Escolar Documentos
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Concepts:
Social Penetration Theory, Self-Disclosure,
Uncertainty Reduction Theory, and Relational
Dialectics Theory
Social Penetration Theory (SPT)
Key Points
• Rewards/benefits
• Costs/vulnerability
• Satisfaction
• Stability and security
Self-Disclosure
Self-disclosure is sharing with someone information which helps him or her understand you.
Self-disclosure is most revealing when the sharing is in the present and least revealing when
the sharing is about the past. -- D. Johnson, Reaching Out:Interpersonal Effectiveness and
Self-Actualization (Boston: Allyn and Bacon) 1997 ,p.33.
Self-Disclosure Characteristics
Self-Disclosure Definitions
1
** Culpert distinguishes between self-description vs. self-disclosure. Self-description involves
communication that levels "public layers" whereas self-disclosure involves communication
that reveals more private, sensitive, and confidential information.
** Pearce & Sharp make an interesting distinction among three related terms: Self-discloure,
confession, and revelation.
Key Points
• Passive strategies -- we observe the person, either in situations where the other
person is likely to be self-monitoring (a reactivity search) as in a classroom, or where
the other person is likely to act more naturally (a disinhibition search) as in the
stands at a football game.
• Active strategies -- we ask others about the person we're interested in or try to set up
a situation where we can observe that person (e.g., taking the same class, sitting a
table away at dinner). Once the situation is set up we sometime observe (a passive
strategy) or talk with the person (an interactive strategy).
• Interactive strategies -- we communicate directly with the person.
2
Key Points
RDT: Connectedness-Separateness
• The tension between connectedness and separateness is if one person wins the
relationship as a whole loses.
• No relationship can exist by definition unless the parties sacrifice some individual
autonomy. However, too much connection paradoxically destroys the relationship
because individuals’ identities become lost. (Baxter & Montgomery)
• Social penetration theorist Altman asserts that self-disclosure and privacy operate in
a cyclical fashion over time.
• Baxter and Montgomery concur, claiming that relationships aren’t on a straight-line
path to intimacy, either.
• They argue that a person has an urge to "tell all" but at the same time, vies for
secrecy in a never-ending cycle that constantly changes.
A Self-Disclosure Test
Stranger
Co-worker
Employer or Supervisor
Acquaintance
Friend
Intimate Partner
Family member (sibling, parent, child)
3
Member of this class
Step Two: Rate the items that follow using the following scale:
The Items:
• My religious beliefs
• My attitudes toward other religions, nationalities, ethnic groups
• My economic status
• My parents’ attitudes toward other religions, nationalities, ethnic groups
• My feelings about my parents
• My past intimate relationships
• My ideal mate
• My sexual fantasies
• My doubts about myself
• My hopes and fears
• My drinking and/or drug-taking behavior
• My political beliefs
• My job satisfaction or dissatisfaction
• My relationship satisfaction or dissatisfaction
• My feelings about the people in the relevant group (e.g., classmates, workmates,
family members)
4
Some Case Study Questions