Communication in Romantic Relationships

1123 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: communication friendship

Friendships and romantic relationships makes our lives go round. Without them our lives would be dull and lonely. Unlike family members, we are allowed to choose our friends and lovers. There are various levels of friendships and diverse forms of romantic relationships, and they can all lead to being close, intimate, and loving. Both friendships and romances considerably enrich the well-being of our physical and mental state. Friendships can lead to romantic relationships, and romantic relationships can lead to just being friends.

Unrequited romantic interest occurs when one person attempts to redefine a friendship as a romantic relationship, but the other partner rejects that attempt. It is a person’s desire for a more intimate, romantic relationship than the other partner. In most cases where unrequited romantic interest arises, awkwardness and embarrassment for both partners happen. The rejected partner feels discouraged, and the other partner feels the need to act differently. But in some cases, the friendship is preserved and both partners worked at maintaining the friendship which keeps the relationship open, honest, solid, and long-lasting.

Each of us communicates with one another expecting a result. With an unrequited romantic interest the result could be a negative one. Unrequited love is also pretty common, “…it is a typical pattern to pursue another who has little interest in you, or to be pursued without interest in returning the other’s interest.” (McCarthy, 2006, p. 249) For example, a best friend proposes that since they are such amazing friends, that they should try their relationship at a different, more intimate level. The other person says no, giving the reason that it will ruin their friendship. The best...

... middle of paper ...

...ls about them. During the movie and during the car ride back to his house, he used nonverbal immediacy. He sat closer to me, increased his touching, and leaned more towards me. He used these indirect strategies to get an idea of how I felt about him. Through these indirect strategies he also wanted to tell me how he felt and what he wanted from me. Since I gave him a positive vibe, he then proceeded to try and further our relationship.

Works Cited

McCarthy, D. M. (2006). Loves Me, Loves Me Not: The Ethics of Unrequited Love – Laura A. Smit. Reviews in Religion & Theology, 13(3), 428-429.

Flint, L. (1992). Adolescent parental affinity-seeking: Age- and gender-mediated strategy use. Adolescence, 27(106), 417. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2010). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Show More
Related

  • Perception, Kinesics, Initial Interaction and Self-Concept/Esteem in "Pretty Woman"

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    Beebe, Steven A., Susan J. Beebe, and Mark V. Redmond. "Understanding Self and Others." Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others. Boston: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson, 2009. 43. Print.

    Read More

  • The Goonies

    4567 Words  | 10 Pages

    Gamble T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (1998). Contacts: Communicating Interpersonally. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

    Read More

  • Effective Communication: Principles And Techniques Of Communication In Relationships

    1431 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the most important skills for couples to have in a relationship is the ability to communicate in an effective manner. Communication is necessary in order to disclose with a partner and build intimacy. It is also necessary in order to resolve conflict that occurs in the course of the relationship. David Knox and Caroline Schacht, authors of the textbook Choices in Relationships, identify fifteen strategies that are important to the development of effective communication in relationship. These communication principles can be modified and applied to many types of interpersonal relationships, but all fifteen are vital for communication in a healthy relationship with a romantic or life

    Read More

  • Essay On Emerging Adulthood

    1181 Words  | 3 Pages

    Extensive demographic and cultural shifts have taken place over the past few decades that have made late adolescence and early twenties into a new transitional developmental period known as emerging adulthood for young individuals across industrialized societies. Arnett (2000) argues that emerging adulthood is a “distinct period of the life course” that is “characterized by change and exploration of possible life directions” (469). Additionally, a critical area of identity exploration during emerging adulthood is love and romantic relationships. Arnett contends that “demographic changes in the timing of marriage and parenthood in recent decades has led to prolonged periods of adolescence and delayed adulthood transitions” (470). By postponing

    Read More

  • Criseyde: Negligence, Manipulation and the Lack of Willpower

    433 Words  | 1 Pages

    We all know what it is like to be pressured into a relationship. Okay, maybe we don not ALL know what it is like, but most of the general dating population has had this experience. It works in this way: your friend Susan comes to you and tells you that your other friend Jim likes you, you never really thought about Jim in this way—but begin to think that there could be a little chemistry there. Susan loves playing matchmaker. She is persistent and will not stop until she gets what she wants. In the end, you wind up going on a few dates with Jim, but the relationship never really blossoms. This scenario sounds a little like the story about the forced relationship of Troilus and Criseyde, by Pandarus, in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. The only difference between my real life scenario and the relationship of Troilus and Criseyde is that when Criseyde finally falls for Troilus, which alleviates his ‘lovesickness’, she leaves him for another man. And, although Susan was persistent, she never stood in the bedroom when you and Jim ‘turned off the lights.’

    Read More

  • Being Rejected Book Review

    338 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Author of this book share her personal experiences of being rejected. She talks about the roots of feeling rejected and the ability to poison relationships from the inside out. She talks about insecurities, loneliness, and how we are handpicked by God.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Communication in Marriage

    2216 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by true love, or, quite simply, the couples mistakenly have different relational expectations.

    Read More

  • Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...s based on the intimacy, so whether you are just a convenience friend if the relationship base on good deed, the convenience friend could still become a close friend. That’s why the most important in friendship is a good intimacy. Nobody could live a life without friend, so we need to open our heart to let other have a chance to be friend with us. With friend, our lives will be better, our days will full with joy, and our unhappiness will fade away. Friend will take care when we in need as we will support them in everything with the best we have. Life with friend will always give us wonderful memories that we will never forget for the rest of our days.

    Read More

  • Conflict Management Style

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    Steve A. Beebe, S. J. (2008). Interpersonal Communication. In A. a. Pearson, Interpersonal Communication, Relating To Others- Fifth Edition. Toronto, Ontario: Pearson Education, Inc.

    Read More

  • Platonic Love Essay

    603 Words  | 2 Pages

    Their intention are not to have gain a relationship or have sexual contact of any kind. They just want to have a friendship. The term platonic came from the well-known philosopher Plato. He was the first person to define the word love. He said that a platonic love is a love with an individual and the “love that is celibate and nonsexual.” In this article, Ward enlightens the readers that men will always desire more. He stated that it is impossible to have a friendship without one of the persons involved catching feelings for the other. Ward discusses how it is mostly always the men who want to seek something more than a friendship. He says that more often than not women will not ask for more in the friendship even though they want more from the man. Ward also believe that men and women can be friends until one of the partners starts desiring more and then the friendship will have to end. Ward decided to investigate this topic even further. They conducted a study with students and their opposite sex friends. Most of the men admitted that they wanted more than just a causal friendship with their woman friend. The article also announced that while women feel like men and women can befriend one another, men feel the complete

    Read More

  • Relationships And The Importance Of Communication

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    Communication is important in relationships as it allows us to share our interest, concerns, support each other; organize our lives and make decisions; and it allows us to work together. Effective communication is based on the way we talk and listen, how we respond and our body language. We can all learn how to improve the way we communicate.

    Read More

  • Can Men And Women Just Be Friends Essay

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Other results suggested that friendships can interfere with men’s and a woman’s mating strategies. Both men and women reported that competition to attract members of the opposite sex was a costly aspect of same-sex friendship.” (Bleske 16) The conclusion of the article also suggested that those friendships cause jealously, status confusion, and not being loved in return like they want to from their friend. Same sex friendships have any benefits, but also have a plethora of loss. There are certain questions that should be asked when determined the validity of same sex friendships and if the study is ever conducted again it should be in the environment where there are a different variety of subjects. Men and women can very well be friends, but at what cost and it based on the sex of the person you ask. Looking at the previous article from Fiske I have gathered some major important points among some similarties and some

    Read More

  • Love Vs. Friendship

    721 Words  | 2 Pages

    I hope that this essay has properly portrayed my opinion on Romantic Love Vs. Friendship, I hope that now there is less gray area between the two. Friendship and love, those two things go hand and hand, I don't believe that you can have love without there being friendship. Along with that though, you can't have friendship without there being love, even if it isn't romantic love.

    Read More

  • Egocentrism

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    Floyd, Kory. Interpersonal Communication: The Whole Story. 1st ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 140. Print.

    Read More

  • Being in Relationship Vs. Being single during college

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being in a relationship, we build particular kind of feelings, which are based on trust, friendship and true love. However, a relationship can give us many feelings which we can’t get from friends or family. A good offers you all the wonderful things of friendship, but with a special closeness and intimacy. A good relationship will teach you to work as a team, and hopefully both people being to...

    Read More

More about Communication in Romantic Relationships

Open Document