Learning Objectives:
· Use Knapp’s model to describe the nature of communication in the various stages of a relationship.
· Identify the three stages of Knapp’s model: coming together, relational maintenance, and coming apart.
· Reflect on how changes in these three stages of the relationship might have caused the relationship to unfold differently.
PART ONE for this assignment
Instructions:
1. Think of a romantic or close relationship that you had that unfolded through most of the developmental stages, ending in termination. As your text explains, no all relationship move through all of the stages in a linear, predictable order. However, you’ll likely find that your significant relationships will reflect most of the stages in some way .
2. In the spaces below, describe a memorable event or conversation that illustrates how your relationship fulfilled that stage of Knapp’s model of communication.
Initiating:
Experimenting:
Intensifying:
Integrating:
Bonding:
Differentiating:
Circumscribing:
Stagnating:
Avoiding:
Terminating:
Reflect:
3. Answer the reflection questions that follow. (This will be done in PART TWO for this assignment)
PART TWO for this assignment
1. Review your answers and identify key events that marked the three stages of Knapp’s model: coming together, relational maintenance, and coming apart. For example, what happened that led you to move from Differentiating and Circumscribing to Stagnating?
2. Describe how changes in behavior and events in these three stages of the relationship might have caused the relationship to unfold differently.
***Be as thorough as possible when completing this assignment. This assignment will need to be at least 7 pages and should follow the rules of APA. You are only required to use the textbook (Chapter 9) as a resource; however, you are free to include the use of reputable online sources.
