Relationship satisfaction has major implications on individuals’ health and subjective well-being, and prominent theories in relationship research have assigned relationship satisfaction an important role. In this Handbook chapter, we first introduce conceptual perspectives on relationship satisfaction, showing that relationship satisfaction is a characteristic of both the individual and the relationship. We then provide an overview of the measurement of relationship satisfaction and discuss common affordances in its assessment. Next, we report empirical evidence on how relationship satisfaction evolves over time, showing that relationship satisfaction changes both normatively and depending on the eventual outcome of the relationship. We then report how relationship satisfaction is associated with different relationship-specific facets, such as perceptions, emotion regulations strategies, and communication styles. To conclude, we discuss a series of unresolved issues in the area of relationship satisfaction research and propose an agenda for future research, such as the usage of modern technologies.

This scenario is based on the Whakaari/White Island volcanic eruption that occurred on December 9, 2019, in New Zealand. The eruption, classified as a Stage III burn disaster, overwhelmed local and regional medical systems, necessitating a national and international response. The scenario focuses on the initial receiving hospital’s experience and the on-shift medical staff’s challenges. It aims to provide a realistic training module for healthcare professionals in volcanic regions, emphasizing the importance of preparedness and skill practice. The scenario includes a fictional patient case with severe burns and other injuries, requiring comprehensive emergency care, including decontamination, airway management, fluid resuscitation, and wound care. The scenario also highlights the critical role of teamwork, communication, and resource management in handling mass casualty incidents. By reflecting on the Whakaari disaster, this scenario serves as a tribute to the victims, their families, and the responders, offering valuable insights for future emergency preparedness and response efforts.

The current chapter focuses on basic properties of communication that inform the ways that the study of communication and the study of relationships intersect. These properties include interdependence (the idea that messages simultaneously influence and are influenced by messages that precede and follow them), reflexivity (the notion that communication creates and is constrained by structure), complexity (the concept that communication conveys multiple messages and functions at different levels of analysis), ambiguity (the notion that any given message has various meanings), and indeterminancy (the idea that messages can have multiple and diverse outcomes on relationships). Research on relationship narratives, message features, multiple goals, and message processing, among other topics, is reviewed and challenges for researchers who study communication and relationships are discussed.

Relationship maintenance scholars have long attempted to understand the processes by which partners foster relationship growth. They have done so by focusing on defining and explaining key maintenance strategies that serve to initiate and preserve romantic relationships. In this chapter, we provide a brief history of the relationship maintenance literature. Then we identify the key theoretical contributions to the current understanding of relationship maintenance and discuss recent theoretical developments and known correlates. We conclude the chapter by highlighting the need to diversify and expand the maintenance literature by identifying possible avenues for future inquiry and proposing ways to integrate work across disciplines.

Research findings in linguistics have contributed to the development of the field of second language acquisition since its inception. However, it is only relatively recently that an interactional linguistics approach, conceptualizing language as a co-constructed semiotic resource and emergent phenomenon, has been utilized for research in the field. Our chapter introduces a rigorous method for the analysis of dialogic interaction (often spoken language data), called Conversation Analysis (CA), originally developed in the field of sociology. We discuss CA’s origins, core principles, and natural fit as a method for linguistic analysis. The chapter then surveys research that has used CA methods for understanding SLA including how CA methods played a role in reconceptualizing what it means to be competent in a language. Lastly, we present a short summary of one research study using CA methods, and two activities grounded in CA principles that language teachers might consider adding to their repertoire.

Chapter 5 addresses these weaknesses by combining STS with sociological systems theory, which provides a persuasive account of law in society, but has been criticised as technology-blind. This does not mean, however, that systems theory lacks the means to conceptualise the interface between the materiality of a distribution medium (e.g. the Internet) and the sociality of communicative systems (e.g. law), since structural coupling provides the means to explain how operatively closed systems can relate to each other, e.g. the sphere of technical materiality (the technosystem) and the sphere of communicative sociality (society and its subsystems). A separation between the material and the social is the prerequisite for adopting a critical or normative position vis-à-vis digital media, enabling us to empirically study the diverse interrelations between the two spheres in online communication. To do so, technologies must be understood as artefacts possessing affordances, that is possibilities and constraints, raising the question of how digital technologies acquire affordances. The final question concerns the concept of normativity in the digital ecosphere, namely whether normative expectations about digital technologies can emerge. Since normative expectations structure the legal system, our answer will explain the nature of the structural coupling between law and technology.

In Chapter 7, “Upgrades in the Age of Generative AI,” we consider the hype around generative AI tools, like ChatGPT, and explain how the razzle-dazzle has captured the public’s imagination, even as the technology hasn’t come close to being artificial general intelligence—the goal companies like OpenAI aspire for. While tech giants race to develop generative AI products, we emphasize that they currently are sophisticated pattern-matching systems that simulate intelligence without truly understanding it. Analyzing both negative (political campaigns) and positive (the possibility of helping doctors communicate more empathetically over patient portals) examples, we offer recommendations for spotting uses of generative AI to avoid and how technological upgrades can be carefully and ethically integrated into communication systems to improve human welfare.

Moral distress as a reason for ethics consultation is common, but perceived or real racism is underrecognized as a potential cause. The consultation requested in this case was nominally for moral distress, but elements of cultural misunderstanding and culturally relevant value conflicts rapidly became apparent. Cultural concordance between the ethics consultant and the patient’s family enhanced communication and allowed the medical care team to change their perspective on interactions they had observed and previously considered to be belittling between family members and staff. This led to a broadening of medically permissible options being considered and ultimately resulted in a discharge plan that was acceptable and welcome by both the patient’s family and the ICU staff. Further discussion of reasons why greater diversity in ethics consultation members may be helpful.

This chapter examines Darwin’s analysis of emotional expression. It is widely accepted that Darwin wrote Expression to refute Sir Charles Bell’s theory that God created humans with special muscles to express their emotions. However, scholars have overlooked the fact that Bell developed his theory to refute Erasmus Darwin’s associationist analysis of emotional expression, inspired by David Hartley, and that Charles Darwin defends his grandfather’s analysis against Bell’s objections. I demonstrate that Charles’s defense of Erasmus’s associationist theory, which denies that expressions occur for the sake of communicating emotions, explains Charles’s puzzling reluctance to claim that expressions evolved to serve as signals in communication.

Clinical ethics prides itself on communication, collaboration, interdisciplinary cooperation and mediation. But what happens when all those skills and efforts fail? This chapter describes a difficult situation fraught with clinical uncertainty and complicated by an unbridgeable cultural divide that left the clinical parties feeling as if they failed the patient. This case demonstrates that sometimes there is no real closure, no understanding, and no sense of having been helpful. These are the kinds of cases that haunt us.

Humanisation of healthcare cannot be separated from dignity in a patient-centered care model. The International Research Project for the Humanization of Intensive Care Units (Proyecto HU-CI) was initiated in 2014 with the aim of changing the current paradigm of intensive care towards a more human-centered care model. Patients, families, and professionals (everyday stakeholders) were asked to describe their ideal intensive care unit (ICU). Using their opinions, eight areas of interest to improve the culture of ICUs and change the reality of care delivery throughout the world were highlighted. These include: an open-door visitation policy, enhanced communication, a clear focus on patient well-being, presence and participation of relatives in care delivery, care for healthcare professions, recognition and prevention of the post-intensive care syndrome, humanized infrastructure, and comprehensive end-of-life care.