Communication Books - Page 2

Communicating Effectively

Saundra Hybels, Richard L. Weaver

List Price: $35.50 By: Mcgraw-Hill College Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Communicating Effectively 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful.

We use this book at the Florida State University to teach a Freshman/Sophmore level Public Speaking class. It's a great book because it's simple and straight-forward. It approaches the student with real-world examples and presents solutions for the individual to overcome fears/roadblocks to public speaking.

I recommend this book as a textbook for any student of public speaking. It's also written so it can be read cover to cover so it can be used out of the classroom!

Good Advice on Communicating Effectively 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Dr. Weaver is a solid communicator whether it's in person or through the written page. I never had the privilege of meeting the coauthor, Dr. Hybels. This book covers the basics of communication effectiveness in a precise manner. Various contexts are included.

You can tell the authors represent a holistic approach due to the myriad sources brought together to explain the process. Even the entertainment portion is included, which helps maintain student interest.

Editorial Review:

This accessible introduction to communication is known for its experiential approach. Students learn theory through numerous activities that are drawn from actual experiences on campus, at work, and in the community. The text is written in a reader-friendly style. Concepts are tied to specific situations, problems, and ideas with which students can readily identify. Brief readings from the popular press further engage students, connecting the ideas in the text to events in the world around them

A Cognitive Psychology of Mass Communication

Richard Jackson Harris

List Price: $34.50 By: Lawrence Erlbaum Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $0.46

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Seldom does the content of a textbook become obsolete so fast as when it deals with the media. Intended to fill the gap in interdisciplinary approaches to mass communication, this book was written specifically from the perspective of a cognitive psychologist examining mass communication research. Most of the existing research has come from the field of communication or from psychologists with an essentially social psychological orientation. While these approaches are not neglected in this text, the emphasis is a cognitive one, focusing on the knowledge acquired from interacting with the media as well as the ramifications of this knowledge. The overriding theme of the book is that we construct cognitive representations of what the world is like through interacting with the media, especially television. The nature of this knowledge has far-reaching effects on our attitudes, behaviors, and world views in ways that are seldom adequately appreciated. Ideally, this book will sensitize readers to the psychology of the mass media, and how they connect with us as persons.

In response to adopter critiques, the material on communication theory has been greatly expanded in this second edition. Other material added is a completely updated and rewritten chapter on news, including an extensive section with information on the Persian Gulf War, the fall of the Soviet Union and the Tiananmen Square Massacre. There also is a far-reaching new section on family values.

Exploring GenderSpeak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication

Diana K Ivy, Phil Backlund

List Price: $59.37 By: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $0.47

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Biased Viewpoint 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This textbook is now available in second edition, as of the fall of 1999. The second edition is significantly updated, with more references to the impact of technology on communication between the sexes and more attention paid to issues surrounding diversity. A new, highly provocative chapter has been included on power abuses in human relationships. Three main topics--sexual harassment, sexual assault and dating rape, and partner violence--are the focus of this chapter.

A magnificent introduction to the field. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I am a university professor of linguistics. If I were teaching a course in this field, this is the textbook I would use. It truly introduces the range of topics in the field in a manageable, engaging way. Excellent.

The newest (3rd) edition 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is a great resource for any college student studying communication. One of the co-authors of this book is an instructor at the school I attend. The book really gets into the gender differences in communication just as the instructor does in class. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the topic.

Editorial Review:

This text is designed for a junior/ senior course focusing on gender and communication. Comprehensive in nature, this text discusses topics ranging from "nature vs. nurture", the effects of media on gender communication, to the effects of gender in relationships.

Hearing Is Believing: How Words Can Make or Break Our Kids

Elisa Medhus

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New World Library Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $7.94

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Every parent should read this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.

What an insightful and helpful guide to parenting. I believe I can do a better job of raising my seven-year-old as a result of reading this book. It made me realize the importance of enabling my child to be more responsible and how that will help him build his self-esteem. Her message was strong and clear that parents need to help children recognize their own self-worth and let that, rather than continual outside validation, determine how they feel about themselves. I feel better prepared to do this after reading this book.

It is well known that the way we raise our children has a huge impact on how they will function as adults. Elisa Medhus allowed me to better understand that. What better gift to give our children than the chance to be highly functioning adults who can actually feel good about themselves? This book will help parents give their children a better shot at a healthy and happy life. The author has a great sense of humor which made the reading all the more enjoyable. I highly recommend this book for all parents.

Editorial Review:

In Hearing Is Believing, award-winning author Elisa Medhus argues that even seemingly harmless phrases such as "You're such a good girl" can encourage children to become approval seekers, thwart their ability to reason, or both. Over time, these children become less inclined to trust their parents' guidance and internalize their values. Exposing potentially harmful words and phrases, many that may surprise readers, this book suggests language changes that are simple to implement and keep up. Stories illustrate positive results.

Listening: Attitudes, Principles, and Skills (3rd Edition)

Judi Brownell

Amazon Price: $81.54 List Price: $90.60 Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks By: Allyn & Bacon Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $60.00

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Dry, But Informative. 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

LISTENING: ATTITUDES, PRINCIPLES, AND SKILLS is a textbook about listening. We spend more time listening than we do reading, writing, and speaking combined. Yet, most people have no idea what listening is composed of. Our lives and the world in general would be a much better place if everyone took the time to improve their listening skills. This book takes an indepth look at the HURIER model of listening. Though several models of listening have been developed over the years, the HURIER model is, in my opinion, the model that best describes all of the processes involved in listening. There are six components to the HURIER model: Hearing, Understanding, Evaluating, Interpreting, Remembering, and Responding. LISTENING: A.P.S. is divided into 10 chapters and six of those chapters are spent solely on one component of the HURIER model. This book is quite informative about the art of listening. However, like the majority of college textbooks it is written in a very dry style. There is no glossary or side definitions of important words and the most important concepts are somewhat difficult to find in the layers of dull text. I found the most interesting reading in the book to be the case stories at the beginning of each chapter. There's no place quite like Burger World. Nevertheless, though the book is difficult to plough through, it is full of lots of useful information. It is a good text to use in a listening class. Just don't fall asleep reading it.

Editorial Review:

Listening takes an experiential approach to listening instruction, providing extensive supplemental applications and cases within the context of a sound theoretical framework. The book encourages readers to view listening as a process involving six interrelated components. Each component is developed along the parallel dimensions of theory and skill building. Within the unifying theoretical framework of the HURIER model, readers not only develop an understanding of the listening process, they also acquire specific, observable listening skills. This behavioral approach enables readers to increase their listening effectiveness while developing an understanding of listening-related research and theory.

Instant Rapport

Michael Brooks

List Price: $18.95 By: Warner Books Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Not practical and overgeneralizations throughout 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Mr. Brooks talks about achieving instant rapport with someone. Although this book talks about the very basics of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) since it has been written in 1989 when NLP was fairly new, there are couple of basic stradegies I found useful:

1. Talking in forms of the other's representation types (Visual, Kinesthetic, Auditory)
We are either one of the three types, and we tend to talk more in types of those languages. (ex. I "see" what you mean vs. I "hear" what you mean)
Simply recongnize them in a conversation and talk in that context of language.

2. Mirroring
In order to establish rapport, subtly mirror their physical behaviors (ex. hand gestures, crossing legs)

3. Anchoring
When someone is in high emotional state, anchor that feeling by planting a signal on his/her body (squeezeing elbows, wrist)


Other methods Brooks talks about did not seem very practical to me (such as using specific questions such as "Can you remember a time when you have been totally attracted to someone?" leading to "What was the first thing you noticed, looks, sound, or feeling?" to "What was the second thing you noticed..." to "What was the third?" to supposedly tap into someone's minds. Seems kind of impractical to use in a conversational context because nobody talks like this and the subject is likely to feel strange.

Overall, gives you a gist of the world of NLP, which can be a very powerful tool if studied carefully. However, there are other more modern books out on NLP now since studies have advanced. If interested, check out Tony Robbins' Unlimited Power if you want to learn how to control your mind and feelings as well as rapport with others in greater detail.

Editorial Review:

The national bestseller that shows how anyone can master the proven scientific techniques of neurolinguistic programming (NLP) and forge instant relationships, instant chemistry, instant intimacy at will--now with a special chapter on sexual rapport! Trains the reader to control others' perceptions, dissolve communication barriers, create more intimate relationships, negotiate more effectively, and more.

Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit

Charles V. Ford

Amazon Price: $22.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $18.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Thorough and general treatment of practice of deceipt 5 out of 5 stars.
54 of 63 people found this review helpful.

A certain dry humour makes the book very readable. The description of social pressures in learning to lie, and animal world comparisons, are a useful perspective. The central theme - the danger of lying to oneself, or self deception - is of great importance in working in any large organisation. I would prescribe it as essential reading for managers and directors of most modern organisations Many readers may lack the objectivity to appreciate and believe the reports contained in the book, though they are well researched and well documented. I hope the next edition may spend more time in coping with lies. There are 13 pages in this book on therapeutic approaches toward the deceitful person. The comments on "groupthink", which involves bias of group behaviour, could also be expanded in future editions, with comments on the efficacy of countermeasures.

Editorial Review:

Lies! Lies!! Lies!!! The Psychology of Deceit looks beyond compulsive liars in our society and considers the ongoing flood of lies that we as human beings experience every day. Who lies? Not just children, politicians, advertisers, and salespeople. Our co-workers lie. Our friends lie. Our relatives lie. And we lie to them. Everybody lies. We learn to lie and to detect deceit as a developmental task. Dr. FordÂs philosophy is that lying is part of the bridge between oneÂs internal world (beliefs, perceptions, expectations, fantasies) and oneÂs external world (reality). Lies work not only to deceive others but to deceive ourselves. This book shines a spotlight on an understudied phenomenon that affects us all as we raise children, choose a relationship, move forward with a career path, or buy a used car.

Persuasion: Theory and Research (Current Communication)

Daniel J. O'Keefe

List Price: $64.95 By: Sage Publications, Inc Amazon Marketplace: 16 new & used starting at $3.90

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Academics searching for a comprehensive text in persuasion or researchers looking for a quick brushup in theory and research can find no better resource than Persuasion. Written in an accessible style that presumes no special technical background in research methods, this timely volume offers a comprehensive and critical treatment of theory and research in persuasion. O'Keefe provides a clear, straightforward introduction on this subject, leaving instructors free to handpick non-text materials to satisfy ancillary aims. He includes a discussion of research concerning the production of persuasive messages, as well as more traditional research on the study of message effects. Also included is an excellent summary of relevant research literature in persuasion (including secondary and tertiary sources), suggestions on how to avoid premature generalizations from limited research evidence, and detailed discussions on important theoretical and methodological questions. An excellent resource for scholars, practitioners, and students, this thought-provoking volume is ideal for anyone working in the fields of communication, sociology, marketing, advertising, and social psychology. "This the second in a series of Advanced Text Series on Communication provides a clear, straight-forward introduction to the field which also covers current research into the production of persuasive massages and message effects as well as a critical overview of relevant research literature. . . . Essential reading for anyone in the behavioral sciences or fields concerned with the induction of behavior or attitude change." --Journal of the Institute of Health Education "For the most part, the O'Keefe chapters tend to be brief, providing the students with a quick summary of a given research area or theory. . . . the reader is given an adequate theoretical foundation to understand key persuasion research findings. An advantage of the O'Keefe volume is its critical treatment of attitude theories. . . . Each theory is presented in its simplest form with supporting evidence. As such, it is easy for the reader to see the strengths and weaknesses of a given theory. Beginning with the preface, O'Keefe often provides his critical analysis of a given issue. Such a critical analysis is useful for starting classroom discussion. In summary, the instructor who is looking for a text that presents a concise, but critical, summary of attitude theories and findings should consult O'Keefe's Persuasion: Theory and Research." --Contemporary Psychology

Critical Thinking in Communication: The Use of Reason in Argument

Edward S. Inch, Barbara Warnick

List Price: $59.00 By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A good step-by-step guide to argument and debate 4 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I have used this text to teach my argumentation course for the past three years. It has proven very effective in teaching students step-by-step how to recognize claims, evidence and reasoning. Each chapter contains very practical exercises for students to complete proving they grasp the concepts of the chapter. Very clear examples are provided of arguments and the impact of culture on argument (in one chapter). The only weakness is on the focus on debate solely. This is not a weakness for some, but is for me who is striving to introduce students to both dialogue and debate.

Editorial Review:

Relating common theoretical models to true-to-life examples from law, ethics, education, and business, Inch and Warnick stress the importance of argumentation in everyday life. This book encourages readers to develop skills in both constructing and refuting arguments. Through exercises and examples, readers learn how to create individual arguments, extend argument cases, and understand how arguments are designed and how to interpret them. The book allows readers to conceptualize argumentation in the larger framework of verbal and written interaction, from public speaking and debating to interpersonal, intercultural, and small group communication. For public speakers, or anyone interested in the art of debate.

Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind

David Livingstone Smith

List Price: $24.95 By: St. Martin's Press Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $3.43

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Deceit, lying, and falsehoods lie at the very heart of our cultural heritage. Even the founding myth of the Judeo-Christian tradition, the story of Adam and Eve, revolves around a lie. We have been talking, writing and singing about deception ever since Eve told God, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Our seemingly insatiable appetite for stories of deception spans the extremes of culture from King Lear to Little Red Riding Hood, retaining a grip on our imaginations despite endless repetition. These tales of deception are so enthralling because they speak to something fundamental in the human condition. The ever-present possibility of deceit is a crucial dimension of all human relationships, even the most central: our relationships with our very own selves.

Now, for the first time, philosopher and evolutionary psychologist David Livingstone Smith elucidates the essential role that deception and self-deception have played in human--and animal--evolution and shows that the very structure of our minds has been shaped from our earliest beginnings by the need to deceive. Smith shows us that by examining the stories we tell, the falsehoods we weave, and the unconscious signals we send out, we can learn much about ourselves and how our minds work.

Readers of Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker will find much to intrigue them in this fascinating book, which declares that our extraordinary ability to deceive others--and even our own selves--"lies" at the heart of our humanity.