Description:
A concentration on communication processes is essential to sorting out fundamental problems in interpersonal relationships. This book provides a general theory of the role of communication in interpersonal relationships that is grounded in the rules perspective and focuses on self-concept and interaction as the generative mechanisms of relationship formation and growth. The authors explore the kind of information that is exchanged in the process of initiating, developing, and maintaining friend and mate relationships. Both types of relationships are explored in numerous cultural settings-including America and American subcultures as well as Korea, Nigeria, Japan, and China. The inclusion of Nigerian culture is particularly significant because the research literature in interpersonal communication is lacking any information from the continent of Africa. Implications are then considered for communication exchange across three categories of interpersonal communication-culture, conflict, and quality.
Brief description: Anne Maydan Nicotera is Associate Professor in the Department of Human Communication Studies at Howard University. She has also written Interpersonal Communication in Friend and Mate Relationships and edited Conflict and Organizations: Communicative Processes both published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"The topic of this book is both timely and significant. While the subject of interpersonal relationships (friendship and dating/mating) has been around for quite a while, the nature of this research is such that it provides both an assessment of past research and suggests future directions. These suggested directions have great heuristic value for the discipline of communication. The book provides both a useful synopsis of an important body of research as well as a model and methodology for carrying the research even further." -- Richard J. Dieker, Western Michigan University