Scribd
Upload
112 views2 pages

Social Penetration

1. Getting to know someone takes effort, time, and understanding. The initial courting stage involves dating and sacrificing priorities to learn about the other person. 2. Familiarity can breed contempt over time as flaws are revealed and the initial attraction fades, leading to breakups. Maintaining love and maturity is tested as the relationship deepens from the initial excitement. 3. According to social penetration theory, intimate self-disclosure increases with time spent together, explaining how "to know her is to love her." However, norm of reciprocity can break down in deep relationships, challenging the idea that familiarity breeds contempt.

Uploaded by

Prince Jherald Magtoto
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
112 views2 pages

Social Penetration

1. Getting to know someone takes effort, time, and understanding. The initial courting stage involves dating and sacrificing priorities to learn about the other person. 2. Familiarity can breed contempt over time as flaws are revealed and the initial attraction fades, leading to breakups. Maintaining love and maturity is tested as the relationship deepens from the initial excitement. 3. According to social penetration theory, intimate self-disclosure increases with time spent together, explaining how "to know her is to love her." However, norm of reciprocity can break down in deep relationships, challenging the idea that familiarity breeds contempt.

Uploaded by

Prince Jherald Magtoto
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

1.

The romantic truism “to know her is to love her”, seems to contradict the
relational adage “familiarity breeds contempt.” Give the principles of social
penetration theory, can you think of a way both statements might be true.  

Getting to know each other I must say is the most romantic and best part of entering
a relationship, it is where you take your time to listen to that person and it is where you
show your best version of yourself, exposing what you like, and talking about the
superficial things that you want to share with that person. To know her is to love her takes
effort, time, and understanding. The effort includes meeting with that person and doing
some dating. Time means that admit it or not, during this period, we are all willing to
sacrifice our priorities, for my example as a student, I am willing to sleep at late night just
to talk with this person in whom I am really interested. Understanding is required  because
once you enter this phase, you often times feel confused with your emotions, you feel sad
when she replied late, but you need to understand her because you are really into her and
you do not want to compromise your anger or bad reaction because it might turn her off
and lose the chance of building more your relationship. On the other hand, Familiarity they
say brings contempt and what once time attracted you has begun to frustrate you, that is
why breakups and divorce happen because they can’t manage each other’s flaws and
character. It is the delicate part of the relationship and this is the stage where love and
maturity are tested. The moment we knew each other deeply, they say that the spark is no
longer there and it is completely different from the beginning. That is why, we can hear a
lot of people saying that after they became boyfriend or girlfriend, the romantic excitement
is not present or the same as when they are in the courting stage. In application of the
social penetration theory, to know her is to love her means that the more time we spend
with others, the more likely we are to self-disclose more intimate thoughts and details of
our life. In the case of familiarity breeds contempt, the norm of reciprocity is being
challenged here, because most of the time, when we knew each other deeply and
intimately, there is a tendency that we do not reciprocate the ideas, feelings, or information
because we are not on that getting to know each other stage anymore, and that is why
sparks here are getting blurry.  

2. An axiom is a self-evident truth. Which one of axioms seems least self-evident
to you? Why?

Axiom 6, SIMILARITY: Similarities between persons reduce uncertainty, while


dissimilarities produce increases in uncertainties.

   I always believe that a good and successful relationship is having a person who will
still choose you no matter the situation and no matter the season. A relationship should not
be measured because you have similarities or there is a spark at first, and once there are
things that your partner saw to you that make them off such as dissimilarities, uncertainty
will happen, that is why I consider this axiom as least self-evident to me. In my experience
and the stories that I have heard from the people I had conversed with, we have the same
idea that opposite attracts. A very outspoken person attracts a quiet person. Someone full
of humor will attract someone who keeps things serious. Our opposites attract to
complement what we don’t have. The more we see and know our dissimilarities, the more
we are passionate to be and to know that person. We get fed up by just one or two things
that attracted us together, and when we see that similarities are not enjoyable anymore, it
frustrates us. That is why, in times of problems in your relationship opposite character
should dominate, like when one is weak, the other should support the weak with strength,
and it is not appropriate that you have a similar character like you are both weak and no
one is willing to take charge the strength part. I believe, a relationship that starts from
dissimilarities will most likely encounter solid relationship rather than those who fell in
love because of their similarities, because when the foundation of your relationship is
based only on similarities, tendencies, you will be cultured shocked when your partner
shows unpleasant movements or character, but when you started from having opposite
character and you build and help each other to find that one thing you like in your
relationship, you are most likely to succeed in a relationship.

You might also like