Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This fully revised and updated second edition:
* outlines the main components and distinctive characteristics of interpersonal communication
* offers detailed analysis of communication structures, considering their everyday applications and implications
* includes new material on race, gender and sexuality
* looks to the future of interpersonal communication.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Section A Understanding interpersonal communication
• 1 Defining what we mean by interpersonal communication
• 2 The process of interpersonal communication
• 3 The skills of interpersonal communication
• 4 Communication skills in context
• Section B The components of interpersonal communication
• 5 Social Context
• 6 Social identity
• 7 Social perception
• 8 Codes 1 - codes and language
• 9 Codes 2 - incorporating the nonverbals
• Section C Issues and controversies in interpersonal communication
• 10 Are popular models of interpersonal communication useful?
• 11 Do men and women communicate differently?
• 12 Does assertiveness work?
• Section D Going beyond interpersonal communication
• 13 How is group communication different from interpersonal communication?
• 14 Final thoughts - is CMC a new form of interpersonal communication?

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Hartley covers, in ten chapters, the following ideas: definition, process, and skills of interpersonal communication; the role and importance of social context, social identity, social perception, and language codes; and communication and groups, mediated communication, and further extensions and uses of the text material. Notes and references to additional source material are found at the ends of chapters. A model of interpersonal communication is presented in the second chapter and guides further discussions. Its four main elements--social context, social identity, social perception, and coding--are detailed in subsequent chapters. Statements of information and ways of information presentation add two final components to the model, to provide readers with a useful organizing framework. Most appropriate for community college and lower-division undergraduate students in colleges and universities, although high school faculty and students may also find the book useful and appropriate. E. Palola; emeritus, SUNY Empire State College