Relational Transitions: The Evolution of Personal Relationships

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Bloomsbury Academic, Oct 30, 1991 - Education - 208 pages

In this practical and innovative study, Richard Conville proposes a way to think about the process of communication in personal relationships. He moves beyond rigid stage models of relational development and advocates a new, helical model with a four-phase structure of transition between relational phases. The model is based on Difference--developed as a theoretical concept--and on structural analysis of relational partners' narratives of their transition experiences. This perspective offers both a conceptual and a methodological alternative to current work in relationship development. Though its focus is only one part of the wide-ranging communication field, its principles can easily be applied to other communication contexts.

Conville opens with a description of Difference, a necessary component of current theory in interpersonal relationships, and its role in the structure of relationships. He examines narratives by partners in three personal relationships to locate dialectical differences of time, intimacy, and affect. Later chapters examine the four transition phases of relationships: security, disintegration, alienation, and resynthesis. These four phases are seen as meta-dialectics that mark the social domain in which personal relationships are played out. Relational Transitions will prove to be of particular interest to scholars and students of communication, psychology, sociology, family studies, and anthropology.

From inside the book

 

Contents

They Saw a Game
1
1
12
With New Eyes
19
Copyright

8 other sections not shown

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Relational Transitions: The Evolution of Personal Relationships
Richard L. Conville
No preview available - 1991

Common terms and phrases

action affect Alienation phase Altman Anne Sullivan argue autonomy Berger column comfortable confirming messages context contradiction Conville cycle desired deterioration dialectical dimensions dialectical oppositions Diane Diane's différance Difference disconfirming messages Disintegration phase doll Duck dyadic phase emanationist episode types example experience feelings felt Figure grid Helen Keller Helen Keller's helix Howard and Judy Human Communication interaction interpersonal communication interpretation intimate John Judy's Keller kilter Knapp's language Lévi-Strauss Levinger marriage married mazeway Miss Sullivan Moreover myth narrative negative observed one's percent period personal relationships perspective phase of relational phase of relationship Planalp poles question Raush redefined redefinition relational partners relational stage models relational transition relationship Alienation relationship definition relationship development relationship evolution relationship partners relationship Resynthesis relationship transition response role role-action role-taking schismogenesis social domain social penetration theory structural analysis structural helical model structuralist talk Tracy transformation turning point types uncertainty Wheeless Wilmot

References to this book

About the author (1991)

RICHARD L. CONVILLE is Professor of Speech Communication at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has taught in the field of interpersonal communication since 1972, and his research has appeared in journals such as Human Communication Research, the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, the Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Communication Monographs. Professor Conville has served on the Board of Directors of the International Communication Association and on the editorial boards of the Southern Communication Journal and Communication Theory.

Bibliographic information

TitleRelational Transitions: The Evolution of Personal Relationships
AuthorRichard L. Conville
Editionillustrated
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 1991
ISBN027593523X, 9780275935238
Length208 pages
Subjects › 

Education / General
Psychology / General
  
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