Seeking and Resisting Compliance

Why do individuals say what they do during everyday face-to-face influence interactions? How do people seek or resist compliance in different relational, institutional, and cultural contexts? Linking theory and research to salient, real life examples and recent academic studies, Steven Wilson introduces the reader to the theories, systems of message analysis, complexities and nuances of interpersonal persuasion. Seeking and Resisting Compliance is the only single-authored, interdisciplinary text to explore compliance gaining and resistance from a message production perspective. This incisive, clearly written text is ideal for students, scholars, and anyone interested in interpersonal influence and persuasion in everyday interactions. Recommended for graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses in persuasion as well as special topics courses in interpersonal influence, social psychology, and sociolinguistics.

Features of this text:

• Ground breaking, specific focus on message production as opposed to only message effects.

• Multiple theoretical perspectives are presented and the vast body of research from communication, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and related fields is reviewed.
• Student-friendly pedagogy, such as definitions, examples, and sections describing "common assumptions" about various theories engage students and highlight important concepts.

 

Steven Wilson currently is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Communication at Purdue University. He is one of five associate editors for the interdisciplinary journal Personal Relationships, and past chair of the International Communication Association′s Interpersonal Communication division. His research and teaching focus on interpersonal influence and message production in a variety of contexts, from parent-child interaction in abusive families to intercultural business negotiations. He has published nearly forty articles and book chapters on these topics.

Steven R. Wilson (Ph.D., Purdue University) is Professor in the Department of Communication at Purdue University. He also has been a faculty member at Michigan State, Northern Illinois, and Northwestern Universities. His research and teaching focus on interpersonal communication, social influence, and aggression/conflict. He is the author of Seeking and Resisting Compliance: Why Individuals Say What They Do When Trying to Influence Others (Sage, 2002), for which he received the Gerald R. Miller book award from the National Communication Association’s interpersonal communication division in 2005. He also has published more than 50 articles and chapters in communication journals such as Communication Monographs, Communication Research, and Human Communication Research, interdisciplinary journals such as Child Abuse & Neglect, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and Journal of Language and Social Psychology, and edited volumes such as the Handbook of Communication and Social Interaction Skills and the Handbook of Communication Science (2nd ed.). His recent research explores patterns of parent-child interaction in families at risk for child maltreatment as well as patterns associated with children’s school readiness (funded by the Lilly Endowment). He is active in both the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association, and has served as chair of the interpersonal communication division for both associations. From 2001-2003, he served as one of five associate editors of the interdisciplinary journal Personal Relationships. In 2008, he was honored with the Bernard Brommel Award for Outstanding Scholarship or Distinguished Service in Family Communication from NCA.