Attractiveness bias | the tendency to think better of attractive people than unattractive people and to make positive attributions about their behavior.
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Breadth | the number of contexts in which communicators interact in a relationship.
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Depth | the amount of time communicators interact and the personal level of information they exchange in a relationship.
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Integrating topics | areas of common interest that members of a relationship enjoy discussing.
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Interpersonal communication | occurs when individuals treat each other as unique and interact in an individual or customized way.
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Interpersonal similarity | occurs when we share common attitudes, values, habits, and communication styles with other members of a relationship.
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Intimate interpersonal relationships | characterized by high levels of trust, warmth, and affection; nonintimate relationships are more impersonal, distant, and formal.
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Metacommunication | communication about communication; discussing the relationship dimension of messages is one type of metacommunication.
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Disfranchised | alienated or excluded.
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Estranged | no longer close or affectionate; unfriendly or hostile.
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Fluctuates | changes, varies, alternatives, swings back and forth, ebbs and flows.
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Idiosyncratic | personal, unique, individual, all your own.
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Physical attraction | occurs when we are attracted to someone's appearance through such attributes as facial features, height, body type, and hair color.
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Reciprocity | taking turns, responding in kind.
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Ruminating | mull over, ponder, and think about over and over.
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Self-disclosure | the intentional revelation of personal aspects of your self, including thoughts, preferences, feelings, and experiences, to another person within the context of an interpersonal relationship.
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Social penetration theory | we disclose increasingly personal information about ourselves as the relationship develops, and we reserve discussion about our most private thoughts for our most intimate relationships.
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Social proximity | refers to "social closeness"; and we are often attracted to people who live near us, belong to the same groups or organizations, or attend the same school.
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Stages of relationship development | patterns or life cycles that relationships pass through as they develop or deteriorate. Relationships have a beginning (or birth), middle (coming of age), and an end (death).
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Turning points | particular events, feelings, or interactions that change the direction or intensity of a relationship.
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