The study described in this paper illustrates how key features of rhetorical analysis can be operationalized to apply to the study of therapeutic transactions. After a discussion of psychotherapy as an influence process, the paper describes the methodology used in an analysis of tape-recorded discourse between three therapist/client dyads in an…

Suggests, based on observations of children in a nursery school drawing activity, that what children understand about drawing is intimately tied to what they know of drawing activities undertaken in a particular social context. (FL)