Blog Ten: The Relationship Filtering Model

I find Duck’s Relationship Filtering Model very interesting as it ties into everything that we have learned about communication as transaction.  It relates to our tendencies to form relationships based on our ability to understand people, similar to the idea that people like people who share their general system, or codes, for understanding meaning.  Basically, the better we can relate to or understand how others think, the better we are able to communicate and create deeper meaning.  Duck’s model suggests that the goal in determining the formation of relationships is to figure out the other person’s way of thinking, or thought structure. As the filters become more based on a greater knowledge of another’s internal structure, those who pass become the people who we choose to form a relationship with.  Because we need others to confirm our worth and value, and to support our identity and actions, the filtering usually applies to those “who do not appear to support your ways of seeing the world or confirming self.”  (Duck, 19)  This idea of needing approval and reinforcement of identity connects to why people form identities in the first place.  It makes me wonder if we use relationships to validate ourselves, and form relationships only with those that will agree with our ways of understanding and applying meaning to the world.  After all, psychological similarity is they key and last filter in the model that someone must pass through in order to become a friend or lover.  The chapter does not mention successful relationships formed between people that have no psychological similarities.  It would be interesting to look into other models and to see if different factors are used to see if and how relationships are formed, without the basis of similar mindsets.