ABSTRACT
Effective communication is essential to the growth and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. In Chapter 1 we discussed how infants enter the world biologically prepared to attend (and respond) to the facial expressions and verbal behavior of other humans. This biological preparedness-the evolutionary inheritance of our species-promotes empathic accuracy and interpersonal sensitivity, which lie at the very heart of communicative competence. Communication, in fact, is one of the primary mechanisms through which relationships develop and are maintained over time (see Chapters 4-6). Recall that both men and women prefer and seek partners who possess high levels
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45
of interpersonal skill and responsiveness, employ a variety of verbal and nonverbal communicative strategies to convey interest to those potential mates and friends, and propel their budding relationships to deeper levels of intimacy and commitment through responsive self-disclosure and other forms of interpersonal exchange.
