relationships

Today's topic was about relationships and how they develop. It doesn't matter whether they are intimate relationships or friendships they all go through the same process. According to Knapps relational development model relationships start in stages and also end in stages. First you Initiate the first encounter, second you Experiment by trying to find a common ground in the relationship, third you Intensify and move toward greater involvement fourth you Integrate and become a couple. Once you become a couple you put your partner through tests to measure the persons commitment. The tests are 1- Indirect suggestions, 2-Separation test 3-Endurance test 4-Triangle test once the person passes all these tests they move on to the fifth stage Bonding which means public rituals to legitimize the relationship. If the relationship cannot stand up to internal and external stress it will go through the stages of coming apart. first is the Differentiating stage where you start to comment on differences you overlooked before second is the Circumscribing stage where you restrict communication on certain topics that may be painful or cause conflict. Third is the Stagnation stage where communication becomes infrequent. fourth is the avoiding stage this is where you avoid each other physically or emotionally and finally it leads to the Termination stage where you come to terms with the relationship being over. These stages make a lot of sense to me if u been through relationships that had a start an end you can see clearly how the relationship went through all those stages and maybe next time you wont waste your time on the coming apart stages and go straight for termination.