Breadth and Depth

The social penetration theory states that as relationships develop, communication moves from relatively shallow, no intimate levels to deeper, more personal ones. Typically, the social penetration theory implies that the more time we spend with eachother, the more likely we are to self-disclose more intimate thoughts and details of our lives. But what if we have never met this person, or we have but most of our communication has been computer mediated?

“Close relationships develop in a variable ways. But whatever the specific pattern, social penetration theory gives a distinctive emphasis to self-disclosing behaviors because a relationship begins and is maintained by the “gradual overlapping and exploration of their mutual selves by parties to a relationship.” (Sprecher andWenzel) When someone meets another person all they know about that person is what they see, what others have told them about that person, based on their first impression. “The main route to social penetration is through sharing a wise range of topics (breadth) and personally revealing information that is a core of one’s self concept (depth)” (Yum and Hara). Breath includes the surface topics, which typically are very easy to talk about when you are in the beginning stages of a relationship such as your favorite food, music and movies. Breadth is the number of topics while depth is the how much one discloses about each topic. For example, what religion you are is the the breadth of the conversation but once you start disclosing your true beliefs within the religion that is the depth of the conversation.