Chapter 8: Personal Relationships
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. This filter provides clues regarding the way in which an individual thinks.
a. Emotional/Unemotional
b. Beliefs/Values
c. Conformity/Nonconformity
d. Behavior/Nonverbal
2. People who do not like confrontation or open discussions are likely to have difficulty
with this process of a relationship breakdown.
a. Intrapsychic
b. Dyadic
c. Social process
d. Grave dressing
3. Prospective relational continuity constructional units (RCCUs) would be most likely to
indicate that one partner ______.
a. is physically absent from the relationship
b. has returned to the relationship
c. wants the other to leave the relationship
d. is about to be absent from the relationship
4. Introspective RCCUs would be most likely to indicate that one partner ______.
a. is physically absent from the relationship
b. has returned to the relationship
c. wants the other to leave the relationship
d. is about to be absent from the relationship
5. Retrospective RCCUs would be most likely to indicate that one partner ______.
a. is physically absent from the relationship
b. has returned to the relationship
c. wants the other to leave the relationship
d. is about to be absent from the relationship
6. According to Duck’s Relationship Filtering Model, people pay attention to cues about
others in the following sequence:
a. attitudes/personality, roles, behavior, physical appearance
b. roles, behavior, physical appearance, attitudes/personality
c. behavior, physical appearance, attitudes/personality, roles
d. physical appearance, behavior, roles, attitudes/personality
7. Duck’s Relationship Filtering Model suggests that you use others’ physical
appearance to do the following:
a. screen out people who do not look as if they would see the world the way you do
b. screen out people who vote differently than you do
d. screen out people who are likely to be good relationship partners
d. screen out people who have had multiple relationships
8. Dialectics involving a relational unit and other relational units or people within their
social networks are ______.
a. internal
b. external and internal
c. internal, then external
d. external
9. The internal dialectic that focuses on the need for predictability and routine in a
relationship and the need for novelty and change in a relationship is ______.
a. connectedness–separateness (connection–autonomy)
b. openness–closedness
c. certainty–uncertainty (novelty–predictability)
d. None of these are internal dialectics.
10. Communication in the resurrection phase typically ______.
a. is irreversible
b. involves reflection of what went wrong in the relationship
c. is acknowledgment that all hope is lost
d. is characterized by equity
11. Weiss’s “provisions of relationships,” or the areas where relationships give us
something special, needed, or valued, include ______.
a. belonging and a sense of alliance
b. emotional disintegration
c. challenges to our worth and value
d. lack of opportunity to communicate about ourselves
12. Social relationships are characterized by ______.
a. irreplaceability of the other person
b. uniqueness of the tasks performed by the other person
c. uniqueness of the social function performed by the other person
d. interchangeability of the other person
1. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. In a prospective RCCU, individuals may utter phrases
similar to ______.
a. “Talk to you later”
b. “See you soon”
c. “Let’s table this discussion for another time”
d. “How are you doing?”
2. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Social relationships and personal relationships are
______.
a. unique and different
b. not mutually exclusive
c. standardized
d. not permanent
3. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. What term characterizes the lack of shared
balance in the effort required to maintain a relationship?
a. Impropriety
b. Praxis
c. Inequity
d. Major transgression
4. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Relationships are about more than emotion and are an
important part of ______.
a. your knowledge about the world
b. what to think
c. how to act
d. what to believe and value
5. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. These types of processes typically take place as a
relationship is ending.
a. Grave dressing
b. Intrapsychic
c. Social
d. Resurrection
6. CHOOSE ALL THAT APPLY. Some of the early signs of an impending relationship
breakup include ______.
a. a major transgression
b. inequity
c. a conflict that is constructive
d. a breakdown in communication
1. Talk (everyday communication) cannot increase the intimacy level of a relationship.
2. Montgomery and Ward created the concept of praxis as a relational dialectic, which
states that people make choices that impact them as well as others.
3. Cultures often differ in the ways that they value different types of relationships.
4. The nature, style, and content of talk change as relationships change.
5. The perception of putting more into a relationship than the other partner automatically
leads to problems or the end of a relationship.
6. If someone’s meaning systems differ from your own, you are likely to want to enter a
relationship with him or her.
7. Flirtation is an example of direct relationship talk used to change a relationship’s
status.
8. Reassurance of need or value was identified by Weiss as a specific are where
relationships provide us with something special, needed, or valued.
9. Communication intended to change a relationship’s status is usually indirect.
10. When we see any stranger, we can tell just by looking at him or her all the
information we need to know about that person in order to evaluate a possible
relationship.
11. The complex nature of personal relationships is emphasized by the guiding
assumption of relational dialectics known as totality.
12. People generally communicate with others who share many of the same attitudes
and beliefs.
13. During the intrapsychic process, one person in the relationship weighs the
advantages of staying in a relationship versus leaving it.
14. Talk about relationships is managed consistently across all cultural boundaries.
1. What occurs as relationships transform?
2. Belonging and a sense of reliable alliance are important because ______.
3. How is flirtation a tool in advancing a relationship?
4. Explain the role of physical appearance in Duck’s Relationship Filtering Model.
5. Provide an example of the external dialectic of revelation–concealment.
1. Explain how relationships influence what you don’t know.
2. Why are people careful about engaging in direct talk about relationships?
3. Explain how relationships influence the distribution of information.
4. Discuss the difference between social and personal relationships.
5. Explain how the grave-dressing process works when a relationship comes apart.
6. Explain Duck’s claim that relationship development depends on the interpretation of
information sharing, not just the act of information sharing.
7. Relationships are categorized according to different styles of communication. Explain
how the understanding and appreciation of business relationships depends on culture.
8. Contradiction involves the interplay between two things that are connected at the
same time they are in opposition. What might those two things include?
9. Using Weiss’s provisions of relationships, explain some of the reasons people are
drawn to social media.
10. How do people make sense of relationships when they are always changing?
11. Explain why being on the rebound after a relationship ends is accepted in society.
12. Explain why some people may believe it is important to have friends from social
networks support them when in the midst of a relationship breakdown.
13. Explain how relationships are evaluated.
