Interpersonal Case Study

Interpersonal Case Study

I chose to do an interpersonal relationship with my partner, who is also named Mike. We have been together almost three years, which is the longest relationship for both of us. I have been out for over ten years, he has been out only about five years, and this presents some breakdown in communication between us. Since this is a relatively new relationship to both of us, we are still learning about each other. Even though he moved in with me relatively early on, due to extenuating circumstances, you would think we knew quite a bit about each other, but this is proving to be false.

We met each other on Facebook, thru a mutual friend. He had seen my picture and decided to randomly poke me (a feature on Facebook). This brings out the attraction theory, since he could only see one picture of me, it peaked his interest. We then conversed back and forth over three to four days. During this time, the proximity theory was brought out because we leaving fairly close, also the similarity theory was discussed, as we talked about things we liked to do, activities, job, school and other things we may like to do.

The beginnings of our relationship could also be related to “Knapp’s stage model”. Where we had the Initiating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, and bonding stages of an interpersonal relationship. Up to this point we have not had the differentiating, circumscribing stagnating, avoiding or terminating stages. I am hoping we never get to the later stages of this model, but only time will tell.

When we first started dating, probably within the first three months, due to extenuating circumstances, he was forced to move out of his apartment. We communicated quite a bit about different options, like trying to find a new apartment or a new house. None of these worked for him and he was going to be forced to move home. I offered him to move in my house, which made sense, because it was closer, however he perceived...