Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships

This book is an up-to-date compendium of knowledge on the secret language of close relationships, namely nonverbal routes of communication.  In close relationships, as everyone learns sooner or later, the usefulness of words can be somewhat limited, because people (a) mean different things by the same words, (b) mean the same thing by different words, (c) sometimes find it hard to express their feelings in words, and (d) lie.  Nonverbal signals therefore often provide the best means of communication. The book points out how decoding (interpreting) nonverbal signals is a major key to success, because often what people say wholly belies how they feel—nonverbal signals reveal their true feelings rather than what they want other people to think their feelings are. This book helps decode those secret signals.  The book is written by the leading worldwide experts in the field of nonverbal communication to ensure accuracy, comprehensiveness, and timeliness.

"Looking at a wide variety of nonverbal behavior, Nonverbal Communication in Close Relationships: What Words Don’t Tell Us considers the ways in which nonverbal signaling and decoding function within close relationships. With a world-class array of contributors, the book convincingly shows that it’s often not what we say, but how we act nonverbally that determines the course of human relationships."  

—Robert S. Feldman, Senior Advisor to the Chancellor Professor, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts

"The list of authors contributing to this work includes some of the world's top researchers in the field of nonverbal communication". 

—Robert Rosenthal, University Professor and Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside

 

“This perceptive book gathers two dozen top experts on nonverbal communication to uncover why love looks not only with the eyes, but also with the mind, and why a lover’s ear will hear the lowest sound but can also sometimes sense too much, from the neurochemical symphony to the interactional synchrony, from flirting to courting to touching, thus providing unmasked cues to key movements of social life. Excellent innovative scholarship." 

—Howard S. Friedman, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, University of California, Riverside

 

“This volume brings together world experts, as well as new voices, to address the many aspects of nonverbal communication in close relationships. The content is a perfect companion to courses in nonverbal communication, interpersonal relationships, or the psychology of close relationships and belongs on the library shelves of leading scholars in these areas.” 

—Judee K. Burgoon, Professor of Communication, Center for Identification Technology Research, University of Arizona

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Robert J. Sternberg is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University and Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.  He is past president of the American Psychological Association and the Federation of Associations in Brain and Behavioral Sciences. His PhD is from Stanford University. He holds 13 honorary doctorates.

Aleksandra Kostić is Retired Professor of Social Psychology (University of Niš, Serbia). She taught courses on social perception, nonverbal behavior, and psychology of interpersonal behavior. Her research interests include examining the accuracy in perception of nonverbal clues; social, emotional, and perceptual judgments, especially the judgments of primary emotions from the face; emotional intensity; and antecedent events and reaction to emotion.