Book excerpt: This book summarizes the research on relationships, focusing not only on their growth and development but also on their negative aspects, breakdown and repair. The author addresses the use of relationship issues within applied areas such as policing, health care, and the corporate world. He also emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary studies and the integration of different frameworks and methods, by focusing less on static factors in relationships and more on the matter of process. Finally, he examines the need to contextualize relationship processes and take account of the daily issues of management by relational partners. This second edition of Relating to Others is grounded in a discussion of the contexts for relating, whether cultural, linguistic, or interpersonal. It focuses on a range of relationships, friendship, and types of marriage and is written for students of psychology and the wider social sciences.--From publisher's description.