Building Your Social World: Constructing Reality through Interpersonal Communication

Building Your Social World: Constructing Reality through Interpersonal Communication gives students the key to unlocking the full explanatory value of interpersonal communication to better understand and navigate their personal and professional lives. The social constructionist approach of the text provides a lens through which students can view themselves not only as communicators, but also as creators who work together in their interactions to give meaning to their social world.

Unique features facilitate teaching a social construction approach to interpersonal communication. Transcripts of actual conversations highlight taken-for-granted moments students can explore in depth. Interactive features such as consider questions, activities, fun quizzes, and brief case studies encourage reflection on chapter content. A variety of short essays cover inclusive, controversial, research-based, as well as first-hand content. Examples reflect the daily communication of students for whom technology is fully and seamlessly integrated. Standard features including learning goals, review questions, keywords, and images also facilitate student learning in dynamic ways. The chapter topics and concept coverage reflect the typical interpersonal communication syllabus.

Building Your Social World provides a compelling explanatory tool through which to interpret and navigate challenging and difficult situations exposing how to change meaning in the moments of an interaction itself. Social construction is inherently an optimistic and hopeful approach to interpersonal communication. In this way, social construction empowers students and enables them to fully appreciate the potential of interpersonal communication.