Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public
Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
Chapter 7: 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 screen out people who ______.
a. do not look as if they would see the world the way you do
b. vote differently than you do
d. are likely to be good relationship partners
d. 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. romantic-platonic.
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
13. The internal dialectic that focuses on the need to be with a relational partner and the
need to be away from a relational partner in a relationship is ______.
a. connectedness–separateness (connection–autonomy)
b. openness–closedness
c. certainty–uncertainty (novelty–predictability)
d. revelation—concealment
14. The internal dialectic that focuses on the need to talk with a relational partner and
the need to not talk with a relational partner is ______.
a. connectedness–separateness (connection–autonomy)
b. openness–closedness
c. certainty–uncertainty (novelty–predictability)
d. revelation—concealment
15. A child may be willing to share information to parents about school but not about
what happens when out with friends. This is an example of which type of internal
dialectic?
a. Connectedness–separateness (connection–autonomy)
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public
Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
b. Openness–closedness
c. Certainty–uncertainty (novelty–predictability)
d. Revelation–concealment
16. Romantic partners may regularly have pizza delivered on Friday evenings but
occasionally have a date night out. This is an example of which type of internal
dialectic?
a. Connectedness–separateness (connection–autonomy)
b. Openness–closedness
c. Certainty–uncertainty (novelty–predictability)
d. Revelation–concealment
17. Friends may choose to spend time engaging in shared activities and spend other
time engaging in individual activities. This is an example of which type of internal
dialectic?
a. Connectedness–separateness (connection–autonomy)
b. Openness–closedness
c. Certainty–uncertainty (novelty–predictability)
d. Revelation–concealment
18. Parents may enjoy spending time with their children, but they must also spend time
alone together. This is an example of which type of external dialectic?
a. Inclusion–seclusion
b. Conventionality–uniqueness
c. Revelation–concealment
d. Openness–closedness
19. A wedding can include traditional elements but also include distinctive elements.
This is an example of which type of external dialectic?
a. Inclusion–seclusion
b. Conventionality–uniqueness
c. Revelation–concealment
d. Openness–closedness
20. Someone having an affair may be tempted to let some people know about it but
ensure that other people do not know about it. This is an example of which type of
external dialectic?
a. Inclusion–seclusion
b. Conventionality–uniqueness
c. Revelation–concealment
d. Openness–closedness
21. The external dialectic that focuses on the need to let others know of the existence of
a relationship and the need to prevent others from knowing of the existence of a
relationship is ______.
a. inclusion—seclusion
b. conventionality—uniqueness
c. revelation—concealment
d. openness–closedness
22. The external dialectic that focuses on the need of people to feel as if their
relationship is like the relationships of others and the need to feel as if their relationship
is special is ______.
a. inclusion—seclusion
b. conventionality—uniqueness
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public
Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
c. revelation—concealment
d. openness–closedness
23. The external dialectic that focuses on the need for people in a relationship to be
around others in a social network and the need for people in a relationship to be by
themselves is ______.
a. inclusion–seclusion
b. conventionality–uniqueness
c. revelation–concealment
d. openness–closedness
24. This process of relationship breakdown is marked by a person reflecting on the
strengths and weaknesses of a relationship.
a. Intrapsychic
b. Dyadic
c. Social process
d. Grave dressing
25. The ______ process entails confronting the partner and openly discussing a
problem with the relationship.
a. intrapsychic
b. dyadic
c. social
d. grave dressing
26. The ______ process involves telling other people in one’s social network about the
relationship problem.
a. intrapsychic
b. dyadic
c. social
d. grave dressing
27. The ______ process involves creating the story of why a relationship died and
erecting a metaphorical tombstone that summarizes its main points from birth to death.
a. intrapsychic
b. dyadic
c. social
d. grave dressing
28. ______ units provide recognition that an interaction is about to end but the
relationship continues.
a. Interspective
b. Retrospective
c. Introspective
d. Prospective
29. ______ units are direct indications of a relationship’s existence during the physical
absence of one partner.
a. Interspective
b. Retrospective
c. Introspective
d. Prospective
30. ______ units directly recognize the end of an absence and the reestablishment of
the relationship through actual interaction.
a. Interspective
b. Retrospective
c. Introspective
d. Prospective
Multiple Response
1. SELECT 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. SELECT ALL THAT APPLY. Social relationships and personal relationships are
______.
a. unique and different
b. not mutually exclusive
c. standardized
d. not permanent
3. SELECT ALL THAT APPLY. What term characterizes the lack of shared balance in
the effort required to maintain a relationship?
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public
Speaking, 3e
SAGE Publishing, 2021
a. Impropriety
b. Praxis
c. Inequity
d. Major transgression
4. SELECT 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. SELECT 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. SELECT 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
Instructor Resource
Duck, Communication in Everyday Life: The Basic Course Edition With Public
Speaking, 3e
True/False
1. Talk (everyday communication) cannot increase the intimacy level of a relationship.
2. Baxter and Montgomery 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.
15. Your relationships with store clerks, bus drivers, and restaurant servers are
generally personal relationships.
16. Your relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners are generally social
relationships.
17. Rather than simply deciding at the spur of the moment to cease contact with
someone, initiators of ghosting generally engage in a decision-making process when