Feeling Hurt in Close Relationships

Anita L. Vangelisti is the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Professor of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Her work focuses on the associations between communication and emotion in the context of close, personal relationships, and she currently teaches courses on communication in personal relationships, family communication, communication and emotion, and empirical research methods. Vangelisti has published articles in journals such as Communication Monographs, Human Communication Research, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personal Relationships, Family Relations, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. She has published several books and is presently working on two more volumes.

“In this volume, Anita Vangelisti, a pioneer in the study of hurt in close relationships, brings together a host of leading scholars to analyze theory and research on this neglected topic. The volume reflects a plethora of contexts and populations in which hurt occurs. We learn that hurt is pervasive in human life and involves fundamental qualities such as the perceived loss of security and safety, along the dimension of whether a person's behavior is seen as intentional or not. The book should be a valuable reference work for scholars, practitioners, and teachers in graduate and undergraduate courses and in diverse fields, including communication studies, family studies, various areas of psychology and sociology, and social work. Overall, the book will elevate the concept of hurt, with its many nuances and implications, to a much greater status in the field of close relationships.” – John H. Harvey, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Iowa

• Foreword; Part I. Introduction: 1. Hurt feelings: forms, functions, and overview Anita L. Vangelisti; Part II. Conceptualizing Hurt: 2. The nature of hurt feelings: emotional experience and cognitive appraisals Mark Leary and Sadie Leder; 3. Thinking the unthinkable: cognitive appraisals and hurt feelings Julie Fitness and Wayne Warburton; 4. Adding insult to injury: the contributions of politeness theory to understanding hurt feelings in close relationships Daena Goldsmith and Erin Donovan-Kicken; 5. Rejection sensitivity: a model of how individual difference factors affect the experience of hurt feelings in conflict and support N. Jan Kang, Geraldine Downey, Masumi Iida and Sylvia Rodriguez; 6. Understanding and altering hurt feelings: an attachment-theoretical perspective on the generation and regulation of emotions Phillip R. Shaver, Mario Mikulincer, Shiri Lavy and Jude Cassidy; Part III. Hurtful Acts: 7. Rejection: resolving the paradox of emotional numbness C. Nathan DeWall, Roy Baumeister and E. J. Masicampo; 8. Conflict and hurt in close relationships John P. Caughlin, Allison M. Scott and Laura E. Miller; 9. When the truth hurts: deception in the name of kindness Bella M. DePaulo, Wendy L. Morris and R. Weylin Sternglanz; 10. Affairs and infidelity Graham Allan and Kaeren Harrison; 11. Aggression, violence, and hurt in close relationships Brian H. Spitzberg; Part IV. Hurt in Relational Contexts: 12. Aggression and victimization in children's peer groups: a relationship perspective Noel A. Card, Jenny Isaacs and Ernest V. E. Hodges; 13. Haven in a heartless world? Hurt feelings in the family Rosemary Mills and Caroline C. Piotrowski; 14. Hurt feelings in adult friendships Beverley Fehr and Cheryl Harasymchuk; 15. When love hurts: understanding hurtful events in couple relationships Judith A. Feeney; 16. Hurt in postdivorce relationships Sandra Metts, Dawn O. Braithwaite and Mark A. Fine; Part V. Hurt in Applied Contexts: 17. The physiology of feeling hurt Timothy J. Loving, Benjamin Le and Erin Crockett; 18. Hurt and psychological health in close relationships Scott R. Braithwaite, Frank D. Fincham and Nathaniel M. Lambert; 19. Technology and hurt in close relationships Monica Whitty; 20. Hurt feelings and the workplace Michael R. Cunningham, Anita P. Barbee and Eshita Mandal; 21. Cultural influences on the causes and experience of hurt feelings Robin Kowalski; 22. Hurt feelings: the last taboo for researchers and clinicians? Luciano L'Abate.