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Social Concentration Theory

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A preliminary study of social penetration theory was conducted in terms of maintenance of close friendships and how it brings useful insights among youths between 15 and 18 years old by interviewing two pairs of close friends. Items pertaining to self-disclosure and friendship maintenance of each pair of close friends such as how they first met to their early friendship formation to the current relationship were being asked.

Social penetration theory is described as the process of relationship development and that relationship intimacy is only achievable through self-disclosure. This theory is associated with friendship development and self-disclosure; and requires continual communication which eventually will leads to intimate disclosures …show more content…
The focus was to explore how the two pairs of close friends engaged in friendships maintenance and whether was there a difference in self-disclosure among same-sex and opposite sex friendships. All interviews lasted around 5-10 minutes each.
In order to ensure confidentiality and accuracy of the data, I conversed with each of the participants in private. For a guide of the interview questions, do refer to the appendix enclosed at the end of the report.

(lit review) An individual’s personality can be compared to the multiple layers of an onion (altman & taylor, 1973). As outer thin layers are peeled away, it exposed the inner layers which are the private details of the individuals. (Schaeffer, 2010). Depending on the level and nature of the relationship, some layers are hard to peel. Layers are peeled by evaluating perceived rewards and costs of the relationship. Thus, intimacy level will be higher when there are more perceived rewards. Partners will only put in effort to maintain the relationship when the perceived rewards outweigh the costs. According to Hammer and Gudykunst (1987), Relationships are likely to experience four stages of development mainly orientation, exploratory affective exchange, full affective exchange and stable exchange which ranges from the least degree of …show more content…
It is found that intimacy is the key factor in adolescent friendship (Bauminger et al., 2008) as it aids in the interpersonal and intrapersonal growth of a young adult (Buhrmester, 1990). Hence, for adolescents to develop intimacy, they have to find their sense of personal identity first and develop high level of psychosocial development (Moore & Boldero, 1991).

According to (Bliss, 2000), adolescents struggle with their ego and identity when making friends. For them, the key to manage friendships is to be involved in compatible activities with friends. In order to maintain friendships, constant efforts are required by two parties. Friendship is a two way thing. Individuals need to feel that the other party is still interested to keep in touch. Friendships during adolescence have a memorable stand in the individuals and females tend to confide in one another more in a same sex friendships (Moore & Boldero,

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