Human Relationships: An Introduction to Social Psychology

by Steve Duck

While most introductory social psychology textbooks do an excellent job of outlining the field and presenting current research, they often seem to be unrelated to real life because they undervalue the substructure of social our relationships with other people. The intention of this unique book is to make the study of social psychology a living reflection of students' everyday experiences through the study of relationships. Human Relationships will not supplant the instructor's chosen introductory text, but will instead supplement it to give students an exciting glimpse into the psychology of their own lives. Professor Duck, who has played a major international role in the establishment of the new science of personal relationships, skilfully interweaves current research on interpersonal emotions with traditional social psychology topics to demonstrate conclusively that relationships form the basis for our mental and physical well-being. Thus the book offers information to students about key areas of research in the field, while asking them to relate it to their own lives and showing them its subtle interconnections with other areas of social psychology. Chapters introduce questions frequently asked by undergraduates, such as why some people are lonely or shy, what is jealousy, how do people fall in -- and out -- of love, why some children are unpopular, how children are affected by their parents' divorce. In addition, the book includes sections on sociolinguistics and the role of speech styles in social behaviour, non-verbal communication, social skills, physician-patient relationships, the social psychology of death and bereavement, social anxiety and the repair of deteriorating relationships. Human Relationships gives strong teaching support to instructors by encouraging students to consider familiar emotions and experiences analytically and to interpret them through research. An appendix contains library and research skills instruction, 'thought exercises', practical exercises and suggestions for further research. Steve Duck has not only written a book that will stimulate and supplement students' interest in social psychology, but has also added the definitive text on personal relationships to the professional psychologist's library.

Genres: Psychology, Reference

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1986

About the author

Steve Duck (Steven W. Duck) a British social psychologist turned communication scholar, is the Daniel & Amy Starch Distinguished Research Professor and Chair, Department of Rhetoric, at the University of Iowa.

He has made contributions to the scientific field of social and personal relationships.

He attended Bristol Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford before gaining a Ph.D. from Sheffield University in 1971. He studied social and personal relationships and published several books and articles on the subject. He taught at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and the University of Lancaster in England, being one of four founding members of the Department of Psychology there in 1973. In 1986 he moved to the University of Iowa as the Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Professor, the first fully endowed professorship in the College of Liberal Arts (later the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences – CLAS). He served as Chair Department Executive Officer for the Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa 1994–1998 and subsequently as Chair of the Department of Rhetoric, University of Iowa (2010–present).

Duck conducted research into social relationships at Lancaster University. He founded the International Conference on Personal Relationships, the first four of which he organized with Robin Gilmour from Lancaster University, but situating the conference in Madison, Wisconsin in 1982 and 1984. These international conferences have since occurred every two years. Between these first two conferences he founded an interdisciplinary Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and was its first Editor for the fifteen volumes from 1984-1998. He also founded the International Network on Personal Relationships, and, then at the University of Iowa, founded and ran several conferences there both for general scholarly groups and also specifically for graduate students.

He served as President of INPR (International Network on Personal Relationships) which was subsequently merged into IARR (International Association for Relationship Research).

He has published several books and monographs on the general themes of relationships, becoming most closely associated with models of Interpersonal communication relationship dissolution and in particular with Duck's topographical model of relationship dissolution and a more formalized stages of dissolution model. This latter was later modified by Rollie & Duck (2006).

He has presented over 200 conference papers, written over 100 articles and chapters and written or edited 60 books, the most recent being Duck & McMahan (2017) Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public Speaking, and Duck & McMahan (2017) Communication in Everyday Life: A Survey of Communication, Third Edition, . In 1982 he became the founding Editor of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and held the position of Editor in Chief until 1998.

Reviews

[Chow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speaks mostly about the research stuffs, on the "why". If you're finding for advice, unless you can derive the "how" from the "why", don't bother. However, if you're just wondering how relationships actually works, what are their permutations, etc., recommended this book. Unlike modern textbooks which are utterly boring, filled with math equations which makes the reader feel ashamed of his dumbness, this book is engaging to read.