Interpersonal Messages: Communication and Relationship

by Joseph A. DeVito

Updated in a new 2nd edition, Interpersonal Messages stresses the importance of politeness, cultural awareness and ethical principles within daily interpersonal interactions by engaging students with its lively and accessible insight to interpersonal skill development.

By creating a foundation for the reader, Interpersonal Messages gives room to understand the concepts of interpersonal communication and to develop the skills necessary to apply what they've learned. With a focus on skill-building, this book helps the reader to understand how to master interpersonal communication and relationship skills.

Genres: Education, School, Textbooks, Psychology

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Joseph A. DeVito is professor emeritus at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He was professor at Queens College of City University of New York from 1972-85. He has been a professor at Hunter College since 1985.

Reviews

[Lou Rocama · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have little respect for this subject, but I'll try to be objective.

Material is presented adequately, though not particularly well. I didn't have any trouble following the text, but nothing made it stick out either. The material itself is mainly common sense mixed with patronizing self-help-like ideas packaged to look 'scientific'. Snickering at the latter was the second most fun I had with this book.

The most fun was turning the colored circles used in practically every diagram into pictures of Ganesha holding worlds (or occasionally just faces). This was really all said diagrams were good for, as they were completely incomprehensible. They were pretending to be flow charts, while having no idea what a flow chart actually is. The few that were understandable were generally unnecessary, along the lines of a rectangle divided in half with some 'vital concept' written on either side and a caption like 'such and such topics are related'. This is my memory of the diagrams in general, rather than a specific one (I sincerely hope they're better than I remember).

The little pictures illustrating popular culture that had to do with materials in the subsequant chapter were at best dull. As an attempted to connect the material to real life, I'd consider them a failure.

I was displeased that the book has a section on differences in communicating with those who have physical communication handicaps, such as deafness, while meantioning nothing about those with mental communication difficulties, such as Autism or severe depression. I ended up sharing some tips for people with social anxiety because there were none in the text, or even an indication it existed. (here's a tip: If you're nervous about making eye contact, pick a different spot on their face, like the mouth or nose, to focus on. If it's close to the eyes they won't notice, and it's less nerve-wracking. I always feel incredibly rude looking at someones eyes even if it's socially required.)

[Denielle]

This was a required text for my Intro to Interpersonal Communications course in college. I enjoyed the author's style of writing. He explained the concepts without getting bogged down in them as some textbook authors tend to do. My husband and I took the course together (and read the book together) and it has greatly improved our communication with not only each other, but also others we come in contact with.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is some helpful information in this book on culture, active listening, nonverbal communication, expressing emotions, interpersonal relationships, and much more, but the author is heavily biased toward normalizing homosexuality. There is a whole section on avoiding "heterosexism."