Essay On Social Penetration Theory

“Men and women can't be friends, because sex always gets in the way”, is the main theme of the movie “When Harry met Sally”. The script is a good example of the interpersonal communication ten stage model by Mark Knapp. This developmental model entails the stages of a relationship from it’s infancy to an ending. In the movie we can clearly identify all ten stages of this model.

The first stage of the Social Penetration Process is the orientation stage which occurs at a public level, revealing small parts about ourselves. Rose and Jack enter this stage when Jack sees Rose standing at the edge of the boat. He approached her for the first time and talked her out of committing suicide. The only interaction they have at this stage is an introduction. The next day, Rose finds Jack and thanks him for helping her. While talking they seem to disclose more and more information about each other. They now enter the exploratory stage. They now expand to public areas about themselves about their hobbies and personal situations. Jack and Rose were quite comfortable with each other and entered the third stage of the process; the affective exchange stage. Social penetration in this stage is spontaneous and comfortable. They begin to show reciprocity, which is when one person’s openness leads to the others openness. Jack does this by asking if she loves her fiancé, a very personal question. It seems as if the more they disclose about each other, the more they like each other, and the more they seem to have in common. This leads Jack and Rose into the stable exchange stage which pertains to complete openness and spontaneous. At this point in the movie it is evident that both Jack and Rose have feelings for each other.

Despite the numerous different theories consisting of different stages of friendship they all contain certain aspects of relationships going through stages of increasing familiarity. They all show how we select friends through a stage model and how relationships also break down in stages. They provide Factors that increase friendship like after helping another person we like them more due to feelings and emotions such as empathy, or a decline in a relationship by the need for too much help and support that can cause stress and anxieties. If we feel empathy we are likely to help, and there are several factors that increase chances of friendship,

Based on the Social penetration model, the breadth only goes so far between the two, during the session. They both can't seem to disclose any of their actual feeling, and make it seem like it's hard to do so. The depth doesn't go far either, especially from Amy when she does not disclose everything to her husband. The benefit disclosure between the two, is the catharsis, because they both got things out in the open. The risk, is the loss of influence, which apply's mostly to Amy. Amy and Jake, both seem to not

Social Penetration theory attempts to explain the differences in communication in relation to the depth of interpersonal relationships. “Irwin Altman and Dallas Taylor, the theory states that relationships begin and deepen through self-disclosure. In the beginning, people establish

In emerging adulthood, many people experience the need to share their personal life with someone else. Erikson name for this crisis is intimacy versus isolation and emerging adults and many older adults know this feeling very well (Berger, 2014, p. 551). As emerging adults begin feeling the need for human connection, friendships and intimate relationships deepen for this reason (Berger, 2014, p. 551). As a senior in high school my friends became an extremely important part of my life, we told each other everything and the need for human connection was evident as I always wanted to be with my friends and share my personal life with them. I had, and currently have, the same 2 friends that I would confide in about boy problems, health

Mark Knapp’s model of relational development is made up of the ten stages involved in the “coming together” and “coming apart” of relationships. The first stage, initiating, is all about making a good first impression so that others will think of you as someone worth speaking with/to (“Knapp’s Relationship Model,” 2010). I first met Ms. Jenny at a leadership meeting. My very first impression of her when I walked in the room was negative because she barely acknowledged me, and acted as if she did not really care about me, even though I was the leader of her band. I did my best to keep an open mind as she began to introduce herself to the group and explained her vision for the band. My impression of her then improved because she sounded very positive and had very ambitious goals for our band. I left the meeting with conflicting impressions because I appreciated her enthusiasm, but I also felt that she did not have a very realistic mindset. In this particular situation I did not have much of a choice in whether or not I wanted to have a relationship with her, so I acted positive and encouraged my fellow leaders to do the same. In the second step of Knapp’s model, experimenting, people generally use small talk to determine if they want to pursue the relationship further with a person (Adler and Proctor, 2010, p. 277). This step was all but nonexistent because my relationship with Ms. Jenny did not really have any small talk, and we had to have a relationship together because of my position and her job. The third step of Knapp’s model is intensifying, in/during which partners begin to spend more time together, their feelings are more openly expressed, and a deeper relationship begins to develop (Adler and Proctor, 2010, p. 277). This particular step lasted about a week in my relationship with Ms. Jenny. During this time she trained me to be the type of leader that she wanted, and pressured me to lead the band more. We also had weekend meetings for conducting lessons, and she gave me a lot of constructive criticism. In Knapp’s fourth step, integrating, the partners of a relationship become a social unit (Adler and Proctor, 2010, p. 278). Ms. Jenny and I became a social unit when she put more pressure on me to lead

Just as self concept seemed a vicious circle, where this affects that and that effects this; relational development is the same. Relational development can alter our lives and our communication, while communication issues can alter our relational development and our lives. The relational perspective is a pragmatic one and focuses on the continuance of communication processes through relationships. (Rogers, 2004.) Relationships go through a series of stages. The initial and first encounter to a relationship is called the initiating stage. While in this stage, two people attempt to create favorably impressionable first impressions. In this stage you will look for cues about the other person’s personality, attitude, beliefs, and values so that you can progress the relationship. If the relationship continues and impressions are favorable than the two people move to the second stage, also known as the experimenting stage. In this stage people reveal themselves further but not completely since the stage is still a precarious one. If a common ground and understanding of each other is obtained then the relationship moves to the next stage, the intensifying stage. In this stage shared experiences becomes common and self disclosure is open. The next stage is the integrating stage, this is where the individuals usually become a couple. They have shared interests and attitudes, and sometimes talk or act alike. The other individual becomes like your other half. If things go awry than relationships often shift to the circumscribing stage. This is when couples start to self disclose less and less to the other person. Then comes the stagnating stage. At this point there is no communication and no activity between the two people. Sometimes there is an

Mark Knapp developed a theoretical model to which identifies the stages of interpersonal relationships which explains how relationships begin and grow, as well as how they deteriorate and end. This model defines ten separate stages of relational development under three different interrelating categories; Coming Together, Relational Maintenance, and Coming Apart. An analysis of a personal relationship through the use of Knapp’s stages of relational development leads to a better understanding of that relationship and our role within it. In this essay I will be analyzing a personal relationship of my own using Knapp’s stages as a guide. However, these stages are subjective to each individual’s unique situation. Therefore, I will only be examining my relationship in the “coming together” stages. Furthermore, it is possible to pass over or amalgamate stages, as these stages are closer to a guide rather than set rules. For this analysis I will be breaking the “coming together” stages into initiating, experimentation and intensifying, integration, and bonding.

In other words Social Penetration Theory is a process in which a person reveals themselves to another person. The theory is that people reveal themselves in layers of bits of information. Disclosing things such as; layer one- age, job, hometown; layer two- musical interest, hobbies, religion; layer three- fears, values, self-esteem. The speed at which people do this depends on a variety of factors including your attachment style (pg. 61). The attachment test tells me I'm dismissive, I agree. I am often told I have no emotions. It doesn't bother me to hear that because it is somewhat true. I am not the type to be very forward or lay all my cards on the table. People have to pull off a lot of layers to get to know the real me. I put up a guard because I was hurt once. In the time it took to get over it I believe I lost all feelings towards emotional relationships. I do have feelings I'm just not willing to open up to people and let them see. I hardly ever cry (ever) and if I do

Our relationships with others are similar; they can be seen as existing on various levels- concentric circles radiation out from each of us. The people in the inner circle are our close friends. They are the people to whom we become attached by feelings of deep personal regard; they are the people we refer to as “pals, buddies, chums, sidekicks, sisters, and brothers,” and other such words. As we more outward to other circles, we find our casual friends. These are people who share

Within psychological research, friendships are defined as “unique, interpersonal, dyadic relationships characterised by affectionate attachment” (Amichai-Hamburger, Kingsburg & Schneider, 2013). We demonstrate meaningful close friendship qualities from staying connected with others through a sense of belonging (Baemeister & Keary, 1995; Buunk, Groothof & Siero, 2007).

Using the Social Penetration Theory, Afifi, Afifi, Merrill, Denes and Davis suggest that not getting support from friends while being open and discussing their problems can increase anxiety and can potentially harm the relationship. They want to conduct an experiment to prove that getting support from peers can help to eliminate brooding and enhance the relationship.

For a young child, telling a secret to the person he or she likes is a big deal. But the secrets that are told are minor, probably about a favorite item or candy. Not knowing at the time but social penetration theory is going on. Information about oneself is communicated to friends, loved ones, and acquaintances on a daily basis, sometimes without knowing we are revealing personal information. As we get older we knowingly reveal information to a person that we have a connection with. Social Penetration Theory is, “The process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability” (Griffin, Ledbetter, Sparks, 2015). The closer we are to an individual the more information we reveal, the greater the bond becomes. This theory is important to understand because it sets the framework for how we reveal ourselves to others and helps set up other communication theories. In the next sections we will take a closer look into the theoretical overview on social penetration theory and also, discuss the synthesis of scholarship.

The first stage in the model, Sampling, is exploring the costs and rewards of various interactions through a number of different friendships and relationships and observing various people in their relationships in order to discern what works and what doesn’t. Psychologists interpret the social behaviour of adolescents and young people as they flit from one relationship/friendship to another as this sampling stage in action.