This text is organized so that students learn the process of theory building; the authors provide a framework for theory building by offering a solid foundation for three approaches to understanding communication.

Concern with various matters related to humans as they communicate has led to an increase in both research and theorizing during the second half of the 20th century. As a matter of fact, so many scholars and so many disciplines have become involved in this process that it is virtually impossible to understand and appreciate all that has been accomplished so far. This book focuses on one important aspect of human sense-making -- theory building -- and strives to clarify the thesis that theories do not develop in some sort of social, intellectual, or cultural vacuum. They are necessarily the products of specific times, insights, and mindsets. Theories dealing with the process of communication, or communicating, are tied to socio-cultural value systems and historic factors that influence individuals in ways often inadequately understood by those who use them. The process-orientation of this book inevitably leads to an emphasis on the perceptions of human beings. Thus, the focus shifts from the subject or area called "communication" to the act of communicating. Finally, this volume offers insight into how the process of human sense-making has evolved in those academic fields commonly identified as communication, rhetoric, speech communication or speech, within specific socio-cultural settings.

This introductory text describes four major theories of communication with an emphasis on how theories are tested by communication researchers. Both trait and situational research is discussed. The fourth edition features new material on the theory of reasoned action, the theory of planned behavior, message design logics, relational dialectics, face-work theory, spiral of silence theory, and the health beliefs model. Annotation 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

This book provides a thorough analysis of the scientific, critical, and cultural questions at the foundation of theory-building in communication and other social sciences. Any claim to knowledge, the author explains, can be analyzed in terms of a series of characteristics: the object of its explanation, the explanatory form and evidentiary method employed, its characteristic explanations, the scope of its performance, and its consequences of value. From identifying basic epistemological questions to exploring the impact of the "knowledge industry" on society, the volume offers readers the analytical tools to understand, compare, and evaluate theories and their use both inside and outside the classroom. The book also includes a systematic analysis of communication's most influential theories and traces their genealogies across different content fields and disciplines.

In this revision of a long-enduring classic, Kraft draws upon faith experience and the social sciences to make pastors, preachers, missionaries, and religious educators aware of the mystery of human communication in the service of God who calls all into communion. The question is how to communicate with these other cultures so that the message is effectively transmitted and received? How to we recognize the gaps--of language, tradition, life experience--that separate us and build bridges over them.