Supporting The Social Penetration Theory

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

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 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.

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.

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

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

The first communication studies class I took, besides public speaking, was Introduction to Communication Theory (COM 200) at Eastern Arizona College. This course provided me with the determination to stick with my degree and fueled the passion I already felt for observing communication patterns around me. I was particularly fascinated by the theories describing the process of building relationships. Social penetration theory, is of particular interest to me as it attempts to predict the outcome of a relationship based on the beginning stages of self-disclosure (Griffin, 2012). Social penetration assumes that an appropriate breadth and depth of disclosure determine relational success (Houser, 2014). Social Penetration Theory works closely with Social Exchange Theory, in that self-disclosure happens when perceived benefits outweigh the costs. Though Social Penetration Theory deals exclusively with

Meeting new people is a nerve wracking and undesirable situation for many people. Everyone is completely different and unique in their own way and invite interaction at their preferred frequency. Finding people who share common hobbies, desires, values etc. is a long and gradual process. How people build interpersonal relationships and develop a bond to each other is laid out in a proposed theory by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor called the social penetration process. Social penetration can be defined as the process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability (Griffin 97).

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.

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

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.

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.