Social Penetration Theory Research
By: Sara Anderson
Berg, John H."Development of Friendships Between Roommates". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 2, No. 2 (1984): 346-356
So...are we going to be friends?
This is probably the biggest question on people's minds when they first move in with a new roommate. I suppose it could also be phrased as, "Am I going to hate this person's guts?". Regardless of the exact question, roommate situations are often quite interesting. John H. Berg of the University of Mississippi was curious about this situation himself.
Berg was also interested in the fact that although there were many theories on individual aspects of relationsip and friendship development. However, "given this [relationship development's] multidimensional nature, it is surprising that although the processes...have received considerable individual research attention, they have not been examined in relation to one another over time" (1984, p. 346). Berg decided to use his roommate question and apply a number of relational theories.
The Method
Berg chose "Forty-Eight pairs of previously unacquainted roommates from dormitories at UCLA" (1984) to serve as the subjects of his study. They were volunteers and were asked to fill out questionnaires in the fall and the spring. Although only thirty-nine pairs of roommates elected to fill out the second spring questionnaires. As well, four other individuals replied without their roommate. These pairs were all same-sex and were equally split between male and female. In addition, over half were freshman although there were representations from sophomores, juniors, and seniors as well.
The Measures
Liking and Satisfaction
Self-Disclosure
Similarity
Equity
Reward
Comparison Level of Alternatives
Is this article worth a read?
This article was extremely difficult to get through. The results were measured in such a tedious manner that I elected to leave them out all together. They were high mathematical and not user-friendly. However, it appears that this study confirms what most college students who have lived with a stranger as a roommate would already know, it is a pain at some times.
Overall there were some serious flaws in the experiment conducted by Berg. I think that they take much of the validity away from his results and make it less reputable. First, it is troublesome that he used only volunteers for his experiment. Through this method of subject gathering, he did not necessarily gain a balanced sample. In turn, the sample was relatively small (forty-eight at the start and thirty-nine by the final count) and was only from one university's residential program. Who is to say this is representative of the normative roommate relationship? My final contetion with Berg's analysis is that he is emploring social penetration theory. This theory is best used when looking at opposite sex dyads pursuing a "romantic" relationship. Hence this experiment may not quite fit with the traditional usage of the theory.
So, is it worth a read? I would say no this article probably would not give you any additional knowledge on or insight to social penetration theory. If you are solely interested in roommate studies or the like, the article might prove to be a bit more helpful.
Worried about you interaction with your roommates? Check out this Uncertainty Reduction Research page.
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This page was last revised on March 9, 2000