Ch 9 Flashcards
Social exchange
Seek out people who can give us rewards that are greater than or equal to the costs we encounter in dealing with the relationship.
Comparison level
Minimal standard of what behavior is acceptable
Comparison level of alternatives
Standard that compares the rewards one receives in a current relationship with what could be expected in other situations
Relational maintenance
Keeping relationships operating smoothly and satisfactorily
Initiating
Show that you are interested in making contact and to demonstrate that you are a person worth talking to
Experimenting
The search for common ground
Intensifying
Communicators increase their amount of contact and the breadth and depth of their self disclosure.
Integrating
Couples merge their social circles and identities commitments and properties may be shared
Bonding
Stage where couples make symbolic public gestures to the world that their relationship exists and are committed
Differentiating
Partners start to reestablish individual identities
Circumscribing
Partners reduce the scope of their contact with each other.
Stagnating
Circumscribing continues and no new growth occurs
Avoiding
People in a relationship create distance between each other
Terminating
End of relationship
Dialectical tensions
Conflicts that arise when 2 opposing or incompatible desires exist simultaneously in a relationship
Integration separation dialect
Conflicting desires for connection and independence
Connection autonomy dialect
Close to others but at the same time seek independence
Inclusion seclusion dialect
Reconcile a desire for both involvement with others outside the relationship and time together within the relationship
Stability change dialect
Stability is important in relationships but too much of it can lead to feelings of staleness
Predictability novelty dialect
Tension in a relationship between wanting a predictable partner and not wanting to be bored
Conventionality uniqueness dialect
Captures the challenges that people in a relationship face when trying to meet others expectations while being true to themselves
Expression privacy dialect
Captures the desire for both intimacy and the need to maintain some space between ourselves and others
Openness closedness dialect
Internal struggle between expression and privacy
Revelation concealment dialect
External expression of the conflict between openness and privacy
Meta communication
Messages that refer to other messages
Social support
Helping others through challenging times by providing emotional informational or instrumental resources
Relational transgressions
When one partner violates the explicit or implicit terms of the relationship, letting the other down in some important way
