A Lifetime of Communication explores the developmental processes that make for uniquely human change and growth. In this distinctive work, author Julie Yingling utilizes a single case example of a child, her parents, and other influential figures to demonstrate developmental interaction and transformational life events. Using relational and dialogic perspectives, Yingling follows the child from infancy into adolescence and adulthood, through the stages which the child acquires the means to communicate, to form and develop through relationships, to build human cognitive processes, and to understand the self as a responsible part of the social world. The work presents traditional and cutting-edge developmental theories as well as current research and relational perspectives in a palatable framework, employing a case example from a person's life at the start of each content chapter. Yingling examines communication and cognition in the various stages of human development, making connections between communication, relationships, and maturation. She also distinguishes the biological and physiological portions of development from those that are relational and self-directed. She concludes the volume with a summary of relational dialogical theory and a discussion of the implications of this perspective of development-both for the future of communication study and for personal growth.This monograph offers many new insights to scholars in human development, relationships, family studies, social psychology, and others interested in communication and relationships across the life span. It is also appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in relationships, developmental communication, and relational communication.
Author(s): Julie Yingling
Edition: 1
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 440
Contents......Page 6
Series Foreword......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
1 Developmental Processes: A Brief Theoretical History......Page 18
Traditional Explanations of Development......Page 20
Breakthroughs in Developmental Theory: 1900–1930......Page 22
The Legacy: Contemporary Thought About Human Interaction......Page 28
Assumptions of a Relational-Dialogical Perspective of Development......Page 34
Summary......Page 37
Notes......Page 38
The Nature of Becoming Human: Ontogeny......Page 40
Nature and Nurture: The Recipe for a Human......Page 45
Notes......Page 63
Mutual Influence......Page 66
Reciprocity in Protoconversation......Page 82
Developmental Milestones of the First 2 Years......Page 87
Notes......Page 97
The Peculiarities of Human Communication......Page 100
Human Thinking: Constituting a Mind......Page 108
Self as a Special Concept......Page 124
Summary......Page 127
Notes......Page 128
Relationshipping: Creating Self and Sociality......Page 130
Beginners' Relationships: Dichotomies on the Way to Dialectics......Page 132
Summary: Implications for Relational Dialectics......Page 162
Notes......Page 164
Communicative and Relational Competence......Page 166
Contexts for Developing Competence......Page 190
Summary......Page 196
Notes......Page 197
7 Adolescence: Flowers of Maturation, Seeds of Dialectics......Page 200
The Physiology of Puberty......Page 201
The Mind of the Adolescent: Processing Experience......Page 202
Building Relationship Skills and Creating Relational Models......Page 211
Summary: Dualisms to Dialectics......Page 221
Notes......Page 222
8 The College Years: Rhetorical Challenges at the Boundaries......Page 224
Knowing the World and Knowing Self......Page 225
Effects of Formal Education on Communication......Page 249
Summary......Page 250
Notes......Page 251
Toward Dialogue: Differentiation From and Fusion With......Page 254
Dialogue: Beyond Competence to Rhetorical Elegance......Page 262
Relationship Maintenance and Change: Negotiation and Refinement......Page 267
Summary......Page 282
Notes......Page 283
10 Middle Adulthood: Nurturing and Relinquishing Youth......Page 286
Tensions in Middle Adulthood: Aging, Identity, and Dialectics......Page 287
Mid-Adult Relationshipping......Page 292
Summary: Generativity and Stagnation......Page 309
Notes......Page 310
Time and Tensions in the Later Years......Page 312
Dialogic Challenges of Older Adulthood......Page 319
Connections and Disconnections: Relationships in Later Years......Page 323
Relational Variations......Page 334
Preparing for Death......Page 336
Summary......Page 337
Notes......Page 338
12 Human Communication Futures: Beyond Dualities to Dialogic Consciousness......Page 340
The Relational-Dialogical Theory of Development......Page 341
Implications of Dialogic Development......Page 344
Notes......Page 351
B......Page 354
D......Page 355
I......Page 356
P......Page 357
S......Page 358
Z......Page 359
References......Page 360
B......Page 416
C......Page 418
D......Page 419
G......Page 420
H......Page 421
J......Page 422
K......Page 423
M......Page 424
P......Page 426
R......Page 427
S......Page 428
T......Page 429
W......Page 430
Z......Page 431
C......Page 432
F......Page 433
N......Page 434
R......Page 435
S......Page 436
Z......Page 437
