Social Penetration

Social Penetration Theory

Social penetration is a theory that deals with the knowledge that emphasizes on the effects of communication on relational developmental between people (Ayres, 1979). Social penetration theory states that as relationship develops, communication moves from relatively shallow, non-intimate levels to deeper, more personal ones (Altman & Taylor, 1973).

Altman and Taylor, sees the personality structure of person to be like onion-like layers, which comprises layers of beliefs and feelings about self, others and the world (Griffin, 2009). The deeper the layers of the onions are, the more vulnerable, protected and central to their perception of self-image.

When a person self-disclose, that person chooses to share their personal preferences, attitudes, feelings and secrets with another person. Strangers and friends will use similar rates of question asking, but ask different kinds of questions, where strangers would ask questions that are a lot more descriptive, while friends, ask more evaluative questions than strangers (Ayres, 1979).

When a person self-disclose with another person, there are two ways in which that person prefer to disclose them; through depth or breadth. Depth of penetration is the degree of self-disclosure in a specific area of an individual’s life where information that are told are more intimate and private and breadth is the range of areas in an individual’s life over which disclosure takes place (Griffin, 2009).

The Five stages of Penetration

1. Orientation Stage- small talks occur; following typical social desirability and norms of appropriateness.

2. Exploratory affective stage- The stage where, a person starts revealing something a little more with another person; personal thoughts on topics that are not too “way out of this world”, as this is more of a casual friendship

3. Affective stage- the topics that are shared between one another are more private and relate more to personal matters; criticisms and arguments arises.

4. Stable stage- Relationship between on another is at a level where personal things are shared, and each can predict the emotional reactions of the other person

5. Depenetration- At a stage where, relationship starts to break down, where costs exceed the benefits. Self withdrawal from disclosing one another occurs, which leads to an end to the relationship.

Examples of benefits which occurs in the early part of one’s relationship:

- Physical appearances

- Mutual agreement

- Similar backgrounds

- Common values

Examples of costs in a relationship

- Disagreement between one another

- Dissimilarities of interests

Understanding of this theory on a media text

This scenes explains the orientation stage between Noah and Allie, were walking down the street after watching a movie with friends, and here they were just getting to know each other.

The next scene is the exploratory stage where the scene shows them laying on the group on the zebra cross it can be seen a casual friendship building up where, Allie was a little bit more comfortable being around Noah, that she would even get out of her comfort and trust what Noah is doing is fun.

This scene shows the affective stage where Allie and Noah seems a lot more comfortable with each other where more private matters are shared between them. This playfulness that is presented between Noah and Allie, shows how comfortable they are around each other.

TThis is a stage where Noah's and Allie's relationship are a lot stable. Emotions such and love and lust are pot rayed in this seen. Emotion are also able to be predicted by one another, and from here it can be seen that happiness illustrated between them

Lastly this is a stage where Allie had to depentrate out of their relationship because summer ended, and their relationship began to break. This depenetration in involuntary because they still love each other, but under their circumstances of different social class and difference they were for to get away from each other.

Reference:

Altman, I., & Taylor, D., (1973). Social Penetration: The Development of Interpersonal Relationships. NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Ayres, J. (1979). Uncertainty and Social Penetration Theory Expectations About Relationship Communication: A Comparative Test. The Western Journal Of Speech Communication 43, 192-200.

Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory (7th ed.). Glencoe, IL: McGrawHill