Knapp´s Model, named after Mark L. Knapp, its creator, seeks to establish a guideline that explains how relationships between people progress, their development, from beginning to end, through a series of stages, that are divided into two major phases. In total, the model is constituted by 10 stages, divided into the different phases. This phases are: Coming together, Coming together and Relational Maintenance, Phase of coming apart and Relational Maintenance, Coming apart. In Phase 1, Coming together, we have: Initiation, Experimentation and Intensification. In Phase 2, we have: Integration and bonding. These are the first 5 stages in the model. Then, in Phase 3: Coming apart and Relational Maintenance, we have: Differentiation and Circumbscription and in the last Phase, we have: Stagnation, avoidance and termination.
Part 1: a) The relationship I will use in this first part of the question will be a personal social (friendship). B) The stage in which this friendship would be for me is experimentation, as my friend and I are just getting to know each other and we are in the process of getting deeper and more meaningful knowledge about one another. C) What I can do to keep this reltionship going is to open up myself in degrees to my friend and also accept the differences in the other person, instead of trying to model them to my liking.
Part 2. a) In this case I will choose my relationship with my parents, which is a personal-social relationship as well. B) The stage in which my relationship is would be Differentiation, which would be part of Phase 3: Coming apart and Relational Maintenance. This is because as we grow, we start to discover the differences we have with our parents and this affects the way that we interact with them. C) This relationship is here because I have changed as I grow up and my parents as well as they get older. This causes an awareness of the differences between us and it sometimes can drive us into conflicts that may drive us apart.
