Student Essay on Social Penetration

Social Penetration theory states that a person can disclose information from their "onion" in two ways, depth and breadth. Self-disclosure into deeper, more personal areas (fears, basic values, and vulnerable core properties) is revealing the depth of one's onion. Breadth is a broadening of the self-disclosure which refers to general areas of personality.

Social Penetration

"Decisions about self-disclosure - whether to reveal one's thoughts, feelings, or past experiences to another person, or the level of intimacy of such disclosure - are part of the everyday life of most persons" (Derlega and Berg, 1987, p. ix). The decisions one makes on the issue of whether or not to self-disclose with others affects not only the types of relationships one will have with others and how they are perceived, but also how well they know themselves. Clearly, self-disclosure plays a major role in the development of close relationships. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor, the theorists behind Social Penetration theory, recognized this fact and designed their theory to illustrate and explain this process of self-disclosure through social penetration. In this paper, I will explain Altman and Taylor's Social Penetration theory and the framework.....