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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.
Leslie A. Baxter (Thu,) studied this question.