Attending behavior represents the foundational pillar upon which therapeutic rapport, empathetic human communication, and effective clinical intervention are constructed. In clinical psychology, counseling, and interpersonal communication, attending behavior refers to the deliberate physical, psychological, and verbal orientation toward another person that communicates undivided presence and authentic interest. By mastering the micro-mechanisms of attending, clinicians and practitioners facilitate deeper client self-disclosure, diminish defensiveness, and cultivate the necessary safety for psychological transformation.
Attending Behavior
1. Concise Definition
Attending behavior is defined as the intentional, coordinated deployment of nonverbal orientations, vocal qualities, and verbal responses by a listener to communicate sustained physical presence, psychological availability, and undivided cognitive focus to a speaker. In psychological counseling and clinical practice, it serves as the foundational micro-skill through which a practitioner demonstrates active listening, validates client experiences, and cultivates the therapeutic alliance.
Beyond elementary listening, attending behavior constitutes an intricate communicative dynamic wherein the listener aligns somatic, affective, and cognitive faculties to receive, decode, and reflect the communicative output of the speaker. This deliberate orientation reduces interpersonal friction, mitigates client apprehension, and creates a secure psychological container that invites vulnerable exploration of thoughts, emotions, and traumatic experiences.
Within contemporary clinical training models, attending behavior is operationalized not merely as a passive posture of absorption, but as an active, continuous regulatory process. It signals to the client that their narrative is being heard, comprehended, and held without premature judgment or unsolicited intervention, thereby laying the groundwork for all advanced counseling interventions, such as cognitive reframing, emotional processing, and behavioral experimentation.
2. Etymology & Linguistic Origin
The term derives from the Latin verb attendere, formed by the prefix ad- (meaning “to,” “toward,” or “at”) and the root tendere (meaning “to stretch,” “extend,” or “direct”). Etymologically, to attend signifies stretching one’s mind, senses, or physical posture toward an object or person, suggesting an active expenditure of effort and an intentional extension of self toward another. The term transitioned through Old French as atendre before entering Middle English in the fourteenth century, retaining connotations of awaiting, observing, giving heed to, and applying mental faculties to a matter.
The compounding of “attending” with “behavior” emerged during the mid-twentieth century with the rise of behavioral psychology and the systematic operationalization of interpersonal interaction. As clinical pedagogues sought to dismantle the enigmatic art of therapeutic listening into empirically teachable and observable components, “attending behavior” was formally coined to designate the explicit, observable somatic and verbal actions that manifest psychological attention in interpersonal encounters.
3. Pronunciation & Grammatical Form
Pronunciation: The standard phonetic transcription in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is /əˈtɛn.dɪŋ bɪˈheɪv.jər/ in American English and /əˈtɛn.dɪŋ bɪˈheɪv.jə/ in British English.
Grammatical Form: Attending behavior functions as a compound noun phrase. “Attending” operates as a participial adjective or gerund qualifying the base noun “behavior” (spelled behaviour in British, Australian, and Canadian English). While “behavior” is predominantly an uncountable (mass) noun, the plural form “attending behaviors” is frequently utilized in clinical and academic literature to denote the discrete, multifaceted components that comprise the construct (e.g., eye contact, postural adjustments, vocal dynamics, and verbal following).
4. Detailed Conceptual Explanation
Attending behavior serves as the bedrock of the therapeutic container. At its essence, the construct encompasses the physical and psychological positioning of the practitioner in relation to the client. When an individual engages in attending behavior, they selectively eliminate internal and external distractions to allocate cognitive bandwidth almost entirely to the interpersonal field. This phenomenon operates simultaneously on somatic, cognitive, affective, and relational planes, establishing a cybernetic feedback loop between speaker and receiver.
On a somatic level, attending behavior involves micro-somatic configurations: trunk orientation, head tilting, facial affect, spatial proximity, and the management of autonomic reactivity. Humans possess highly sensitive perceptual mechanisms dedicated to detecting subtle communicative cues; when a clinician exhibits incongruent or distracted nonverbal signals, clients unconsciously register interpersonal disconnection. Conversely, authentic bodily alignment communicates profound safety, down-regulating the client’s sympathetic nervous system and activating the social engagement system described in contemporary neurobiology.
Cognitively, attending behavior requires sustained attentional control and executive functioning. The clinician must inhibit internal commentary, problem-solving impulses, diagnostic categorization, and personal associations in order to track the client’s narrative trajectory. This involves tracking both the explicit lexical content (the thematic story) and the implicit affective underpinnings (the emotional core). Attending implies remaining with the client’s phenomenological reality rather than redirecting the interaction to satisfy the practitioner’s agenda.
Relationally, attending behavior communicates profound interpersonal respect and validation. By maintaining verbal tracking without introducing abrupt topic shifts, the clinician signals that the client’s internal world is worthy of exploration. This dynamic establishes an egalitarian interpersonal dynamic, minimizing the power differential inherent in therapeutic and professional relationships. Without robust attending behavior, advanced interventions such as interpretations, confrontations, or cognitive restructuring are routinely perceived as intrusive, premature, or invalidating.
5. Historical Development
The systematic study of attending behavior emerged from the confluence of humanistic psychotherapy, communication theory, and behavioral pedagogy during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Prior to this period, therapeutic presence was largely viewed as an intuitive, intangible art mastered through personal psychoanalysis or tacit apprenticeship rather than discrete, quantifiable behavioral training.
The initial conceptual foundation was established by Carl Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s through his pioneering of Person-Centered Therapy. Rogers demonstrated that therapeutic efficacy is driven primarily by core relational conditions: congruence, unconditional positive regard, and accurate empathic understanding. Rogers introduced audio- and video-recorded clinical interactions, opening the therapeutic hour to empirical scrutiny and revealing that empathic understanding was conveyed through nuanced bodily posture, contemplative vocal inflection, and attentive silence.
In 1968, Allen E. Ivey and his colleagues at the University of Massachusetts revolutionized mental health training by formulating the Microcounseling framework. Ivey observed that novice counselors were routinely overwhelmed by global directives to “be empathic” or “listen closely.” To address this pedagogical limitation, Ivey decomposed counseling into discrete, observable, and measurable “microskills.” Attending behavior was identified as the primary foundational skill, operationalized through eye contact, body language, vocal tone, and verbal tracking. Ivey demonstrated that these behavioral patterns could be systematically taught, videotaped, evaluated, and perfected.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Gerard Egan expanded and popularized these concepts through his influential “Skilled Helper” model, introducing mnemonic frameworks (such as SOLER: Squarely, Open, Lean, Eye contact, Relaxed) to teach bodily attending across social work, counseling, and medical curricula. Throughout the 1990s and into the twenty-first century, the construct has been further validated and refined by advances in interpersonal neurobiology, automated facial coding, motion energy analysis, and cross-cultural counseling psychology.
6. Theoretical Foundations
The construct of attending behavior is anchored in multiple intersecting theoretical traditions spanning humanistic psychology, communication systems theory, and evolutionary neurobiology.
From the perspective of humanistic and phenomenological theory, attending behavior is the behavioral operationalization of Martin Buber’s “I-Thou” relationship. Within an I-Thou encounter, the practitioner meets the client not as an object to be analyzed or repaired (an “I-It” relationship), but as a distinct, holistic sovereign subject. Attending behavior provides the concrete vehicle through which the practitioner suspends preconceptions and enters the phenomenological field of the client, experiencing their subjective world as if it were their own.
Within systems and communication theory, famously advanced by Paul Watzlawick and the Palo Alto Group, one “cannot not communicate.” Every somatic posture, silence, and gaze vector constitutes communicative data that informs the relational dynamic. Attending behavior serves as continuous metamessaging: beneath the explicit words exchanged, attending behaviors continuously transmit relational affirmations such as “I am engaged,” “I value what you are experiencing,” and “You have my complete focus.”
From an interpersonal neurobiology perspective, particularly Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory, attending behavior directly engages the social engagement system mediated by the ventral vagal complex. Humans continuously scan their relational environment for cues of safety or danger (neuroception). Soft vocal prosody, attuned facial expressions, and sustained, gentle eye contact trigger neurophysiological safety cues in the client, down-regulating defensive fight-flight-freeze responses. This autonomic stabilization fosters emotional regulation, cognitive integration, and relational trust.
Finally, behavioral and social learning theories frame attending behavior through the lens of social reinforcement. A clinician’s attentive posture, subtle head nods, and congruent vocal acknowledgments function as selective social reinforcers that encourage the speaker to continue their exploration of emotionally charged, vulnerable material.
7. Key Components, Types & Dimensions
Attending behavior is traditionally operationalized through multidimensional behavioral frameworks. Allen Ivey’s model categorizes attending behavior into the “3Vs + B” framework, complemented by somatic postural models like Gerard Egan’s SOLER framework:
- Visual / Eye Contact: The maintenance of culturally congruent, natural, and sustained gaze toward the speaker. Effective visual attending is neither an intrusive, unblinking stare nor an evasive, intermittent glance; it entails flexible, compassionate eye contact that adjusts dynamically as the speaker processes sensitive affect.
- Vocal Qualities (Prosody): The acoustic dimensions of speech, including pitch, volume, pacing, timbre, and inflection. Attending requires matching or complementary vocal prosody that mirrors the emotional weight of the dialogue, using lower volume and measured cadence during grief or trauma processing to communicate emotional holding.
- Verbal Tracking: The disciplined practice of staying with the client’s narrative without introducing novel, unprompted topics or personal digressions. Verbal tracking involves utilizing the client’s own key phrases, asking clarifying questions linked directly to preceding statements, and acknowledging narrative continuity.
- Body Language / Kinesics: The somatic posture adopted by the practitioner. Effective bodily attending is generally characterized by an open, uncrossed posture, a slight forward lean toward the client communicating engagement, relaxed facial expressions congruent with the dialogue, and purposeful, non-distracting gestures.
- Proxemics and Spatial Orientation: The physical distance and angular seating maintained between interlocutors. Optimal attending requires establishing a distance that respects personal space while preserving interpersonal intimacy, avoiding physical barriers such as broad desks or computer monitors.
- Verbal and Nonverbal Minimal Encouragers: Subtle, brief vocalizations (“mm-hmm,” “I see,” “yes”) and somatic gestures (deliberate head nodding) that signal active tracking and invite the speaker to elaborate without interrupting their narrative momentum.
- Attentive Silence: The deliberate withholding of speech to allow pauses for deep cognitive processing, emotional decompression, and contemplation, recognizing that silence can serve as an active container rather than an absence of communication.
8. Examples & Illustrative Cases
The application of attending behavior manifests across diverse clinical, educational, and interpersonal scenarios. The following case illustrations demonstrate its practical execution and transformative potential:
Case 1: Acute Bereavement in Palliative Clinical Care
A clinical psychologist meets with a 54-year-old individual who recently lost their partner of thirty years. The client sits slumped, shoulders curved inward, weeping silently with eyes cast down. Rather than offering premature cognitive reassurances or rapid-fire diagnostic inquiries, the clinician sits at an open angle without an intervening desk, leans forward slightly, maintains a gentle, softened facial expression, and holds space with attentive silence. When the client whispers, “I just don’t know who I am without him,” the clinician matches the soft, measured cadence, responding: “You feel as though your very identity has unraveled.” The clinician maintains warm, steady eye contact when the client looks up, nodding slowly. This seamless attending behavior conveys that the clinician is neither frightened by nor eager to suppress the client’s profound agony, establishing immediate safety and deep trust.
Case 2: Adolescent Defiance and Reluctance in School Counseling
A high school student is mandated to counseling after an explosive behavioral outburst in the classroom. The adolescent sits defensively with arms tightly crossed, slouching deeply into the chair and looking away, refusing to answer standard inquiries. The counselor refrains from authoritative posturing or demands for direct eye contact. Instead, the counselor mirrors the student’s relaxed, informal seating posture, turns slightly to the side to relieve the pressure of direct visual confrontation, and tracks the student’s physical cues. When the student mutters, “Everyone just lies here anyway,” the counselor refrains from defending the staff, responding with calm vocal prosody: “It feels like there’s no one here you can trust.” The counselor’s lack of defensive reactivity, combined with precise verbal tracking and relaxed nonverbal attending, progressively dissolves the adolescent’s resistance, enabling authentic dialogue.
Case 3: High-Stakes Diagnostic Intake in Emergency Medicine
A physician conducts a bedside clinical interview with a patient presenting with severe psychosomatic chest tightness and hyperventilation following an acute panic attack. Instead of typing rapidly on a digital terminal with their back turned, the physician positions a rolling stool at eye level with the patient’s bed, places their clipboard down, uncrosses their arms, and maintains steady eye contact. The physician’s deliberate vocal slowing and calm, grounding prosody synchronize with the patient’s dysregulated physiological state. By asking open-ended tracking questions without interruption, the physician quickly elicits critical psychosocial stressors that immediately clarify the differential diagnosis, demonstrating that attending behavior functions as an indispensable diagnostic and therapeutic instrument in medical practice.
9. Measurement & Assessment
Assessing attending behavior requires rigorous observational and psychometric methodologies capable of evaluating both somatic configurations and micro-verbal dynamics. In empirical research and clinical training, several established instruments and observational modalities are utilized:
The Microcounseling Skills Rating Scale (MSRS) and its contemporary derivatives quantify discrete attending behaviors through video analysis. Independent raters score recorded interactions on operationalized scales, counting occurrences of eye contact shifts, bodily repositioning, verbal topic interruptions, and minimal encouragers. High inter-rater reliability is attained by coding behavioral frequency, duration, and contextual congruence within standardized time intervals (e.g., five-second epochs).
The Counseling Skills Evaluation Scale (CSES) incorporates attending behavior as a foundational subscale, evaluating novice practitioners on vocal quality, physical posture, nonverbal sensitivity, and verbal following. Scores reflect not only the raw frequency of the behaviors, but their relational appropriateness, sensitivity to client affect, and absence of mechanical stiffness.
In modern behavioral laboratories, researchers utilize advanced objective technology such as Motion Energy Analysis (MEA) and high-definition automated facial coding systems. MEA tracks pixel changes in video recordings to measure nonverbal synchrony—the minute, unconscious coordination of bodily movement and postural mirroring between therapist and client. Studies demonstrate that heightened nonverbal synchrony, stemming from refined attending behavior, correlates significantly with elevated client-rated working alliance and positive symptom reduction.
Furthermore, physiological and neurological tracking modalities—such as dual-electroencephalography (dual-EEG hyperscanning), galvanic skin response (GSR), and heart rate variability (HRV) synchrony—are increasingly utilized to assess attending. These methodologies reveal that high behavioral attending facilitates biological co-regulation, manifesting in coupled autonomic responses and shared neural firing patterns between speaker and listener.
10. Applications & Practical Significance
While formulated within clinical psychology and psychotherapy, the practical application of attending behavior extends across a broad spectrum of human professions and societal sectors:
Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy: Attending behavior is the universal catalyst for the therapeutic alliance across all treatment modalities, from psychoanalytic therapy to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Even in highly structured manualized therapies, the delivery of cognitive interventions fails if the clinician lacks foundational attending skills. In trauma-focused therapies, such as EMDR or Prolonged Exposure, somatic attending provides the grounding container necessary to prevent client dissociation.
Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention: In telephone and text-based crisis hotlines, attending behavior must be conveyed exclusively through acoustic and verbal modalities. Crisis counselors employ vocal prosody, verbal pacing, deep reflection, and meticulous verbal tracking to anchor individuals experiencing acute psychological distress. Skilled attending de-escalates panic, assesses lethal intent, and builds a lifeline of human connection under extreme conditions.
Healthcare and Bedside Manner: In somatic healthcare, clinician attending behavior is directly correlated with patient adherence to medical regimens, diagnostic accuracy, and decreased malpractice litigation. When physicians demonstrate open body posture and sustained eye contact rather than focusing exclusively on electronic health records, patients disclose sensitive lifestyle factors, present symptoms more completely, and report significantly higher trust.
Executive Leadership and Conflict Resolution: In organizational management, attending behavior distinguishes authentic leadership from authoritarian administration. During high-stakes negotiation, labor arbitration, or corporate mediation, an executive or mediator who utilizes attending behavior validates the psychological reality of conflicting parties, thereby dismantling hostile defensiveness, discovering shared interests, and building durable consensus.
Legal and Forensic Interviewing: Investigative detectives, attorneys, and forensic psychologists rely on attending behavior during witness and suspect interviews. By minimizing judgmental micro-expressions and employing verbal tracking without leading inquiries, forensic interviewers maximize the accuracy of witness recall and reduce the contamination of investigative testimony.
11. Research & Empirical Evidence
Decades of empirical investigation have affirmed that attending behavior is an indispensable active ingredient in relational and clinical efficacy. Extensive research across interpersonal communication and clinical outcome studies provides empirical support for its micro-mechanisms.
Foundational research on the therapeutic alliance, synthesized in landmark meta-analyses by researchers such as Adam O. Horvath and colleagues, consistently indicates that the quality of the relational bond is among the robust predictors of clinical outcome, often accounting for more variance in psychological healing than specific theoretical techniques. Micro-analyses reveal that this alliance is mediated by basic attending behaviors exhibited during the initial ten minutes of the clinical intake.
In a seminal meta-analysis of nonverbal communication in clinical interactions, Judith A. Hall and her collaborators demonstrated that clinician forward lean, congruent head nods, and adaptive eye contact correlated positively with client satisfaction, physiological symptom improvement, and treatment compliance. Conversely, non-attending behaviors—such as glancing at clocks, backward body recline, rigid facial expressions, and uncoordinated verbal interruptions—correlated with premature client termination and heightened treatment dissatisfaction.
Contemporary neuroimaging research utilizing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and dual-fMRI hyperscanning has revealed that active attending produces inter-brain synchrony between interlocutors. When a listener exercises disciplined verbal tracking and vocal attunement, the listener’s neural activations in the default mode network and mirror neuron systems mirror the temporal activations of the speaker. This research provides neurological validation for the classical Rogerian conceptualization of empathy: attending behavior allows two nervous systems to couple, creating shared neural representations of emotional experience.
12. Cultural & Cross-Cultural Considerations
While the psychological need for interpersonal validation is universal, the concrete behavioral manifestations of attending are deeply culturally embedded. The uncritical application of Western, middle-class interpersonal norms can lead to profound clinical misinterpretations and cultural alienation.
In standard Euro-American paradigms, direct, continuous eye contact is equated with honesty, attentiveness, and confidence. However, across numerous Indigenous American, traditional Asian, and African societies, direct, sustained eye contact with an elder, authority figure, or stranger can be interpreted as impudent, confrontational, or disrespectful. In such cultures, respectful attending is communicated through modestly lowered gaze and soft facial deference. A culturally incompetent clinician may erroneously pathologize lowered eye contact as depression, shame, or passive resistance.
Somatic proximity and touch also vary widely across cultural contexts. As anthropologist Edward T. Hall documented in his pioneering work on proxemics, “high-contact cultures” (including Mediterranean, Latin American, and Arab populations) require closer physical proximity and tolerate more animated body language, expressive hand gestures, and tactile contact during conversation. Conversely, “low-contact cultures” (such as Northern European and East Asian societies) require greater physical distance and value subdued, measured somatic composure. Clinicians must calibrate their spatial attending to match the cultural comfort of the client.
Vocal dynamics and the toleration of silence represent an additional cultural axis. In many Western communication frameworks, a pause extending beyond two or three seconds is perceived as awkward, prompting clinicians to interrupt with rapid questions. In contrast, many Indigenous North American and traditional Japanese communication patterns view expansive silences as expressions of profound respect, maturity, and contemplative depth. Culturally responsive attending requires developing comfort with prolonged pauses, allowing the client to shape the communicative cadence.
13. Criticisms, Debates & Limitations
Despite its universal pedagogical acceptance, the construct and training of attending behavior have faced critical scrutiny, conceptual debates, and practical limitations:
A primary critique focuses on the mechanization and inauthenticity that can arise when attending is taught as a rigid checklist of motor behaviors. When novice clinicians adhere mechanistically to rules (e.g., maintaining a calibrated forward lean, nodding at regular intervals, parroting client vocabulary), clients perceive the performance as robotic, disingenuous, and manipulative. Carl Rogers himself warned against training counselors in detached technical maneuvers, insisting that without genuine, authentic unconditional positive regard, behavioral mimicry remains an empty relational shell.
Another prominent critique centers on the potential for cognitive overload in novice practitioners. Novice counselors frequently report hyper-focusing on their own somatic posture—monitoring whether their arms are uncrossed, tracking how long they have maintained eye gaze, or calculating the appropriate moment to nod. This self-referential internal monitoring paradoxically impairs deep attending, diverting executive cognitive resources away from genuinely comprehending the client’s complex narrative.
Furthermore, debates persist regarding the limits of passive attending when working with specific clinical populations. In acute trauma processing, highly dysregulated borderline personality patterns, or deep neurodivergent conditions (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder), conventional attending behaviors can sometimes exacerbate distress. For an individual with profound social anxiety or sensory processing differences, sustained eye contact and intense physical proximity can trigger severe autonomic hyperarousal. In such instances, clinicians must possess the diagnostic flexibility to reduce direct attending cues to ensure physiological comfort for the client.
14. Related Terms & Distinctions
To establish conceptual clarity, attending behavior must be systematically distinguished from closely related clinical and communicative constructs:
- Active Listening: While often used interchangeably, active listening represents the overarching cognitive and communicative framework of receiving, interpreting, and responding to messages. Attending behavior is the physical, observable component of active listening—the somatic and vocal vehicle through which active listening is demonstrated.
- Empathy: Empathy is an internal affective and cognitive capacity—the ability to perceive, feel, and understand the internal subjective state of another person. Attending behavior is the nonverbal and verbal conduit through which internal empathy is expressed and perceived by the interlocutor. Empathy cannot be experienced by the client unless manifested through effective attending behavior.
- Unconditional Positive Regard: A philosophical and relational attitude of profound acceptance and nonjudgment toward a client. Attending behavior is the operational, moment-to-moment behavioral expression that actualizes this attitude within the clinical encounter.
- Paraphrasing and Reflection of Feeling: Discrete verbal microskills that summarize the factual content or emotional core of a client’s message. While paraphrasing requires preceding verbal tracking (a core element of attending), it represents an active cognitive distillation and synthesis, whereas attending behavior focuses primarily on sustaining presence and communicative continuity.
- Mirroring / Postural Echoing: The subtle, often unconscious synchronization of postures, gestures, or speech patterns with another person. While mirroring can be an organic manifestation of deep attending, attending behavior does not require direct somatic replication; rather, it requires congruent, complimentary positioning that prioritizes client safety and engagement.
15. Summary / Key Takeaways
Attending behavior is the non-negotiable bedrock of clinical counseling, therapeutic intervention, and effective human communication. Comprising visual contact, vocal prosody, body posture, spatial attunement, attentive silence, and verbal tracking, it operationalizes humanistic presence into observable, measurable actions. Grounded in interpersonal neurobiology, systems theory, and person-centered counseling, attending behavior triggers autonomic cues of safety, de-escalating physiological defensiveness and fostering deep emotional vulnerability.
To avoid mechanistic rigidity, attending behavior must be delivered with authentic congruence, cultural humility, and diagnostic adaptability. When mastered, it transcends mere communication technique, becoming an intuitive, somatic, and relational vessel that validates the human experience and empowers psychological transformation.
References
- Egan, G. (2014). The skilled helper: A problem-management and opportunity-development approach to helping (10th ed.). Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
- Hall, J. A., Harrigan, J. A., & Rosenthal, R. (1995). Nonverbal behavior in clinician-patient interaction. Applied and Preventive Psychology, 4(1), 21–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0962-1849(05)80049-6
- Horvath, A. O., Del Re, A. C., Flückiger, C., & Symonds, D. (2011). Alliance in individual psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 48(1), 9–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022186
- Ivey, A. E., Ivey, M. B., & Zalaquett, C. P. (2018). Intentional interviewing and counseling: Facilitating client development in a multicultural society (9th ed.). Cengage Learning.
- Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.
- Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045357
- Wampold, B. E., & Imel, Z. E. (2015). The great psychotherapy debate: The evidence for what makes psychotherapy work (2nd ed.). Routledge.