Social Penetration Theory By Irwin Altman And Dalmas

The Social Penetration Theory is an explanation by two communication theorists, Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor. This theory attempts to explain how relational closeness develops. Since we all have hundreds of different relationships, with thousands of different people during our lifetime, it is an important theory to study and understand.

Most people are uptight about the likes and comments they receive on social media websites, Carr formally proclaims. All of the popular websites use this method to receive more people active on them. Doing this urges people to share personal details about their life. “...people share four times as much information about themselves when they converse through computers as when they talk in person” (Carr 3). It is not necessary for people to share an extreme amount of details about their lives, but they still do.

“In our generation, internet users are connecting with family, friends and meet people using social media app/websites.

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.

The founders of the theory were Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor. Altman is a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Utah whereby Taylor is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, Arlington.

The rapid growth of technology in our society has become more dominant than it was in the 17th and 18th century. Today, technology is used for almost everything in our day to day lives. But the most common usage of technology is for communication and industrialization. However, every good thing has its disadvantage if it is over used, and since technology has become very dominant, it is used by both young and older people but more predominant among the youth of the today. Even more, technology has brought about social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, my space, piazza.com, instagram, tango, and last but not the least texting. According to socialnetworking.procon.org, “47% of American adults used social networking sites like

The drastic enhancements of technology have lead this generation to what we know and what we are used to. Since the late 90’s social media has drastically changed and upgraded. In 1997 the first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees was created. It was for users to upload personal photos and communicate with strangers and friends via social media. As we entered the early 2000’s more sites began to appear. Some which are very popular and still used to this day such as Facebook and Twitter. There is a vast variety of social media sites but they all create and allow an environment for individuals to blog and communicate with friends or

"Decisions about self-disclosure - whether to reveal one's thoughts, feelings, or past experiences to another person, or the level of intimacy of such disclosure - are part of the everyday life of most persons" (Derlega and Berg, 1987, p. ix). The decisions one makes on the issue of whether or not to self-disclose with others affects not only the types of relationships one will have with others and how they are perceived, but also how well they know themselves. Clearly, self-disclosure plays a major role in the development of close relationships. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, the theorists behind Social Penetration theory, recognized this fact and designed their theory to illustrate and explain this process of

There is no doubt that technology today, and the use of the internet is an outstanding resource, when it is used appropriately. Today’s society consists of many young bloggers, video- bloggers, and a ton of social media (networking) users. One of the biggest social media sites used for interaction among peers, and families, is Facebook. Facebook became popular instantly as a social media site in which you can share your thoughts, opinions, photos, and videos with friends, and family. To register for Facebook the required age is 13 years old, and one can register by entering a birthdate; with no questions asked, a click of a button, and an agreement to

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

Technology as a whole has changed the way we live our everyday lives in numerous ways. We now have the opportunity to do many things with a touch of a button, to name a few, starting our cars, tying our shoes, or accessing the world of social media. The single piece of technology that has impacted most of us today is the cellular phone, which leads us to the wonders of the Internet. In today’s society there is a plethora of troubles we face, what comforts most of us and makes our lives a little easier is the world of social media. Social media sites like Facebook, Snapchat, Tinder, Twitter, and countless other websites can help us feel connected with the world and/or our surroundings. To most people social media might

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.

Selected Theory: Social Penetration Theory was created by Irwin Altman, the professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Utah, and Dalmas Taylor, who was provost and professor of psychology at Lincoln University before he passed away. This theory is used to describe the way people grow closer in a “gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both immediate and forecasted outcomes” (Altman & Taylor, 1973, pg. 96), which the authors of the theory used to connect people to onions. They did this not to assert that people cause tears or emit offensive odors, but rather to establish a visible metaphor for the layers of intimacy that are peeled back as the people involved in the relationship get to know each other. The main route to this layer-peeling is, according to the theory, self-disclosure which involves the voluntary sharing of personal information such as personal history and values. Before the two people involved in the act of social penetration disclose anything beyond the first superficial layer of themselves they begin to evaluate their relationship according to the minimax principle of human behavior, which states that humans seek to maximize their benefits while minimizing their costs. This principle applies to Social Penetration as it determines, to some extent, what the depth of penetration will be for the two parties. If they see their relationship as more benefit than cost according to their comparison

Relationships are like onions, they take time to open up and you have to peel layer by layer to get to the center. Life happens, people come and go and the relationships that are made happen over time. A relationship is built over prolonged exposure to someone and they do not happen over night. When you first meet a person most judge, they look at a person’s appearance, their behavior, and their overall attitude. But as time goes on and you get to know someone on a more personal level you learn whom he or she really is. This idea is called the social penetration theory. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor established the social penetration theory in 1973. They created this theory to have a better understanding of intimate relationships between two people. The social penetration theory is important to the communication process because it looks at how relationships develop and how over time relationships evolve from where they stared by self-disclosure. With the social penetration theory as the main focus and with the support from communication studies, this paper is assessing the formation of new relationships.

At any given time of day, anyone can access an abundant amount of information at the click of a button. Men, women, kids, teenagers, adults and even the elderly are learning how to use the internet to their advantage. Among all the benefits the internet has provided to us, online communication has proven to be the most beneficial. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have made it easy for everyone to stay in contact with each other. Regardless of how far apart a family member or friend is, everyone is just one click away. If someone is not having a good day, they can share their feelings with everyone in a matter of seconds. These social networking sites have become quite popular among adolescents. They allow teens to stay more connected with their friends outside of school. Now teens have become more obsessed with their friends Facebook or Twitter status than engaging in outdoor activities like football or