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TURNING POINT MODEL

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Turning Point Model Antion Drummond Jr. CMM 1000

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The Turning Point Model (TPM) is a 14-point model made by Baxter and Bullis to explain the things that influence how a relationship goes. This model is a nonlinear bidirectional model. Turning point model is “model of relationship development in which couples move both toward and away from commitment over the course of their relationship.” (Alberts, Nakayama, Martin, 2016, p. 197). Baxter and Bullis’s model can be applied to any situation, although it is mostly used to analyze relationships involving two parties. The Turning point model can be used to determine how your relationship will go, it can go good, bad, breakup, or we can see it go from good, bad, reconstruction, back to a good relationship. The turning point model can be applied to almost any relationship to see where things took a turn for the worst or even came back all together in the end. The turning point model can be related to family, work, and romantic relationships. Turning point model is used in studies to show how relationships fall or rise depending on the actions that take place in relationships such as: romantic relationships, step parents and children, and workplace relationships. The turning point model is applied to these situations to see if the outcome of the relationship can become positive or negative, or even to see if things are possible to change in the future with the circumstances they are given to determine if things can change. Parent-child relationships can be heavily related to the Turning points method. With the relationship kids and their parents or step parents have we can start to see large shifts in moods and how life progresses with them. With step-parents and their step-children it’s not always the most welcoming relationship. The research question asked is “How do adult stepchildren who have a positive relationship with a stepparent characterize turning points in the development of that relationship?” (Braithwaite,Waldron, Allen, Oliver, et al., 2018, 96). With this question,

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researchers put out an ad for 25 years or older step-children who had previously had been around their step-parent at an early age so they were able to recall things that affected their relationships and formed them in the way that they are now and had to be also “(“overall positive”) at the time of the interview.”(Braithwaite,Waldron, Allen, Oliver, et al., 2018,96). With the data collected certain turning points stood out 15 to be exact. Things like prosocial actions, quality time, conflict/disagreement, and adult relation change were big turning points in these relationships like the prosocial actions “ prosocial actions were out-of-the ordinary efforts by a stepparent, such as gift giving, substantial friendly gestures, or acts of kindness, and represented 18.2% of all turning points.”(Braithwaite,Waldron, Allen, Oliver, et al., 2018,97) We can start to see a family can be brought together with these turning points even with the introduction to stepparents and their relationships with the step-child can be strongly influenced by turning points to create a real father son, father daughter, mother daughter, mother son relationships. When it comes to romantic relationships we start to see turning points more often due to how we perceive romance and how relationships work. In on and off relationships we can start to see that major turning points are the breaking up and the renewal process of it all. These are major turning points in relationships because to break up and get back together are two major events in themselves even with getting back together. In a study Negotiating Breakups and Renewals “conceptualizing relational transitions as turning points provides a useful framework for understanding how on-off partners negotiate changes in relational status.”(Dailey, McCracken, Jin, et al., 2013, 384). A study was conducted with 65 participants which included college students, and members of the community. The study questioned the participants communication with their partners “participants were asked to recall conversations related to each breakup, each period between the breakup and the renewal, and each renewal.”(Dailey,

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McCracken, Jin, et al., 2013, 385). This determines how the turning points came to be and what the relationships were like because of it. Turning points such as participants feeling mismatched had an impact on their relationships, “This included partners having different desires, being enthusiastic about or committed to the relationship at different times, or being at different life stages.”(Dailey, McCracken, Jin, et al., 2013, 388). Some capitalized on transitions which were explained by Dailey to be when the couple would break up and or renew their relationship it would prompt a change. Dailey explains this by saying “Partners sometimes strategically used transitions (often breakups) as a means of managing problems or to get the other partner to change.”(2013, 389). In another attempt to find the turning points in relationships an investigation was explored between the communication of couples to the uncertainty they had for each other. This investigation was also conducted with on and off again couples to see the challenges placed on them. With uncertainty there can become lots of questions and things you are hesitant to do because of you not knowing what will happen after a certain question is asked or a certain task is done. One important question asked was “Does type of turning point (breakup, renewal, other) moderate the association between change in relational uncertainty and change in (a) directness and (b) communication satisfaction?”(Dailey, LeFebvre, Crook, Brody, 2016, 243). To answer this question Dailey suggests that “Rather than assessing changes week to week, we explored how overall patterns across TPs are associated with current perceptions of the relationship, namely the linear trend and fluctuation of relational uncertainty.”(Dailey, LeFebvre, Crook, Brody, 2016, 243). This entails that the turning points happen while the relationship is still going and is not based on an annually processed analysis. Turning points are usually linear and are formed mostly during the current relationship even following the breakups and renewals we still

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see that the turning points started to happen in the early, middle stages of the relationship and just are not random occurrences. In both articles by Dailey and the article by Braithwaite we can see the differences in the way that the Turning Point Model can be applied. In the article by Braithwaite we are introduced to the good in turning points with children and their step-parents and the points that led them to have the healthy relationships that they have with one another. In Dailey’s first article we are introduced to the on again off again relationships that have turning points being the break up and the renewal each time with little things in between like controlling, directness, struggle, etc. In Dailey’s second article we are introduced to relational uncertainty which can be related with turning points in the relationship. With relational uncertainty it is shown that turning points can occur because one person or both people in the relationship have uncertainties and are afraid to speak about them causing the on again off again cycle with turning points involved. The styles used for all the experiments were loosely the same. In each article there was an interviewer and a multitude of participants discussing their turning points with each relationship they were in and encountered. We can see that relationships start to mirror each other in a way that certain turning points make or break each relationship that the people described. Turning points are starting to show a linear effect on relationships people have whether they are breaking up, getting back together, or forming relationships with their kids. In conclusion, the Turning Point Model is a 14-point, nonlinear, bidirectional model that shows the different directions that relationships take in a timely manner - whether that be daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

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References Alberts, J.K., Nakayama, T.K., Martin, J.N. (2016). Communicating identities. Human Communication in Society, 4, 193-194. Braithwaite, D. O., Waldron, V. R., Allen, J., Oliver, B., Bergquist, G., Storck, K., … TschamplDiesing, C. (2018). “Feeling Warmth and Close to Her”: Communication and Resilience Reflected in Turning Points in Positive Adult Stepchild-Stepparent Relationships. Journal of Family Communication, 18(2), 92–109. Dailey, R.M., LeFebvre, L., Cook, B., Brody, N. (2016). Relational Uncertainty and Communication in on-again/off-again romantic relationships: assessing changes and patterns across recalled turning points. Western Journal of Communication, 80 (3), 239263. Dailey, R.M., McCracken, A.A., Jin, B., Rossetto, K.R., Green, E.W. (2013). Negotiating Breakups and Renewals: types of on-again/off-again dating relationships. Western Journal of Communication, 77(4), 382-410....