Human Conflict: Disagreement, Misunderstanding, and Problematic Talk
By C. David Mortensen
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

Human Conflict distinguishes between "effective" and "ineffective" forms of face-to-face interaction in cases where agreement, disagreement, understanding, or misunderstanding prevail. This well-researched study of miscommunication seeks to identify the basic dynamics at work in encounters that somehow fall short of success in a particularly telling or striking manner. Following an in-depth look at the interplay of cognitive appraisals, value orientations, and social identity in the construction of everyday reality, the book then analyzes social constructions that contribute to a wider ability to fashion working agreements and mutual understanding. It also examines a wide spectrum of encounters where pairs reporting "hurt and harm" find themselves mutually engaged in strategic mechanisms of repair, renewal, and restoration. Scholars of conflict study, mediators, and others interested in the cognitive processes behind agreement and understanding will want to read this book.

--A valuable, in-depth resource for students and scholars of human conflict, cognitive processes, and mediation.

--Examines causes, conditions, and consequences of effective and faulty modes of human interaction.

--Identifies the basic dynamics at work in human conflict.

--Compares favorable interpersonal conditions-for making things better or keeping them from getting worse-with unfavorable social conditions that tend to be counterproductive.

--Explores troublesome, difficult, or problematic modes of human encounter that are followed by repair and restoration.

--Based on nearly 1600 accounts of social encounters.

About the Author
C. David Mortensen is professor of communication science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.