Social penetration theory was developed to explain the evolution of interpersonal relationships (Altman and Taylor, 1973; Taylor, 1968; Taylor and Altman, 1975; Shaw and Costanzo,1982). This theory explains the communication at the level of personal relationships such as friendship, romance and family.
Altman and Taylor (1973) compared people to onions. They also stated that proximity between people occurs through a gradual process of self-disclosure, and closeness develops if the participants proceed in a gradual and orderly fashion from superficial to intimate levels of exchange as a function of both imediate and forecast outcomes.
The video is about how Sheldon and Leonard going through a process of social penetration for the first time they meet. In this case, Sheldon is over exposing himself to Leonard by asking him several questions which indirectly reveal his identity. In their first conversation Sheldon is willing to tell lot of things about himself. The reason is that Sheldon will gain benefits if the process of penetration proceeds for instance he is able to prove that Leonard is really a scientist. On the other hand, Leonard is also actively participating in Sheldon’s conversation. This is known as Law of reciprocity which means that Sheldon’s openness leads to openness in Leonard. Other than that, the speed of penetration is very fast.
REFERENCES
Griffin, Em. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory. (8th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Shaw, M. E. and P. R. Costanzo: 1982, Theories of Social Psychology (McGraw-Hill, New York).
Taylor, D. (1968). ‘The Development of Interpersonal Relationships: Social Penetration Processes’, Journal of Social Psychology 75(1), 79–90.
Taylor, D. and I. Altman: 1975, ‘Self-Disclosure as a Function of Reward Cost Outcomes’, Sociometry 38(1), 18–31.
THE BIG BANG THEORY 'When Leonard Met Sheldon' Clip 720p HD. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AWN_JvrWmE
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