Deck 7: Maintaining Our Changing Relationships

Question 1

Relationships are not necessarily voluntary or involuntary for their duration--voluntary relationships can be made involuntary and vice versa.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

When using the neutralization strategy, relationship partners learn to look at the dialectic a new way and change the narrative to eradicate the tension.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Research has shown that distal college relationships are much more likely to end than other relationships.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

According to the centrifugal perspective, there are certain costs involved in keeping a relationship together and healthy.

Question 5

Because the partners are acquainted and have mutual regard for one another, friends-with-benefits relationships are considered part of long-term sexual behaviors.

Question 6

Debbie and Marta both lost a spouse to cancer and became friends through their grief support group. Based on this link, their primary relationship-maintaining behavior is likely:

A) positivity.
B) understanding.
C) tasking.
D) assurances.

Question 7

Lynnette likes to go out with her friends from time to time, but her boyfriend Harold wants to spend all his time with Lynnette. To make him happy, Lynnette decides to stop going out with her friends and spends every night at home with Harold. This is the strategy of:

A) selection.
B) neutralization.
C) reframing.
D) separation.

Question 8

If partners in a relationship have a dinner party with their friends from each of their respective workplaces in order to expand their collective group of friends, this is the relationship-maintaining behavior of:

A) tasking.
B) assurance.
C) selection.
D) networks.

Question 9

Craig and Sofia were chosen for the same task force at work. During that time, they became friends. After the task force completed their assignment, Craig and Sofia began to date. Which of the following is true?

A) The primary relationship-maintaining behavior of their relationship is networks.
B) Craig and Sofia will likely struggle with connection and autonomy.
C) The relationship changed from involuntary to voluntary.
D) Because it is an involuntary relationship, it will be especially vulnerable to relational tensions.

Question 10

If you and your friend solve the relational dialectic by going to your favorite restaurant every Thursday and his favorite restaurant every Saturday, you are using the strategy of:

A) selection.
B) separation.
C) neutralization.
D) reframing.

Question 11

Relational maintenance entails:

A) working to strengthen one's relationship.
B) starting new relationships.
C) keeping a relationship at a desired condition.
D) letting go of a relationship that is in decline.

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT an example of a relationship-maintaining behavior?

A) Making an appointment for yourself with a counselor to help manage your stress because you and your partner are fighting every day.
B) Spending time at your friend's workplace in order to understand why he's so stressed out every day after work.
C) Taking a few minutes to de-stress at a coffee shop after a big exam before going home to your partner.
D) Throwing a party that includes your family and your partner's family so that you can all get to know each other.

Question 13

James and Shaunice have been dating for two years while in college. Before James graduates, Shaunice takes a job 200 miles away, but they decide not to break up. They are carrying on a _______ relationship.

A) centripetal
B) centrifugal
C) proximal
D) distal

Question 14

Ciera really liked Joe and wanted to date him exclusively, but they hadn't talked about it. Ciera considered it a _______ when she heard him refer to her as his "girlfriend" to one of his friends.

A) distal relationship
B) relational turning point
C) selection
D) neutralization

Question 15

Priya hates superhero movies, but she sees all of them with her boyfriend because he loves them. This is an example of:

A) collaborating.
B) avoiding.
C) accommodating.
D) compromising.

Question 16

Zhou is a marketing manager in her company. Her boyfriend Lou has just been hired there as an assistant. At company functions, relative to Lou, Zhou has:

A) status.
B) position power.
C) competence.
D) perceived power.

Question 17

In the _______ conflict pattern, both parties get some of what they want.

A) competing
B) collaborating
C) accommodating
D) compromising

Question 18

Which of the following is true of power?

A) Power is always earned by virtue of some extraordinary quality of the powerful person.
B) A person can exert power over another person, even if only one of them sees that person as powerful.
C) Power, in many cases, is simply based on the perception of the powerful and less powerful person in the relationship and each one's acceptance of his or her role.
D) Once one person assumes the power in a relationship, it is extremely rare for the other person to move into the more powerful role.

Question 19

Do you think some relationship-maintaining behaviors are more important than others? If so, why? What behaviors are most prominent in your close relationships?

Question 20

What is a relational turning point that you or someone you know has encountered that may seem unusual? Why are relational turning points so subjective? Are there any that you think are universal?