Acting Ones Credibility in Memory Consultation: Older people facing cognitive evaluation

This article proposes an interactionist approach to memory consultations-in which elderly patients cognitive performance is evaluated-through the negotiation of patients "credibility." It focuses on strategies used by patients when doctors question their credibility. Taking into account gender and class differences, the author concludes that the means used by the elderly to maintain credibility often result in a loss of credibility, and that maintaining credibility is "structurally unlikely" because it depends on parameters (medical knowledge, social expectations placed on the elderly) that go beyond the scope of the interaction.