Duck's Phase Model Flashcards
What are the 3 proposed reasons that Duck suggests is why relationships break up
Pre-existing doom
Mechanical failure
Sudden death
Pre-existing doom
Incompatibility and failure are fairly much guaranteed from the start of the relationship
Mechanical failure
Two compatible, well meaning people grow apart and find that they cannot live together any longer
Sudden death
Discovery of infidelity or the occurrence of a traumatic incident, such as a huge argument, leads to immediate ending of a relationship
What are other factors that contribute to relationship dissolution
Predisposing personal factors
Participating factors
Lack of skills
Lack of motivation
Lack of maintenance
Predisposing personal factors
Individuals’ bad habits
Participating factors
Love rivals, working hrs, lack of relationship direction
Lack of skills
Sexually inexperienced
yup deal breaker 4 me
Lack of motivation
Perceived inequality
Lack of maintenance
Spending too much time apart
Now how are the stages of a break-up
Intra-psychic stage
Dyadic phase
Social phase
Grave-dressing phase
Intra-psychic stage
The “I can’t stand this anymore”
Indicates a determination that smth has to change
*me every tuesday at 232pm
Cognitive processes within the individual
Partner assesses adequacy of partner’s role performance; broods on dissatisfaction, centring mostly on their partner’s shortcomings
Weigh up pros and cons and evaluate against the alternatives
Consider cost of withdrawal
Make plans : face ‘express/repress dilemma’ - whether you should express your dissatisfaction or keep it to urself
Dyadic phase
Face up to ‘confrontation/avoidance dilemma’
Confront partner
Negotiation through ‘our relationship’ talks; dissatisfaction aired - anger, resentment, etc
Attempt repair and reconciliation?
Assess joint costs of withdrawal or reduced intimacy
Social phase
‘I mean it’
Negotiate post-discussion state with a partner
Initiate gossip/discussion in social networks; seek support
Create publicly negotiable face-saving/blame-placing stories and accounts
Some friends will hasten the end of the relationship whilst others may try to help and repair it
Consider and face up to implied social network effect
Point of no return - the break-up takes on a momentum driven by social forces
Grave-dressing phase
‘It is now inevitable’
Perform ‘getting over it’ activities
Retrospective, reformative post-mortem attribution; creating a personal story you can live with, which may differ from the public one - tidy up your memories
Publicly distribute own version of break-up; gossip plays an important role and it is crucial that each partner tries to retain some ‘social credit’ - La Gaipa, 1982
What is a -ve evaluation of the model involving incomplete
he did not reach completion
It is an incomplete model
Rollie and Duck 2006 - stated that the model is oversimplified
Added the resurrection phase
Ex partners turn their attention to future relationships using the experiences gained from their recently-ended one
Rollie and Duck stated that progression from one phase to the next is not inevitable - you can return to an earlier phase
Processes that occur rather than linear movement
What are the methodological issues of the model (-ve evaluation)
Most of the research is retrospective - after a relationship has ended
What is recalled may not be accurate or reliable
Early stages of breakdown tends to be distorted or ignored altogether
It is almost impossible to measure when problems first appear
Researchers can hinder the relationship
What is another -ve evaluation regarding what the theory cannot explain
Theory cannot explain why relationships break down
Only a description of how
Flemlee 1995 - ‘fatal attraction hypothesis’ argues the cause of relationship breakdown can be found in the attractive qualities that brought romantic partners together
Caused by getting too much of what we are looking for
How is cultural bias a -ve evaluation
Moghaddam et al 1993
relationships in individualist cultures are generally voluntary and frequently come to an end
Collectivist cultures are more likely to be obligatory, involve a wider family and do not end easily
How is useful real life applications a +ve evaluation
Model helps us identify and understand the stages of relationship breakdown and offers various ways to reverse the breakdown
Identifies different repair strategies are more effective at particular points in the breakdown
Duck 1994 recommends that people in the intra-psychic phase could be encouraged to focus their brooding on +ve aspects of their partner
Dyadic phase - communication, any attempt to improve this and wider social skills could be beneficial in fostering greater stability
