The Vocabulary of Quitting

William R. Crawley (Grand Valley State University) and Lynnea J. Dehaan (Grand Valley State University)

Volume 2, Issue 2

Abstract

This study will address the motivations and incentives involved in the attempted cessation of drug abusing behaviors from the perspective of the user.  The study used qualitative interviewing techniques based on 2005-2006 data to examine urban current drug users, who had been diagnostically identified as ‘in need' of treatment, and who had recently renounced the use of drugs by expressing their desire to quit through the use of language.  It was this language (vocabulary) that was examined for similarities and differences in their use of justification techniques in order to establish a typology based on their vocabulary of quitting.

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