Question

Review and briefly describe at least four of the ten steps in “Knapp’s Stages of Relational Development.” For example, compare/contrast two stages in the “Coming Together” phase with two later stages in the Coming Apart” phase of Knapp’s description. Or perhaps summarize the four stages in the “Relational Maintenance” area of Knapp’s diagram.

Answer 1

There are different stages in knapp's stages of relationships development. Here, we focus on the stage of relational maintenance:

- initiation: initiation is the phase where the two people talk about various topics such as interests, families or their jobs. The focus here is to establish a positive impression.

- experimentation: people start learning both about the personalities of one another. They start to understand the other person in order to know if they could be sharing enough values or interests. They take time to know one another.

- intensifying: people begin sharing more personal information in this stage. They start to talk about the mistakes made in the past or the issues that are going on in the family. Here, emotional investment begins to take place.

- integration: this is the stage where the two people begin to talk of the future. Here, they start planning for marriage or for proposal or the family. The level of emotional investment is deeper in this case.

- bonding: in this phase the to people have started to commit to one another in public, even in front of their close ones. Bonding is the stage of legal commitment, one which only breaks through formal agreement.