Trajectories of Relationship Disengagement

Abstract

It was the purpose of this study to explore primarily through qualitative data the process by which personal relationships dissolve. In applying the method of analytic induction to ninety-seven heterosexual romantic relationship break-ups, a flow chart of the disengagement process was developed around six distinctive features of the break-up process. This flow chart was subsequently used to trace the dissolution process for each break-up account, producing eight basic trajectories of disengagement for this data set. The study supports the argument by Kressel et al. (1980) that researchers must abandon the simplistic search for a single set of stages or steps by which relationships change, recognizing instead the patterned differences among relationships.