and public values, as well as medical and interpersonal skills. Based on these distinctions, we will be better equipped to explain why diagnostic disclosure has encountered difficulties in family-centered societies, such as China.