Table of Contents—8th Edition
Clicking on a linked title will take you to the Theory Resources for that theory or section of the book, which contains material from the Instructors Manual as well as some designed especially for the website.
DIVISION ONE
OVERVIEW
CHAPTER 1
of Communication Theory
2
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
(Seven Traditions in the Field of Communication Theory)
37
DIVISION TWO
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 5
of George Herbert Mead
54
CHAPTER 6
of W. Barnett Pearce & Vernon Cronen
67
CHAPTER 7
of Judee Burgoon
84
CHAPTER 8
of Jesse Delia
98
CHAPTER 9
of Irwin Altman & Dalmas Taylor
113
CHAPTER 10
of Charles Berger
125
CHAPTER 11
of Joseph Walther
138
CHAPTER 12
of Leslie Baxter & Barbara Montgomery
153
CHAPTER 13
of Sandra Petronio
168
CHAPTER 14
of Paul Watzlwick
181
192
CHAPTER 15
of Muzafer Sherif
194
CHAPTER 16
of Richard Petty & John Cacioppo
205
CHAPTER 17
of Leon Festinger
217
DIVISION THREE
GROUP AND PUBLIC COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 18
of Randy Hirokawa & Dennis Gouran
233
CHAPTER 19
of Ernest Bormann
247
CHAPTER 20
of Clifford Geertz & Michael Pacanowsky
261
CHAPTER 21
by Stanley Deetz
272
287
CHAPTER 22
of Aristotle
289
CHAPTER 23
of Kenneth Burke
299
CHAPTER 24
of Walter Fisher
308
DIVISION FOUR
MASS COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 25
of Marshall McLuhan
321
CHAPTER 26
of Roland Barthes
332
CHAPTER 27
of Stuart Hall
344
355
CHAPTER 28
Uses and Gratifications
of Elihu Katz
357
CHAPTER 29
of George Gerbner
366
CHAPTER 30
of Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw
378
DIVISION FIVE
CULTURAL CONTEXT
CHAPTER 31
of Howard Giles
394
CHAPTER 32
of Stella Ting-Toomey
407
CHAPTER 33
of Gerry Philipsen
421
CHAPTER 34
of Deborah Tannen
435
CHAPTER 35
of Sandra Harding & Julia Wood
447
CHAPTER 36
of Cheris Kramarae
460
DIVISION SIX
INTEGRATION
CHAPTER 37
Appendix A: Abstracts of Theories
A-1
Appendix B: Feature FIlms That Illustrate Communication Theories
A-6
Appendix C: NCA Credo for Communication Ethics
A-8
Endnotes
E-1
Credits and Ackowledgements
C-1
Index
I-1
Selected Edition:
Theories Covered Through the 7th Edition
The list below contains theories that are or have been covered in A First Look at Communication Theory.
Full = a chapter in the 7th edition is dedicated to this theory.
Brief = the theory is capsuled in the 7th edition, but not assigned a full chapter.
Archive = the theory was covered in a full chapter in previous editions. A pdf from the last edition in which it appeared is available.
When a theory name is clickable, it will go to the Theory Resources for that theory or open the archived chapter.
View/Sort by: Theories | Authors
You can also view the 7th Edtion Table of Contents to see supplementary material as well as theories
| Theories | Authors | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Action Assembly Theory (PDF) | John Greene | Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Adaptive Structuration Theory | Marshall Scott Poole | Full (Ch. 18) |
| Agenda Setting Theory | Maxwell McCombs & Donald Shaw | Full (Ch. 28) |
| Anxiety-Uncertainty Management Theory (PDF) | William Gudykunst | Brief + Archive (Ed. 6) |
| Attribution Theory (PDF) | Fritz Heider | Brief + Archive (Ed. 2) |
| Black Feminist Thought | Patricia Collins | Brief |
| Categorical Imperative | Immanuel Kant | Brief |
| Classical Management Philosophy | Weber, Taylor | Brief |
| Cognitive Dissonance | Leon Festinger | Full (Ch. 16) |
| Communication Accommodation Theory | Howard Giles | Full (Ch. 30) |
| Communitarian Ethics | Clifford Christians | Brief |
| Communication Privacy Management Theory | Sandra Petronio | Brief |
| Compliance Gaining Strategies | Marwell & others | Brief |
| Constructivism | Jesse Delia | Full (Ch. 8) |
| Coordinated Management of Meaning | W Barnett Pearce & Vernon Cronen | Full (Ch. 6) |
| Critical Theory | Karl Marx | Brief |
| Critical Theory of Communication in Organizations | Stanley Deetz | Full (Ch. 20) |
| Cultivation Theory | George Gerbner | Full (Ch. 27) |
| Cultural Approach to Organizations | Clifford Geertz & Michael Pacanowsky | Full (Ch. 19) |
| Cultural Dimensions | Hofstede | Brief |
| Cultural Studies | Stuart Hall | Full (Ch. 26) |
| Cybernetics | Wiener | Brief |
| Dialogic Theory | Martin Buber | Brief |
| Dialogic Ethics | Martin Buber | Brief |
| Dialogics | Bakhtin | Brief |
| Different Voice (PDF) | Carol Gilligan | Brief + Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Discourse Ethics-Theory of Communicative Action | Jürgen Habermas | Brief |
| Discursive Formation | Michel Foucault | Brief |
| Dramatism | Kenneth Burke | Full (Ch. 22) |
| Elaboration Likelihood Model | Richard Petty & John Cacippio | Full (Ch. 15) |
| Existential Theory (PDF) | Carl Rogers | Brief + Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Expectancy Violations Theory | Judee Burgoon | Full (Ch. 7) |
| Face Negotiation Theory | Stella Ting-Toomey | Full (Ch. 31) |
| FIRO Theory (PDF) | William Schutz | Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Functional Perspective on Group Decision Making | Randy Hirokawa & Dennis Gouran | Full (Ch. 17) |
| Genderlect Styles | Deborah Tannen | Full (Ch. 33) |
| General Semantics (PDF) | Alfred Korzybski | Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Goals-Plans-Action Model | James Dillard | Brief |
| Golden Mean | Aristotle | Brief |
| Groupthink (PDF) | Irving Janis | Archive (Ed. 3) |
| Hierarchy of Needs (PDF) | Abraham Maslow | Archive (Ed. 2) |
| High- and Low-Context Cultures | Edward Hall | Brief |
| Information Theory (PDF) | Claude Shannon & Warren Weaver | Brief + Archive (Ed. 3) |
| Information Systems Approach to Organizations (PDF) | Karl Weick | Archive (Ed. 6) |
| Interaction Adaptation Theory | Judee Burgoon | Brief |
| The Interactional View | Paul Watzlawick | Full (Ch. 13) |
| Interaction Process Analysis | Robert Bales | Brief |
| Interactive Universalism | Seyla Benhabib | Brief |
| Interpersonal Deception Theory (PDF) | David Buller & Judee Burgoon | Archive (Ed. 6) |
| Interact System Model of Decision Emergence (PDF) | B Aubrey Fisher | Archive (Ed. 2) |
| Linguistic Relativity | Edward Sapir & Benjamin Lee Whorf | Brief |
| Magic Bullet-Hypodermic Needle- Powerful Effects | Laswell and others | Brief |
| Meaning of Meaning (PDF) | I A Richards | Brief + Archive (Ed. 3) |
| Media Ecology | Marshall McLuhan | Full (Ch. 24) |
| The Media Equation (PDF) | Byron Reeves & Clifford Nass | Archive (Ed. 5) |
| Mediational Theory of Meaning (PDF) | Charles Osgood | Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Muted Group Theory | Cheris Kramarae | Full (Ch. 35) |
| Narrative Paradigm | Walter Fisher | Full (Ch. 23) |
| Performance Ethnography | Dwight Conquergood | Brief |
| Phenomenology | Husserl, Merleau, Ponty, Fish, Gadamer, Ricoeur | Brief |
| Postmodernism | Lyotard, Baudrillard, Derrrida, others | Brief |
| Principle of Veracity | Sissella Bok | Brief |
| Prophetic Pragmatism | Cornel West | Brief |
| Proxemic Theory (PDF) | Edward Hall | Archive (Ed. 1) |
| Relational Control | Millar & Rogers | Brief |
| Relational Dialectics | Leslie Baxter & Barbara Montgomery | Full (Ch. 12) |
| The Rhetoric | Aristotle | Full (Ch. 21) |
| Semiotics | Roland Barthes | Full (Ch. 25) |
| Significant Choice | Thomas Nilsen | Brief |
| Social Construction | Shotter, Harre, others | Brief |
| Social Exchange Theory (PDF) | John Thibaut & Harold Kelley | Brief + Archive (Ed. 2) |
| Social Information Processing Theory | Joseph Walther | Full (Ch. 11) |
| Social Judgment Theory | Muzafer Sherif | Full (Ch. 14) |
| Social Learning Theory-Social Cognition Theory (PDF) | Albert Bandura | Archive (Ed. 2) |
| Social Penetration Theory | Irwin Altman & Dalmas Taylor | Full (Ch. 9) |
| Speech Codes Theory | Gerry Philipsen | Full (Ch. 32) |
| Spiral of Silence | Elisabeth Noelle-Nuemann | Full (Ch. 29) |
| Standpoint Theory | Sandra Harding & Julia T Wood | Full (Ch. 34) |
| Structural Linguistics | Ferdinand de Saussure | Brief |
| Structuration Theory | Anthony Giddens | Brief |
| Symbolic Convergence Theory | Ernest Bormann | Full (Ch. 3) |
| Symbolic Interactionism | George Herbert Mead | Full (Ch. 5) |
| Two-Step Flow of Communication | Katz & Lazarsfeld | Brief |
| Uncertainty Reduction Theory | Charles Berger | Full (Ch. 10) |
| Yale Attitude Change | Hovland | Brief |