Ethnography Report
Madison Cerda
Interpersonal Communications
Ethnography Report
Social Penetration Theory
October 1, 2012
As I began this assignment I wasn’t completely sure what concept I was going to observe. In result, I went to a location without knowing what exactly I was looking for, I just observed my surroundings immensely. As I sat there in Starbucks for over an hour I felt a bit out of luck since nothing was catching my eye that would relate to a concept that we had learned about within the past few weeks. This is until a man in his early 20’s entered the Starbucks on Lexington and 55th, did my assumptions quickly change. This man who I later learned was named Connor entered the Starbucks somewhat spiffed up and I was a bit confused when he sat besides me at a table looking a bit nervous. I quickly realized that he was meeting someone at the Starbucks. About five minutes after he had sat down a woman of about the same age walked in the store. He quickly got out of his seat to greet her with a very firm looking handshake. They both smiled and he asked her what she would like to drink, she replied and sat down while he went to go get them drinks. After retrieving the drinks he returned with a friendly smile on his face. He handed her the drink and quickly got to talking which instantly made me realize what concept I was observing. The concept I began to observe was the social penetration theory. This means that the self has many layers and people learn more and more layers of a person based on the breadth and depth they are allowing to go with you. Breadth is the different perspective one may reveal in each layer and depth is to what extent they reveal something and how informative it is about the subject. This idea was able to relate to this situation because they seemed to be what was their first date, in my eyes what seemed like a blind date. They began to talk about what schools they went to although they seemed as though they already knew that small amount
Interpersonal Communications
Ethnography Report
Social Penetration Theory
October 1, 2012
As I began this assignment I wasn’t completely sure what concept I was going to observe. In result, I went to a location without knowing what exactly I was looking for, I just observed my surroundings immensely. As I sat there in Starbucks for over an hour I felt a bit out of luck since nothing was catching my eye that would relate to a concept that we had learned about within the past few weeks. This is until a man in his early 20’s entered the Starbucks on Lexington and 55th, did my assumptions quickly change. This man who I later learned was named Connor entered the Starbucks somewhat spiffed up and I was a bit confused when he sat besides me at a table looking a bit nervous. I quickly realized that he was meeting someone at the Starbucks. About five minutes after he had sat down a woman of about the same age walked in the store. He quickly got out of his seat to greet her with a very firm looking handshake. They both smiled and he asked her what she would like to drink, she replied and sat down while he went to go get them drinks. After retrieving the drinks he returned with a friendly smile on his face. He handed her the drink and quickly got to talking which instantly made me realize what concept I was observing. The concept I began to observe was the social penetration theory. This means that the self has many layers and people learn more and more layers of a person based on the breadth and depth they are allowing to go with you. Breadth is the different perspective one may reveal in each layer and depth is to what extent they reveal something and how informative it is about the subject. This idea was able to relate to this situation because they seemed to be what was their first date, in my eyes what seemed like a blind date. They began to talk about what schools they went to although they seemed as though they already knew that small amount