Social Penetration Theory : Arizona Sate University

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

The complex nature of crime in contemporary Australian society is often attributed to various social explanations of crime, wherein there is an interaction between the individual and the surrounding environment. Strain Theory is a sociological and criminological idea advanced by Robert Merton, articulating the social strain inflicted on people to conform to idealistic expectations. In this way, crime can be empirically explained through the key tenets of Strain Theory. The objective of this essay is to evaluate why the societal pressure placed on individuals leads to criminal behaviours through ideas of lack of resources, unstable relationships and minority groups.

The Social Penetration Theory proposes the idea that as our relationships develop, communication goes from being very basic and superficial, to being more intimate and fulfilling. There are five stages in the theory, the first being the Orientation stage, which usually means small talk, and sticking to conversational norms. The Exploratory stage is when two friends reveal their opinions on things such as politics, music, and education, but most relationships do not exceed this stage. The Affective stage is when two people get to know more about each other’s personal experiences. Things like inside jokes, and intimate conversations are what encompass the Affective stage. The Stable stage in a relationship is when individuals share their deepest thoughts, morals, ideas, and experiences. Stable relationships are very open, honest, and aim to benefit each person. The last stage, which is optional, is the De-penetration stage, which is when the relationships’ drawbacks exceed the benefits, which results in the end of the relationship.

A third variable that can affect intimacy and self-disclosure is one’s personality. If some one is an extrovert they will likely share more willingly than say a reserved introverted personality type. Of the correlations the mostly is that the more that self-disclosure is implemented the more likely a greater level of intimacy will develop because the more that one shares about themselves a level of trust forms leading to greater levels of familiarity and

Social Penetration Theory focuses on developing deeper intimacy with another through mutual self-disclosure and vulnerability (Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks, 2015). Throughout the television series, recurring characters are introduced into the lives of all characters. As relationships develops deeper, people become more trusting by gradually revealing themselves to one another over time (Baack, Fogliasso, and Harris, 2000).

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

Social Influence Research - Do the Ends Justify the Means? To what extent does the importance of social influence research, justify the methods used in its investigation? The debate about ethics in psychology focuses on two areas: protection of participants and benefiting society. This is a double obligation dilemma as if some psychologists are not allowed to do certain experiments because of ethical restraints; this can cause problems with validity.

We engage in self-disclosure when we choose to tell others more about ourselves. The information we share can range from superficial, like saying you play a sport, to in-depth, like discussing how that sport has affected your life and decisions. Self-disclosure presents an opportunity for partners to establish and build upon their relationships with each other, depending on various elements of the disclosure, such as time, place, the individuals involved and their responses, and, of course, the information that is shared. This process leads us to the Social Penetration Theory, which, at its core, centers around self-disclosure and its influence on relationships

Each layer delves deeper into the more vulnerable and integral values that construct self-image. Depth of penetration is the degree of self-disclosure in a certain aspect of a person’s life. Breadth of disclosure addresses the range of topics, beliefs, and attitudes a person has and deals mostly with the superficial or casual questions and responses. Going too deep, too fast with a person can endanger a relationship as much as covering a large variety of topics, yet lacking increasing intimacy (Houser, 2014).

It can be defined as the information that individuals voluntarily and intentionally reveal about themselves to others, including their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Everyone withholds many types of information that can be disclosed, determining when, where, how and most importantly to whom we disclose this information to is the difficult part. Each factor is a potential risk to the relationship, so it is necessary to think thoroughly before disclosing certain information. There are always several factors that can affect the amount that is disclosed in a relationship: race, religion, gender, age, sex, personality. These factors wont normally disrupt the development of a friendship and Altman and Taylor made observations on what it takes to get to that point.

Self-disclosure allows you to reduce uncertainty about each other and to predict how costly or how rewarding future interactions with another person will be. Once you mutually determine that you want to establish some type of relationship, disclosure continues over time to more personal topics (Svennevig, 2000).

A theory is an explanation for a problem or an observation. These explanations can vary based on which perspective is being used, such as a moral or sociological. Despite having different theories for the same problem, they all try to “...explicitly or implicitly suggest how to address [a] problem, which could then lead to appropriate action” (p.52).

In this article it talk about how Social Penetration theory affects our lives such as how our friendships grow and become stronger.Altman and Taylor explains how interpersonal communication is a big impact on social penetration because people need to communicate more so their relationship can grow. The first stage is the orientation stage which means when you meet a new person then the Exploratory stage is when you and the same person start revealing more about each other. The third stage is the Affective stage and in this stage the two people start showing more about themselves and it could possible become into a relationship. The last two stages are the Stable stage and the Depenetration stage which basically means the Stable stage each person

In the open area lies a level of transparency for what is visible to one’s self and others. The blind area contains the unsighted traits visible to others, but this area is reduced through active feedback solicitation. The hidden area remains veiled when there is a conscious disclosure of public information, which elicits lesser intimate responses than that of private information. The unknown area contains repressed feelings that once arose from traumatic experiences, which remains private.

I. Summarize the Theory Communication Privacy Management Theory, created by Sandra Petronio, is an interpretive theory that explains how revealing private information might strengthen your relationships with the important people in your life, or even help to start new relationships that could become beneficial for your life. According to Kory Floyd, “In most cases, however, our decisions about sharing information are influenced by the people to whom we are disclosing it, by how much we trust them, and by how much they have disclosed to us” (Floyd 328). Sharing confidential information tends to help reduce your privacy and can help to manage relationships.