Well, what an apt way to start the week of valentine's with a lesson on interpersonal communication! To start the ball rolling, just a little info about what is interpersonal communication: Interpersonal communication occurs when there is an established relationship with the other party (usually two parties). This kind of two-person, face-to-face communication can also be termed as "dyadic communication".
In our daily interpersonal/dyadic communication with others, you must have noticed that we react to and behave differently when interacting with different individuals. This does not mean we're schizophrenic or have split personalities; rather, we have different degrees (or stages) of relational development with each individual.
For example, you would talk about the weather with a schoolmate you bumped into on the bus, but you wouldn't be caught talking about how you had serious diarrhea over the weekend, or that your family is running into some bad financial situation (unless you're really open about such things!) to them.
The Mark Knapp's Relational Development Model draws out the various stages relationships go through. It may probably be very technical to break relationships down into such dry and predictable stages, yet often than not this model has been proven true over time.
(Just picture yourself going the steps on the left and coming down on the right.)And yes, since Valentine's day is around the corner it would only be suitable to use a romantic relationship to exemplify the stages, right? :p
Jack and Rose from the movie Titanic..This movie has always remained one of my favorite movies of all times probably because of the love story behind it! I'm sure many of you are also familiar with the story of the Titanic lovers (:
The initiating stage came when they had the opportunity to meet on the Titanic of course, when Rose had wanted to jump off the ship and Jack managed to stop her in time.
Experimenting came next when they began spending time with each other and learning about each other through those times when Rose would steal over to the lower class deck to find Jack.
Intensifying came when Jack and Rose were seen together more often and Jack was introduced to Rose's family and friends. This is also where one of the famous Titanic scene happened
Integrating was probably one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, which is Jack drawing a nude picture of Rose and thereafter both of them running away from Rose's fiance. Of course, one could never forget the car scene which made that "hand sliding down the misted windows" scene such a hit
Bonding sadly never came for them both as they were separated before they could tie the knot.And then their relationship was tragically (Dissolution) terminated when Jack died in the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
As you can see, relationships do not necessarily follow the Knapp's model strictly. Some may be stuck at one stage, while other flunctuate between stages. There are of course the coming apart stages that also progressively show how couples eventually become separate individuals.Each stage signifies a different communication pattern and behaviour towards one another. Hopefully after reading this post, you may be more successful in sussing out if your valentine's day date is worth future dates. haha
