Module 10 Social Penetration Theory PDF

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Chapter 8: Social Penetration Theory of Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor ● Social penetration: the process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability ● Personality structure: onion-like layers of beliefs and feelings about self, others, and the world; deeper layers are more vulnerable, protected, and central to self-image ○ E.g. Shrek ● Self-disclosure: the voluntary sharing of personal history, preferences, attitudes, feelings, values, secrets, etc., with another person; transparency ● Depth of penetration: the degree of disclosure in a specific area of an individual’s life ○ Peripheral items are exchanged sooner and more frequently than private info ○ Self-disclosure is reciprocal, esp in the early stages of relationship development ■ Social penetration theory asserts a law of reciprocity ■ Law of reciprocity: a paced and orderly process in which openness in one person leads to openness in the other; “You tell your dream; I’ll tell you mine.” ○ 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 ● Breadth of penetration: the range of areas in an individual’s life over which disclosure takes place ● Social exchange: relationship behavior and status regulated by both parties’ evaluations of perceived rewards and costs of interaction with each other ○ 3 key components: ■ Relational Outcome: Rewards Minus Costs ● Outcome: the perceived rewards minus costs of interpersonal interaction ● Minimax principle of human behavior: people seek to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs ■ Relational Satisfaction: The Comparison Level (CL) ● Relative satisfaction: how happy or sad an interpersonal outcome makes a participant feel ● Comparison level (CL): the threshold above which interpersonal outcome seems attractive; a standard for relational satisfaction ■ Relational Stability: The Comparison Level of Alternatives (CLalt) ● Evaluation of the outcomes we receive ● Comparison level of alternative (CLalt): the best outcome available in other relationships; a standard for relational stability ■ Outcome > CLalt > CL ● Ethical egoism: the belief that individuals should live their lives so as to maximize their own pleasure and minimize their own pain; we should act selfishly ● Dialectical model: the assumption that people want both privacy and intimacy in their social relationships; they experience a tension b/w disclosure and withdrawal ● Environment guides our decision to disclose ● Territoriality: the tendency to claim a physical location or object as our own

Lecture A Model of Relationship Development ● Occurs in stages ○

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Contact Stage ■ Perceptual contact: you see, hear, read a message from a person ■ Interactional contact: superficial and impersonal ■ Exchange basic info that is preliminary to any more intense involvement ■ Exit Involvement Stage ■ Sense of being connected ■ Exit Intimacy Stage ■ The individual becomes your close friend, romantic partner, or companion ■ Share each other’s social network ■ Interpersonal → private ■ Social bonding → public (family and friends) ■ Become an identifier

■ Exit Deterioration Stage ■ Intrapersonal dissatisfaction: experience personal dissatisfaction with everyday interactions and begin to view the future with your partner more negatively ■ Interpersonal deterioration: withdraw and grow farther apart and share less of your free time ○ Repair Stage ■ Intrapersonal repair: analyze what went wrong and consider ways of solving your relational difficulties ● Changing your behaviors ● Changing expectations of your partner ● Think about keeping the relationship vs getting out of the relationship ■ Interpersonal repair: talk about the problems in the relationship ○ Dissolution Stage ■ Intrapersonal separation: moving into different places; leading lives away from each other ■ EX: divorce General focus: the role of self-disclosure in process of relationship development and dissolution Social penetration theory: theory that describes what happens when relationships develop describes relationship development from the perspective of disclosure Self-disclosure: voluntary sharing of personal info about oneself Self-disclosing and learning about others → penetrating deeper into the selves of people and letting people penetrate ourselves and gain a deeper understanding of us ○ Gradual Onion Model of Social Penetration ○ Personality structure: onion-like layers of beliefs and feelings about self, others and the world ○ Disclosure → core ○ 2 dimensions of disclosure: ■ Breadth: range of topics over self-disclosure takes place ■ Depth: intimacy level of self-disclosure Closeness Through Self-Disclosure ○ Depth of penetration: intimacy of disclosure in a specific area of an individual’s life ○ Breadth of penetration: range of areas in individual’s life over which disclosure takes place ■ High breadth with low depth → casual relationship ■ High breadth and high depth → close relationship ■ High depth and low breadth → professional relationship Some Regularities of Self-Disclosure ○

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○ Peripheral items exchanged sooner, more frequently than private info ○ Self-disclosure is reciprocal, esp early in relationship development ○ Depenetration: gradual process of layer-by-layer withdrawal What Motivates People to Self-Disclose? ● Social exchange theory: relationship behavior and status are regulated by parties’ evaluations of perceived rewards and costs of interaction with each other ● Social exchange theory ○ Outcome: perceived rewards minus the costs of the relationship ○ Comparison level (CL): the threshold above which a current relationship seems satisfactory ○ Comparison Level of Alternatives CLalt: best outcome available in alternative relationships ● Social Exchange Theory: Evaluating a Relationship

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Summarizes the theory’s predictions about people’s satisfaction with a relationship as well as the stability of the relationship based on comparison of the outcome of a relationship with CL and CLalt Evaluation of social penetration theory ○ Heuristic value of the theory ○ Critique of the theory ■ Believe that relationships are embedded in other relationship, and in turn, these relationships affect the communication b/w partners...