Knapp's Relationship Model

 

Knapp's Relationship Model has 10 phases, broken into 2 sections, 5 in each. The first section of their model is coming together, which is built from, 1) initiating, 2) experimenting, 3) intensifying, 4) integrating, and 5) bonding. The second section is coming apart which includes, 6) differentiating, 7) circumscribing, 8) stagnating, 9) avoiding, and 10) terminating. 

The interpersonal relationship I've decided to analyze is the relationship between my mother and I. When I was growing up our relationship was in the bonding section of Knapp's Relationship Model. But since moving for college we've been drifting apart. When I first moved in Fall 2022 I hadn't established much of a life away, and I called her at least 3 times a week. But as I got friends, fell into schoolwork, and got a job we stopped talking as much i.e. differentiating. When I choose to stay at college for the summer, I moved out of my great grandpa's house into the dorms and I started to finally feel what it was like to live alone or with friends. So when I would occasionally go home I ended up not wanting to be there anymore after a couple of days. I'm starting to feel like we are falling into the circumscribing part of Knapp's Relationship Model. The only time we talk nowadays is when we need something from each other. I feel like this may be a normal thing that happens when kids go off to college and they begin to form their own lives. I hope that our relationship never gets to the termination stage, and as I get older I hope our relationship can work it's way back.