Subsequent readings discuss friendship, families, and intimate relationships more specifically. Part Five explores conflict and communication across cultural differences. The first set of readings distinguishes productive from destructive conflicts, and describes some of the processes by which conflict become destructive. These readings also distinguish between defensive and supportive conflict climates, and explore ways of dealing with anger. The second set of readings explores the problems encountered in communicating across differences.
Essays address cultural, ethnic, racial, age, sexual orientation, and disability differences.
Part Six explores various overall approaches to interpersonal communication. C. Roland Christiansen takes a teacher's approach to interpersonal communication. Carl Rogers discusses interpersonal communication from a psychotherapist's perspective. Martin Buber takes a philosophical approach. Each of these essays offers a different synthesis of the issues and techniques discussed in the earlier sections.