Download Social Penetration Theory: Understanding the Development of Intimate Relationships and more Study notes Social Theory in PDF only on Docsity! Social Penetration Theory Rico Lujan COMM 1050 Linda Nobis As we go through life we develop new relationships every day. People come into and go out of our lives; some have a larger impact than others. We communicate with each other on a daily basis and relationships are developed, some of these relationships you may refer to as acquaintances, some friends, and others as intimate friends. This process of making new relationships happens every day and without much thought. Although it is sometimes happens without much effort it is a very complex process that we go through every day of our lives. We repeat it over and over, but the depth of penetration we allow each individual may differ. Some of these new relationships may result in love, which is for many of us the highest or deepest level a relationship can achieve. My research topic is based on the Altman & Taylor’s social penetration theory, “The basic idea of the theory is that relationships become more intimate over time when partners disclose more and more information about themselves. One of the most famous or commonly used analogies used to explain Social Penetration Theory is the Onion analogy. When Altman and Taylor developed the theory they referred to people as onions. They explain that people's personality, much like onions, are made up of many layers. If you pull off one layer of an onion it will reveal another, and then another, and so on and so forth until you reach the core of the onion. The theory of social penetration is that people gradually peel off one layer of their personality at a time until the core of the personality is reached. In this manner when people first meet (orientation) they are only revealing their superficial outer shell and conversations will probably relate to hobbies, likes and dislikes, and so on. As the relationship progresses to the next stage (exploratory affective exchange) the people then peel of a layer or two and allow some elements of their personality to show through in their verbal and nonverbal communication. As the relationship continues to progress and develop through the next stage (affective exchange) more layers of personality are peeled off until almost the whole personality shows through; the people in the relationship then develop an understanding of one another and are able to move into deep communication involving intimate topics. And finally the relationship reaches the last stage (stable exchange) at which all of the layers are peeled off and the core of the individual's personality is reached. Many of us never reach the stable exchange or core layer with our relationships. Social Penetration theory is known as an objective theory. This means the theory is not subjective by personal feelings or bias. The theory is based solely on facts instead of opinions. According to social penetration theory, penetration is rapid at the start but slows down quickly as the tightly wrapped inner layers are reached. Depenetration is a gradual process of layer- by-layer withdrawal from a relationship. Social Penetration Theory was originally formulated by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor in 1973. Since then the theory has proven to be versatile, allowing students and scholars of communication to employ it in many ways. This does not mean it is without criticism. This theory is generally critiqued in two areas. It is first of all given a positive critique for its Heurism. That is to say that this theory had led to many studies on a wide variety of relationships, and is given credit for much of thinking behind relationship development. On the other hand, the social
