Chapter Recap

• Interpersonal communication is dyadic and is your primary tool for building, maintaining, and ending relationships.

• The four defining characteristics of interpersonal communication are that it is transactional, dynamic, relational, and impactful.

• Scholars suggest that five factors influence how people form interpersonal relationships: proximity, resources, similarity, reciprocal liking, and physical attractiveness.

• Though each type is unique, people build and maintain their relationships—romantic, family, friends, and workplace—through interpersonal communication.

• Many relationships progress through certain stages, marked by differences in communication and intimacy. These turning points can be positive—initiating, experimenting, intensifying, integrating, and bonding—or negative—differentiating, circumscribing, stagnating, avoiding, and terminating.

1. Interpersonal vs. Impersonal

   Question

   Working with a partner, come up with your own definition of interpersonal communication based on how you use it daily. Include what distinguishes it from impersonal communication. Then, discuss how mediated forms of communication, such as Twitter, e-mails, and texts, can be interpersonal and how they can be impersonal. What makes the difference? Does the number of people impact whether an encounter is interpersonal? How? Come up with examples for each, and discuss how the technology can influence whether the communication is interpersonal or impersonal.

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   1. Working with a partner, come up with your own definition of interpersonal communication based on how you use it daily. Include what distinguishes it from impersonal communication. Then, discuss how mediated forms of communication, such as Twitter, e-mails, and texts, can be interpersonal and how they can be impersonal. What makes the difference? Does the number of people impact whether an encounter is interpersonal? How? Come up with examples for each, and discuss how the technology can influence whether the communication is interpersonal or impersonal.

2. Love, Hollywood Style

   Question

   Identify three of the most romantic movies you’ve seen (The Notebook, The Fault in Our Stars, Love Actually, Brokeback Mountain). For each, assess how passionate love and companionate love are depicted. Is passionate love depicted as superior to companionate love? How do the movies deal with love over time? How do these depictions contrast with your own views of passionate and companionate love? What factors of loving and liking are shown, and which are ignored? What effect does this have on the portrayal of “real” romantic relationships in the movies?

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   2. Identify three of the most romantic movies you’ve seen (The Notebook, The Fault in Our Stars, Love Actually, Brokeback Mountain). For each, assess how passionate love and companionate love are depicted. Is passionate love depicted as superior to companionate love? How do the movies deal with love over time? How do these depictions contrast with your own views of passionate and companionate love? What factors of loving and liking are shown, and which are ignored? What effect does this have on the portrayal of “real” romantic relationships in the movies?