Social Penetration Theory  

The Social Penetration theory is the work of two theorists, Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor.  Social Penetration is a theory of communication that works through two ideas; these being self disclosure and a process of rewards and costs. The central aspect of Social Penetration is its ability to explains how people become attached to one another.  This concept is best described by an onion.
  On the outside layer is the person that everyone can see.  This layer is all that a random person on the local bus would see.  As people gets closer and closer they make their way through many layers, learning more about each other.  There is a complete explanation of this idea and the rest of the Social Penetration theory in the topics below.

Melanie discusses Social Penetration theory.  Jason gives applies Social Penetration theory to real life and adds a number of links to other good sources of information about Social Penetration.  Finally, Sarah & Karen will describe how some relevant articles stood up under their evaluation.  If you are looking for some more information on Communication Theories you should check out the INCO Communication Theory page at Ohiou University. There you can find a explanations of a number of current communication theories.