COMS 212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 99: Blame Game

• School: Cal Poly
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMS 212
• Professor: Barbara Shea

Document Summary

Avoidance: ranges from complete evasion to decreased communication (most common termination strategy; especially likely when there is little likelihood of maintaining a future friendship, there is low intimacy, few formal ties, and perceived faults of partner are high). Pseudo de-escalation: let"s be friends for a while i think we need some space (common but ineffective, since 90% did not take the hint that the relationship was over). Cost escalation: one partner is deliberately obnoxious, rude, or disloyal to encourage other partner to break up with him or her. Direct dump: this relationship is over i don"t want to date you any longer (most common direct termination strategy; highly efficient, since there is little ambiguity and partner is unlikely to offer resistance). Justification: one partner provides a rationale for why relationship is ending. Used in highly intimate, committed relationships with overlapping networks. Fade away: partners gradually drift apart and lose contact.