RCT 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Interpersonal Relationship, Dialectic, Relational Transgression

• School: St. John's University
• Department: Rhetoric, Communication, and Theatre
• Course: RCT 1000
• Professor: Jodi L. Van Der Horn-Gibson

Document Summary

Relationship less a thing than a process. Important in initial stages of relationship: first impressions can influence secondary ones, after initial impressions have passed, ordinary-looking people with pleasing personalities are likely to be judged as attractive. It"s comforting to know someone who seems to like the same things you like, appears to have similar values, and may even be of the same race, economic class, or educational background. The basis of this sort of relationship is the similarity thesis. Second, when someone is similar to you, you can make fairly accurate predictions- whether the person will want to the same things as you. Last, it may be that when we learn that other people are similar to us, we assume they"ll probably like us, so we turn like them. Complementarity: difference strengthen a relationship when they are complementary- when each partner"s characteristics satisfy the other"s needs. Rewards: some relationships are based on an economic model called exchange theory.