Interpersonal Conflict

This volume is based on the presentations and discussions of a national symposium on "Couples in Conflict" that focused on family issues. A common thread throughout is that constructive conflict and negotiation are beneficial for relationships. Together, the chapters provide a foundation for thinking about creative ways in which our society can work to prevent or minimize destructive couple conflict and to enhance couples' abilities to constructively handle their differences. Divided into four parts, this book: *addresses the societal and bioevolutionary underpinnings of couple conflict; *presents the interpersonal roots of couple conflict and the consequences for individuals and couples; *discusses what effects couple conflict have on children and how individual differences in children moderate these effects; and *outlines the issue of policies and programs that address couple conflict. This book concludes with an essay that pulls these four themes together and points to new directions for research and program efforts.

Providing a thorough review and synthesis of work on communication skills and skill enhancement, this Handbook serves as a comprehensive and contemporary survey of theory and research on social interaction skills. Editors John O. Greene and Brant R. Burleson have brought together preeminent researchers and writers to contribute to this volume, establishing a foundation on which future study and research will build. The Handbook chapters are organized into five major units: general theoretical and methodological issues (models of skill acquisition, methods of skill assessment); fundamental interaction skills (both transfunctional and transcontextual); function-focused skills (informing, persuading, supporting); skills used in management of diverse personal relationships (friendships, romances, marriages); and skills used in varied venues of public and professional life (managing leading, teaching). Distinctive features of this Handbook include: broad, comprehensive treatment of work on social interaction skills and skill acquisition; up-to-date reviews of research in each area; and emphasis on empirically supported strategies for developing and enhancing specific skills. Researchers in communication studies, psychology, family studies, business management, and related areas find this volume a comprehensive, authoritative source on communications skills and their enhancement, and it is essential reading for scholars and students across the spectrum of disciplines studying social interaction.

This exceptional collection--a compilation of meta-analyses related to issues in interpersonal communication--provides an expansive review of existing interpersonal communication research. Incorporating a wide variety of topics related to interpersonal communication, including couples and safe sex, parent-child communication, argumentativeness, and self-disclosure, the contributions in this volume also examine such basic issues as reciprocity, constructivism, social support in interpersonal communication, as well as gender, conflict, and marital and organizational issues. With contributions organized into five sections, this volume: *sets the stage for independent meta-analyses; *provides an overview of individual characteristics in interpersonal communication and the meta-analyses reflecting this theme; *explores the dyadic and interactional approaches to interpersonal communication; and *examines the impact of the meta-analyses on the understanding of interpersonal communication. As a resource for interpersonal communication researchers at all levels, this volume establishes a solid foundation from which to launch the next generation of study and research.

Drawing from Foucault's notion of power-knowledge-resistance and feminist poststructuralism, this book offers a re-theorisation of parent-child conflict that takes into account relationships between the individual and society. Employing this non-traditional perspective, Grieshaber studies four families and considers how issues such as race, class, gender and age, interact with daily domestic practice to produce parent-child conflict. Using critical theory rather than developmental psychology, this in-depth text looks at: * parent and child conflict as modernist understanding * researching with families * gendered conflict * daily living as normalization and regulation. Authorised by a well-regarded researcher, this is a must-read guide for education professionals.