Theory: Social Penetration In A Relationship

Yash Shah
Communication 210
Professor: Dr. Ernest Hakanen

Theory: Social Penetration

The theory of social penetration is at the basis of every formation of a new relationship. This theory is an interaction between people who slowly learn about each other at first formally and then informally. Social penetration is defined as revealing ones self to others, this process is cautious and slow and some are more cautious then others. When people meet for the first time, they tend to share information, which is general and limits the range of the topics they discuss. As these people learn about each other and time passes the depth of their disclosure increases thus revealing personal information. The breadth of disclosure increases and the individuals
We knew what the other one would like, the interests and this was the smooth stage in the relationship. Over this course of time, we shared more information about our family, our social status, views on each other, disliking’s about each other or habits and most importantly what we expected out of each other. Later, as the time passed, we met each other’s parents and got even more closer, until the time that she decided to part ways with me because of my socio-economic status and decision to change my major. She thought that she was too rich and intelligent for me and thought of bringing an end to the relationship. So, the entire year and a half went from orientation to de-penetration quickly.

The main reason talking about my example related to this theory was the explanation of the theory in my own life. Some things are better when experienced and this is one such example. As time passed, we got closer and separated. It was better to understand the theory keeping my own example in mind and to relate whatever I went through at certain
The main reason for calling it a dialectical process is because it involves managing tensions between the public and private factors of the disclosure of information. We tend to go back and forth with this and ultimately we get an end result, either we achieve social penetration or in some instances we achieve de-penetration.
As proven with the social penetration theory, the exchange of information is reciprocal. Throughout the formation of our friendship, we had engaged in the sharing of information with each other and we had reached that point in our relationship where we seemed to hit a plateau in which personal things are shared and each one of us could predict the emotional reactions of one another. It can clearly be seen that by this point we had achieved social penetration. Hence, I could say I was successful in understanding and achieving my own example of the social penetration