Analysis Of Knapp 's Stages Of Relational Development Essay

Erik Erikson’s sixth stage of psychosocial development is intimacy versus isolation. Erikson argued that young adults would be afraid of committing to a long-term relationship with another person. Young adults may also become overly dependent on the partner for their identity. To conclude a person may need a sense of who they are before they can get close to someone else. Erikson believed that a strong sense of personal identity was important for developing intimate relationships.

According to the Knapp model, the beginning of every relationship—especially an intimate, romantic or close friendship—begins with the initiation stage. This stage involves the initial contact with another person. In the movie the stage of initiation begins when Harry and Sally meet for the first time and prepare to share a

The initiation stage is the stage where first impressions and the judgments of the other person is noted, the physical appearance plays a huge role in the first impression portion of this stage. The first three times Katie and Alex meet each other is as a worker to costumer relationship so there was no need for a formal opening or greeting. At this point neither of them knows they will fall in love, so neither of them worries about their first impression. This is inferable because Katie is dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with her hood on and she doesn’t respond when Alex asks her a question. The more they meet the more interested Alex becomes in her. Even though she is not that interested in him yet, Katie assesses visible information about Alex and notices that he has two kids. This most likely leads her to believe that he is married, making this the first example of initiation. The second example of initiation is after she establishes contact with her boss and is told that Alex’s wife died a few years ago of cancer. It isn’t until this point that Katie realizes she might be interested in Alex, and now that she is certain he is single the two of them move to the next stage of coming

and Sally demonstrate what couples go through in the phases of coming together and pulling

The first stages are contact where individuals exchange basic information and decide if the relationship is worth pursuing. In the movie the audience can see this stage when Gary starts conversation with Brooke in the game of baseball. He offers to Brooke a hot dog, but she does not accept it. Gary insists offering the bread and she does not interest in Gary. After the game, Gary invites her to a bar, but Brooke refuses one more time to him. Gary insists saying that maybe a conversation can change their lives, and then Brooke accepts the invitation. At this moment, the audience can appreciate the second stage of relationships: involvement. They will spend more time together allowing an intensification of the relationship, knowing, and learning of each other. The third stage is intimacy. It is when two people accept each other and confirm their roles. The interpersonal commitment is demonstrated in the movie when several Gary and Brooke’s pictures are played showing them kissing and holding their hands. In addition, they show their social bonding which is more in public when the Brooke’s family comes to eat at home. The principal characters show to others that they are a partner and the family can see that. The next stage

It is often said that all good things come to an end. Relationships come and go, and some mean more than others. In fact, there was even a relationship model developed by a communication researcher by the name of Mark Knapp. In his model, he goes through what seems to be presented as a smooth step transition from each stage in which a relationship eventually evolves into. As I studied this up then down ladder model, I began to realize that I ought to build up some strong calf muscles, because my relationship sure has climbed up and down a few flights of stairs. Mark Knapp believes that relationships go through multiple stages, the uphill stages being initiation, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, bonding, then relational maintenance. On the flip side, Knapp believes the descending stages to be differentiating, circumscribing, avoiding, and eventually, termination.

Realizing, however, that the stages don't always progress in sequence and can overlap can help give one a general idea of how their relationship came together, fell apart, and then was reborn.

Paper 4: Ending Relationships Knapp and Vangelisti present five stages of coming apart. Those stages are differentiating, circumscribing, stagnating, avoiding, and terminating. Differentiating, the first stage of coming apart if one fails to maintain a commitment to the relationship, involves placing emphasis on relational differences. An illustration of this might be “I don’t like the same movies as her. She likes chick flicks.

According to Knapp’s model of Relational Development, he described the stages in which a relationship goes within the make up and break up steps of coming together and coming apart. This blog will discuss each stage with examples.

Mark Knapp’s model of relational development is made up of the ten stages involved in the “coming together” and “coming apart” of relationships. The first stage, initiating, is all about making a good first impression so that others will think of you as someone worth speaking with/to (“Knapp’s Relationship Model,” 2010). I first met Ms. Jenny at a leadership meeting. My very first impression of her when I walked in the room was negative because she barely acknowledged me, and acted as if she did not really care about me, even though I was the leader of her band. I did my best to keep an open mind as she began to introduce herself to the group and explained her vision for the band. My impression of her then improved because she sounded very positive and had very ambitious goals for our band. I left the meeting with conflicting impressions because I appreciated her enthusiasm, but I also felt that she did not have a very realistic mindset. In this particular situation I did not have much of a choice in whether or not I wanted to have a relationship with her, so I acted positive and encouraged my fellow leaders to do the same. In the second step of Knapp’s model, experimenting, people generally use small talk to determine if they want to pursue the relationship further with a person (Adler and Proctor, 2010, p. 277). This step was all but nonexistent because my relationship with Ms. Jenny did not really have any small talk, and we had to have a relationship together because of my position and her job. The third step of Knapp’s model is intensifying, in/during which partners begin to spend more time together, their feelings are more openly expressed, and a deeper relationship begins to develop (Adler and Proctor, 2010, p. 277). This particular step lasted about a week in my relationship with Ms. Jenny. During this time she trained me to be the type of leader that she wanted, and pressured me to lead the band more. We also had weekend meetings for conducting lessons, and she gave me a lot of constructive criticism. In Knapp’s fourth step, integrating, the partners of a relationship become a social unit (Adler and Proctor, 2010, p. 278). Ms. Jenny and I became a social unit when she put more pressure on me to lead

Just as self concept seemed a vicious circle, where this affects that and that effects this; relational development is the same. Relational development can alter our lives and our communication, while communication issues can alter our relational development and our lives. The relational perspective is a pragmatic one and focuses on the continuance of communication processes through relationships. (Rogers, 2004.) Relationships go through a series of stages. The initial and first encounter to a relationship is called the initiating stage. While in this stage, two people attempt to create favorably impressionable first impressions. In this stage you will look for cues about the other person’s personality, attitude, beliefs, and values so that you can progress the relationship. If the relationship continues and impressions are favorable than the two people move to the second stage, also known as the experimenting stage. In this stage people reveal themselves further but not completely since the stage is still a precarious one. If a common ground and understanding of each other is obtained then the relationship moves to the next stage, the intensifying stage. In this stage shared experiences becomes common and self disclosure is open. The next stage is the integrating stage, this is where the individuals usually become a couple. They have shared interests and attitudes, and sometimes talk or act alike. The other individual becomes like your other half. If things go awry than relationships often shift to the circumscribing stage. This is when couples start to self disclose less and less to the other person. Then comes the stagnating stage. At this point there is no communication and no activity between the two people. Sometimes there is an

During the “Initiating” stage we share introductions and create impressions of each other. For me, this stage was terribly short and informal. We had met a few times in passing at parties and barely knew each other’s names. Furthermore, due to the person introducing us, we both created a negative first impression of each other, because neither of us had much respect for this individual. However, one day when we were both in

From the beginning , the first stage is initiating. Initiating is when two people meet they show that they are interested in each other enough to communicate with one and another. This stage is mostly based on cominication on getting to know the other person. For example this stages revolves around simply conversation and touch. Touch is a

Lastly the third stage is called the intensifying stage, during which the relationship becomes less formal. The two people involved will start to reveal their personal information and analyze each other’s personal impression. Most of the time the two will find ways to strengthen the interpersonal development, such as gifts, hanging out more often and expecting a commitment within the relationship. The last two stages of the coming together part of the model are called integration and bonding. During the integration stage the two people come closer and can fall in love or create a closer friendship. Lastly there is the bonding stage during which the two will announce their relationship to everyone, this is the point where the relationship is indefinite.

In my final analysis paper, I plan to use the relational stage theory, and the recency effect to explain the different dynamics that occurred during an interpersonal relationship between a fellow classmate and myself. I will start off by providing a brief description about who the relationship was with, and how our interactions with each other have played out. I will then provide my interpretation of the concepts in order to help the reader further understand why I have chosen to use the two. Once I am done explaining the concepts, I plan to describe how exactly they have impacted the nature and trajectory of the relationship over its course in time. Lastly, I plan to conclude my analysis by explaining the importance of these two concepts in interpersonal communication and relational maintenance.