Supporting The Social Penetration Theory

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 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.

The theme of chapter six is of great importance. Many of the problems in relationships arise from the fact that people do not understand each other, their meaning is sometimes misunderstood and overlooked. As stated on the book, from 60 to 93% of our communications is done through non verbal communication, sometimes complementing what we are saying and at times doing the exact opposite. Therefore it is crucial that we acknowledge this fact and implement this topics to maintain relations and keep in touch with the ones around us.

According to Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, Social Penetration Theory is defined as the process of bonding that moves a relationship from superficial to more intimate. The theory can be perceived as a game plan for people, especially in a relationship. This can give you guidance on how to interact with individuals in order to establish a stable, and developing relationship through interpersonal communication. For example, when you encounter someone whom you’ve never met before, you may ask some questions to learn a little bit about this person. We tend to exchange information back and forth by asking people questions. Essentially, this is what social penetration theory does. It looks at how we exchange and share information with people that we have never met before and how we self- disclose. Self- disclosure can be separated into the theories three main concepts: depth, breadth, and reciprocity. These important concepts of Social Penetration Theory were clearly shown when I witnessed an unusual conversation between my roommate, Maddy and a young man named Nick. A typical conversation, turned into an extremely uncomfortable situation for all of us. Something we definitely did not expect.

Beebe, S., (2002), Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others, American communication journal. Volume 5, Issue 3, p428.

A number of well-thought out socio-culture proverbs, which highlight the cultural values of mankind by spotting on the fact that the quality of life lies within the quality of relationships we have, actually refer to the depths of social associations that the masses possess and extract out the true essence of human life in relation to the social surroundings humans are engrossed with. This reveals that a true relationship is when one loves for the sake of loving and not for achieving some desired outcomes. Love is all about selflessness and relationships are all about nurturing true feelings of esteem and

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.

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

Knapp, M. L., Vangelisti, A. L. (2005). Interpersonal Communication and HumanRelationships. (5th ed.) Boston: Pearson.

Human relationships can be rich and messy. The way we use language matters in how our message is perceived. These days, we are able to easily tweak and correct everything via text. That means that if we were to say it by actually speaking, we would have said the first thing that came to mind without all the online filters.

Interactants develop expectations about the verbal and nonverbal communication of others. People react differently to communication behaviours. Violations of communication expectations are arousing and distracting, causing an attentional shift to communicator, relationships, violation characteristics and meanings. Enacted behaviours that are more favourably evaluated than expected behaviours constitute positive violations; enacted behaviours that are less favourably evaluated than expected are negative violations. Every human interaction either challenges or conforms to

Research has been conducted to determine if communication skills play a role in determining just how long a friendship or relationship will last. If we use the same types of communication or communication skills in our interpersonal relationships, do we stand a better chance at a life-long friendship, or a lasting marriage? The studies have shown that how we communicate with others can have an effect on how long our interpersonal relationships can last.

Language allows us to bring life to things, people, places and experiences. However, choices of what language to use has an impact on perception of our message, so when communicating it is important to know not only how different language can benefit a communication, but also how it can be a hindrance. There are 6 barriers in language that can have ill-effects on the message that is being conveyed: clichés, jargon, slang, sexism/racism, euphemisms and doublespeak. This essay will describe each so that they will be easy to recognize and avoid in the communication process.

The development of intimate relationships is a crucial aspect of life and is defined as the preferences and characteristics that influence individuals to form a relationship. Research shows that heterosexual women determine how successful a relationship will be, based on the facial masculinity of a man (Thompson and O’Sullivan, 2013). Among youth, it appears that 50% of 15 year olds and 70% of 18 year olds have been in a romantic relationship within a span of 18 months, which depicts the frequency of forming relationships (Connolly, 2014). Statistics demonstrate that about 74.2% of all couples state that both partners are equitable within their relationship (Schoeb et al, 2013). Moreover, relationship development consists of many stages which are heavily influenced by culture and physical appearance.

Interpersonal communication is the subject of a number of disciplines in the field of psychology, notably Transactional analysis.