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Social Sci LibreTexts

7: Communication in Relationships

  • Page ID
    23999
    • Anonymous
    • LibreTexts
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    • 7.1: Foundations of Relationships
      Communication is at the heart of forming our interpersonal relationships. We reach the achievement of relating through the everyday conversations and otherwise trivial interactions that form the fabric of our relationships. It is through our communication that we adapt to the dynamic nature of our relational worlds, given that relational partners do not enter each encounter or relationship with compatible expectations.
    • 7.2: Communication and Friends
      It’s likely that each of you reading this book has a different way of perceiving and categorizing your friendships. In this section, we will learn about the various ways we classify friends, the life cycle of friendships, and how gender affects friendships.
    • 7.3: Communication and Families
      There is no doubt that the definition and makeup of families are changing in the United States. While family rituals and routines can definitely be fun and entertaining bonding experiences, they can also bring about interpersonal conflict and strife.
    • 7.4: Romantic Relationships
      Whether pining for love in the pages of a diary or trying to find a soul mate from a cast of suitors, love and romance can seem to take us over at times. As we have learned, communication is the primary means by which we communicate emotion, and it is how we form, maintain, and end our relationships. In this section, we will explore the communicative aspects of romantic relationships including love, sex, social networks, and cultural influences.
    • 7.5: Relationships at Work
      Since many people spend as much time at work as they do with their family and friends, the workplace becomes a key site for relational development. The workplace relationships we’ll discuss in this section include supervisor-subordinate relationships, workplace friendships, and workplace romances (Sias, 2009).
    • 7.6: The Dark Side of Relationships
      n the course of a given day, it is likely that we will encounter the light and dark sides of interpersonal relationships. So what constitutes the dark side of relationships?


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