Social Penetration Theory

As a way of understanding how relationships develop and progress Psychologists Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor developed the Social Penetration Theory. In essence the Social Penetration Theory states that relationships progress from a range of non-intimate to intimate in a systematic manner through verbal, non-verbal, and environmental behavioral communication processes.

The first thing that needs to be understood about this theory is that it functions linearly. By this I mean that relationships develop in a certain order and follow a linear model which contains four stages. The first stage is orientation in which the individuals meet for the first time or have known each other for a short period of time. The orientation stage happens at a public level in which self-disclosure of personal information is based upon one's public image, or in other words what an individual allows the public to know about themselves. Communication at the orientation level is not very deep or revealing; it is more superficial and allows for individual comfort with disclosure of only small bits of personal information. Information revealed in the orientation stage is generally limited to biographical and personal preference information.

From the orientation stage the relationship moves to the next stage of the process which is known as the exploratory affective exchange stage in which an individual's personality begins to emerge. The disclosure of information at the exploratory affective range is still considered to be at a public level, for the most part, but is on a level that allows more comfort in self-disclosure and is generally held between casual acquaintances. Information revealed in the exploratory affective exchange stage expounds upon information revealed during orientation and also could include deeper aspects such as religious or political views or convictions.

The relationship then evolves into the affective exchange stage at which an individual comfortably reveals personal and some intimate information about themselves. This stage could be considered the first stage of communication at a personal level and is regarded only for close friends, relatives, and intimate partners. During the affective exchange stage personal idioms, or phrases that carry meaning in a relationship such as "cutie" or "baby", may be used. Information revealed in the affective exchange stage expounds upon information previously divulged and also includes information on a more personal level which could be thing such as goals and aspirations, fears, and fantasies as well as basic concepts of self.

The final stage of Social Penetration Theory is known as the stable exchange stage. The stable exchange stage is the point at which an individual is comfortable with open expression of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a relationship. The stable exchange stage occurs on a very intimate level and would generally only occur in relationships such as marriage. In this stage the individuals have a deep understanding of their partner and are able to predict behavioral patterns among one another. There is not a great level of personal information exchange at this level due to the high level of intimacy in fact theorists even believe that there is very little misinterpretation of meaning in communication at this level.

Now that we know the four stages of Social Penetration Theory we need to understand the central theme of the theory which states that relationships progress systematically through the use of verbal, non-verbal, and environmental behavioral communication processes. Verbal behavior meaning the words that we use; nonverbal behavior meaning our body language, such as posture and facial expressions; and environmental behavior meaning the use of personal space among communicators and the physical objects in the communication environment. It is through these important means of communication that relationships develop and progress. It is also important to understand that these same means can bring the demise of a relationship, otherwise known as depenetration. What this means is that although self-disclosure is essential to the progress of a relationship it is not the only determining factor in the success of a relationship. Another key concept of relationship development is reciprocity or in other words the response to self-disclosure from the other individual involved in the communication process. The idea of reciprocity shows that the Social Penetration Theory has direct relation to the Social Exchange Theory because when the reciprocity of information is negative a relationship could be considered ineffective. This sums up the basic explanation of the theory and we now move onto an example of the theory.

To better illustrate the Social Penetration Theory I use the classic example of the onion. When Altman and Taylor developed the theory they referred to people as onions. They explain that people's personality, just 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. Therefore with social penetration 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.

Now that we have a basic understanding of exactly what the Social Penetration theory states we will move onto the topic of theoretical paradigms. It is my opinion that the Social Penetration Theory clearly reflects the objective paradigm. The idea of a linear process that through which communication causes a relationship to move from non-intimate to intimate is a very classical idea that suggests a cause and effect nature. The idea that cost versus reward of self-disclosure and reciprocity is a very quantitative idea. The theory also is reductionist because it can be broken down into individual stages. Therefore the Social Penetration Theory touches on most of the ideas of the objective paradigm.

In this paper I have explained and showed how the Social Penetration Theory states that relationships progress from a range of non-intimate to intimate in a systematic manner through verbal, non-verbal, and environmental behavioral communication processes.

Bibliography

West, Richard, and Lynn H. Turner. Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application. 2^nd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004.