INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION & WELL-BEING

Catalog description

This course is a graduate-level examination of research linking interpersonal communication to outcomes associated with personal well-being. This course is grounded in a biopsychosocial understanding of health, which recognizes that physical and mental health is shaped by social experiences, including interpersonal communication. The course begins by reviewing various indices of well-being, mind-body linkages, and evidence that interpersonal communication produces outcomes relevant to well-being. Next, we explore the literature linking well-being to social support in its various forms, spanning the health benefits of social network involvement to the impact of specific comforting messages. We turn then to the deleterious impact of caustic relationship states and communication episodes representing facets of interpersonal conflict. Throughout the semester, attention will be given to the theoretical issues and methodological challenges that confront researchers working on these topics, and a review of those issues serves as the capstone session for the semester.