Relationships of all kind romantic, and plutonic, enter the stages of relationship development from the point that they start and until they end, if they do end. In the film “Friends with Benefits”, main characters Dylan and Jamie are in the terminating stage in their relationships with their significant others. Once the film continues to progress, Jamie and Dylan enter the stair case model and explore the main pieces: Coming Together, Relational Maintenance, and Coming Apart, with each other as “Friends with Benefits” and individually with their family members. The relationship Dylan and Jamie have put together in the beginning of the film, exemplifies the Coming Together phase of the stair case model (Adler, Rosenfeld, and Proctor, 2015, …show more content…
Both Jamie and Dylan at this point are now in the bonding stage (Adler, Rosenfeld, and Proctor, 2015, Pg. 281), where both parties are comfortable with each other, they understand each other’s preferences and goals, have both come to the conclusion that the benefits outweigh the costs, managing the relationship (Adler, Rosenfeld, and Proctor, 2015, Pg.. For instance, in both Dylan and Jamie’s case they both agree to become “Friends with Benefits” (Adler, Rosenfeld, and Proctor, 2015, Pg. 311), with the rule of not making an official relationship with each other. Although they are officially in the bonding stage of the relationship, they do switch back and forth to integrating from time to time. An example of that would be after they had sex, they are not necessarily partners in a romantic relationship, but it isn’t completely plutonic either, the “just sex” pact they created keeps their relationship from fully progressing. The moment things change from “just sex” for Jamie is the moment she meets Dylan’s family. Now she is strictly bonding, but, Dylan is not with her emotionally, showing some but not much of emotional intelligence causing, Jamie and Dylan to enter the differentiating stage. The differentiating stage (Adler, Rosenfeld, and Proctor, 2015, Pg. 281) is where the partners as individuals try to