Week 6

This week we learned about the four kinds of responses to the diminished quality in a romantic relationship and they were exit, voice, loyalty and neglect. I found these responses interesting and tried seeing which one I tended to go towards when a relationship was falling apart and I was able to remember using each at least once. Then I started thinking about the reason behind that and realized that in completely depended on how the actual relationship had started and how it functioned when it was doing "well". Every time we start a relationship we set a mood for how it will continue. I'm not saying that if it starts out crappy it won't do well, but it kind of gives you a heads up. With my fiance, we've known each other for three and half years. We started dating when I was 17 and we had our arguments but we were always able to voice what was going on and try to fix it. I later broke up with him and I was a little neglectful because I didn't want to deal with the breakup itself. When he came back from his mission we picked right back up with being extremely good at talking about things that bothered us, sharing our feelings, and trying our hardest to be better for one another. We set the tone in the beginning though, and we are actively working on keeping it afloat. I just found it interesting in my case anyways. I'm not sure if it would be that way for everyone but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you establish your way of communicating from the beginning and you can either help to make it grow stronger or let it fall apart.