An Analysis Of Dr. Mark Knapp's Theory Of Interpersonal Relationships

Relationships are a lot like flying a plane, you need a pilot, a co-pilot, and incredible focus for it to not crash and burn. My relationship with my friend Adrianne was a lot like that. Meeting in middle school through mutual friends; our relationship lasted until the end of my junior year (her senior year) of high school. Throughout that time, she and I had been the best and the worst of friends. My relationship with Adrianne reaches all ten stages of Knapp’s Theory, and therefore changes the way I see my other relationships. Knapp’s Theory of Interpersonal Relationships was created by Dr. Mark L. Knapp, a professor of communication at the University of Texas, and provides the basic steps in a relationship ranging from coming together to coming apart. Coming together contains and

Where we had to make a shield around the egg to prevent it from cracking. As Adrianne and I did the project together I noticed how uninterested she was in the work. The project was a large part of our final grade and I was determined to get a high score, but apparently, she didn’t care much about what the final grade would be and did very little. When I started to notice her disinterest in her school work and became annoyed by it. This is where we entered the differentiating stage. As the first stage of coming apart, the differentiating stage is where one or both people in a relationship start to notice behaviors that slow the relationship; for me, it was her aloof attitude towards the project we did, and for her, it was my determination towards the very same project. The circumscribing stage is when communication in the relationship is limited to only a few subjects or superficial at best. Adrianne and I were in this stage for the rest of the year after the project fiasco. I found myself not wanting to ask her to help me on projects, even going as far as to tell her I did not want to do the assignment with