Post 3

The most interesting thing that I read this week in chapter 12 was the family life cycle. The development of a family goes through 7 stages. The stages are as follows: establishing a family, enlarging a family, developing a family, encouraging independence, launching children, post-launching of children, and retirement. The first stage,establishing a family, is when the two partners get comfortable in their new environment  The labels of  "husband" and "wife" are accustomed and no longer considered "new". The second stage, enlarging a family is when the partners decide they are ready to have children. The third stage, developing a family is when a families children are in elementary school or high school. The fourth stage is encouraging independence. This is when the children in the family because adults are developing who they are and their interests and social circles. The fifth stage is launching children; this is when children go into college or learn hoe to live on their own. The sixth step is post launching children  This is when the children have left the home and the couple is again the primary unit. The final stage is retirement. This is when couples no longer work full time jobs.

Post 2

Marriage is something that is very influential on someones life. Dedicating your love, support and honesty to a single person is something that not many people can do. The troubles that come with marriage are with honesty and staying true. The different types of marriages include vital marriage, total marriage, passive-congenial marriage, devitalized marriage, and conflict-habituated marriage. The types of marriages that i have seen in my life include a mixture of the listed above. The marriage that my parents participate in include a total marriage. A total marriage is a relationship where the partners are not always together but are committed to staying together for the rest of their lives. There are many times where they fight, but what find of marriages don't have a few disputes. I see marriage slowly losing its value in 50 years. In today's society, people are easily falling in and out of love. I believe the divorce rate is going to increase in the next 50 years.

Post 1

I define family as a unit of people who normally form through a marriage . The family that you gain from a marriage can be extensive or small. A family can be those who are blood related but also those who may not be. Some people do not have the blessing of growing up with a supportive, or happy, family. Therefore, some people who have, in their opinion, no "family" look to role models in their life. People that support you are the people who are very valuable people in anyone's life.Families participate in your life immensely  They raise you, take care of you, feed you, support you, and help you grow into a person. The type of marriage that my parents participate in is a Total marriage. My parents are very much in love and from their marriage had me and my older brother Chris. I do not have an unsupportive family or a family that is judgmental. Family is something that is very important to me in my life.

Post 3

The one thing that i really enjoyed reading about this week were the primary style of love. The primary styles of love include those that are eros, storge, and ludus. Eros are defined as "a powerful passionate style of love that blazes to life suddenly and dramatically"(p276). Eros is a kind of love that is very intense and may include spiritual, intellectual and sexual attractions. The second type of love is storge. Storge is a "comfortable, even-keeled kind of love based on friendship and compatibility. This type tends to develop gradually and tends to remain stable. I think this is the best type of love because it is such a stable type of love. The last type of love is ludus. Ludus is a very playful type of love. This type of love is full of challenges and games for lovers. From these three "primary" style of love there are also secondary styles which include oragma, mania, and agape.

Post 2

Relationships are something that I have never had an easy time with. I am a very closed person and i really do not like telling other people my problems. The relationship that i have been in there has been commitment but not so much love. This happened a couple years ago where me and this really good friend started to hang out a lot and we would always talk. I would tell him everything and he would too. I had a feeling that he was being a little bit less open with me than i was being with him. Sometimes i had the feeling that he would tell other people more personal things than he would tell me, but i never made a big deal out of it because we weren't in an established relationship. We did know that we liked each other but because we were in an established relationship i felt like i had no room to get jealous. Although the commitment was there, i couldn't establish love with this other person. The impact of this on my relationship just makes me more cautious about the people i open up to. It made me realize how much security  is important to my in a relationship.

post 1

I believe that it is really easy for people to misrepresent themselves online. It is very easy for people to write down a very attractive description of themselves in an online profile and for people to believe it. The problem with online dating profile is there is no truth behind it. There is no one to tell you if that person is telling the truth or if they are lying. I believe that it is very unethical for people to misrepresent themselves online. How would you like it if you were very interested in someone online only to find out that everything you know about that person is a lie. I believe that if you are interested in finding love you should tell the truth about who you are and what you like. If you do not tell people the truth there is no way you are going to find someone who likes you for who you actually are.

The Development of Friendship

The topic that i thought i would discuss this week in detail was the development of friendship. The development of friendship can be broken down into a six stage model that was created by interpersonal communication researcher Bill Rawlins. The six stages include role-limited interaction, friendly relations  moving toward friendship  nascent friendship, stabilized friendship, and waning friendship. Role limited interaction refers to the stereotype you have of that person before really getting to know them. It also refers to the uncertainties we have about them. Friendly relations refers to the common ground and interests that you may have with that person. Moving toward friendship is the actions you make with that person to hang out outside of the normal routine. This would be asking that person to hang out after class or something like that. Nascent friendship is the act of sharing personal information, values, and emotions with another. Stabilized friendship refers to the stabilized state of a friendship. The final step is waning friendship  This occurs when the friendship has become betrayed and the trust of a  friendship slowly slips away.

Investments

Throughout with my friendship with my best friend Alex we have made many investments in our friendship. Alex and i have been best friends for about four years now and I think its because of how well we communicate. While first meeting Alex she was very open about how we had another common relationship with another friend. We built our friendship from this friend and ever since then its been a roller-coaster ride. We have built trust through a couple of incidents. For example, one night I felt like she was really out of place on how she was treating me so i left the event we were at. I told her that i was upset with her and i would speak to her later. We then discussed things that i was upset with, and in return the things she was upset with. This form of communication has been so helpful throughout our friendship. The fact that we are able to sit down and openly discuss our problems is something that a lot of friendships do not have. We both also support each other very well. I love my best friend, and i hope we remain friends for a very long time.

Post 1 Friendship

Friendships are voluntary. The issues brought up on the friendship page include were very troublesome to figure out. The advice forums were flooded with spam and unrelated posts. There was no issues on the friendship page for me to really analyze. If I were to post in the advice forum tho, I would discuss a problems of trust. The nature of friendship that is discussed throughout the chapter discusses how friendship is an emotional, trustworthy, and supportive relationship that you have with another that is at your own will. By becoming a friend to another you are accepting that persons emotional problems, making an effort to hang out with that person, as well as allowing yourself to be ready available for that person. The trust you build with friends are built through many experiences and how we respond to certain situations.The most important and vital part of a friendship is how you communicate with the other individual. I hope the friendship website improves to where there will be less spam so it can be useful to those we really need advice.