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11th Edition

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Chapter 11—Relational Dialectics Theory

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Title:
Friends, S1, E9, "The One Where Underdog Gets Away"
Claim:
The interplay of different discourses can occasionally create an aesthetic moment.
Application:
Ross and the new same-sex partner of his ex-wife express a competitive disdain for each other, but share mutual joy when Ross's singing to his unborn child occasions the baby's first kicks in Carol's womb.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abfyqaQY1fM
Cue Point:
13:50-15-32; 16:25-17:35
Discovered  By:
Em

Title:
Friends, S6, E1, "The One After Vegas"
Claim:
The interplay of competing discourses (such as integration-separation, stability-change, openness-closedness) can take place at the same time.
Application:
At night in the Las Vegas Wedding Chapel and the next morning at the hotel, the six friends recall and/or express diverse streams of talk concerning love, marriage, and divorce. Do they handle these competing discourses through segmentation or spiraling inversion?
Cue Point:
0:01-1:15. 5:30-11:20
Discovered  By:
Em

Title:
Friends, S10, E5, "The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits"
Claim:
Transforming is a way of combining two or more conflicting discourses and changing them into something new, sometimes an aesthetic moment.
Application:
Mike’s and Phoebe’s marriage proposals were interpreted differently because of the time and place. What were the conflicting discourses? Amid humor and tenderness, the dialogue of proposal and response later in the restaurant reflected no discord, perhaps because it occurred at a different time and place.
Cue Point:
8:00-9:25, 13:15-15:10, 21:50-23:05, 25:30-27:50
Discovered  By:
Em

Title:
"Advice for Parents from College Students", KnowsyTV by KnowsyMoms
Claim:
Integration/separation, certainty/uncertainty, and expression/nonexpression are three common dialectics that shape interpersonal relationships.
Application:
What's fascinating about this video, aimed at parents sending their children to college, is that the three central discursive struggles emerge as the students talk about their parent-child relationships. During this time of transition, perhaps it is normal to hear discurive tensions such as integration/separation, certainty/uncertainty, and expression/nonexpression.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtQT7E4Iw9w&t=4s
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
Parks and Recreation, S7, E2, "Ron and Jammy"
Claim:
An aesthetic moment is a fleeting sense of unity through a profound respect for disparate voices in dialogue.
Application:
When Season 7 of the show jumps forward in time two years, it reveals that longtime close friends Leslie and Ron are now enemies. In this clip, we discover what happened. As relational dialectics theory claims, relationships are always changing and in flux, and in that change, Ron voices a desire for integration with Leslie and his friends. However, Leslie is absorbed with her new job and emphasizes separation. As they discuss the resulting hurt and the dialectics are no longer in tension, they seem to experience an aesthetic moment.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzYF03_w3WE
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Making Meaning of Parenting From the Perspective of Alienated Parents", IARR Social Media
Claim:
Example of a research study that uses relational dialectics theory.
Application:
This video presents research by Kristina Scharp (who provides the voiceover) and her colleauges on discourses in divorced families, where one parent is alienated because the other parent encourages the child to pull away.
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY4hc0cBOHk
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
Hannah Montana, S4, E5, "It's the End of the Jake as We Know It"
Claim:
Discourses are streams of talk that cohere around a given object of meaning.
Application:
Andrew uses this clip to talk with his students about relationship discourses--and there are several in this clip. Which can you spot? Here's one to get you started: In the first few seconds, Mr. Stewart and Oliver clearly don't understand each other. Parents don't understand teenagers is a discourse that's been voiced many times before. It isn't original with the show's scriptwriters. What other discourses are voiced in this clip?
Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNQILpNx4Pg&t=2s
Discovered  By:
Andrew

Title:
"Our Song", Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift
Claim:
Discourses are streams of talk that cohere around a given object of meaning.
Application:
Here, Taylor expresses frustration to her boyfriend that they don’t have a song for their relationship. RDT scholars might say that she wants to find an already-spoken cultural discourse that shapes their bond. In the end, Taylor creates her own; but, according to RDT, is it really a new discourse, or just echoing relational discourses in country music that have come before?
Link:
https://open.spotify.com/track/15DeqWWQB4dcEWzJg15VrN?si=dbd2cac137494f6b
Discovered  By:
Andrew

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