Remember The Titans Relationship Development Analysis
Remember the Titans relationship development
Dejzon Walker
Movie Paper Assignment
Com 200
Summer 2012
Dejzon Walker
Com 200
August 6, 2012
Remember the Titans relationship development The time era that this film was connecting to was the early 1970’s due to the heavy civil topics such as discrimination and racism. T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia at the time was a desegregated school and the hiring of their first African American head coach Herman Boone which raises the racial tension throughout the community. Coach Boone seizes the job from Bill Yoast who is a Caucasian and has already been nominated for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame. The two coaches set aside their differences because …show more content…
of their best interest for the young boys and Coach Yoast decides to join Coach Boone’s staff as an assistant coach. The team is integrated for the first time and it seems as if it was the wrong thing to do. The team is constantly arguing and fighting throughout their football camp due to racial differences. The two captains Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell on defense are even bumping heads and constantly disagreeing over the smallest things that go wrong. Once the team figures out that they are all there at camp for the same reason despite the racial difference that’s when they become one. After camp is over the team comes back and the long awaited yet anticipated season is underway, but before getting off the bus Coach Boone informs the team that some of the people in the community will not accept the racial integration as easily as they have. They must sustain an undefeated season while dealing with off field racism and discrimination. The main purpose of this essay is to show how the Titans used many concepts from the social penetration theory to grow closer as a team and prevailed over the racial differences. By pulling specific cases from the film I will identify how each of them are examples of social penetration theory and give supported information to support my claims.
Summary of Theory Social Penetration Theory is a form of communication that was created by theorists Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor which explains how we let people into our personal space and at what rate. The textbook definition of social penetration is “The process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability” (Griffin, 2012). The word penetration isn’t being used as a sexual term in this case, it is merely stating how one must puncture our multilayered structure of personality. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor compare this personality structure to an onion, layer by layer, which contains different information about ourselves.
You must take your time slowly and penetrate each layer which is creating an intimate relationship with another.
Our most outer layer is our public self that’s available to anyone who is interested in knowing. To reach the inner core which holds our morals, self-concepts, unsettled conflicts, and deeply felt emotions you must have self-disclosure. This is the sharing of personal information that one might keep to themselves normally due to our vulnerability and the possibility of getting hurt. “The depth of penetration represents the degree of personal disclosure”, meaning the more personal detail you are revealing the deeper connection you are likely to have (Griffin, 2012). The law of reciprocity states that the openness you demonstrate with a partner about your deepest information more they are willing to share about their personal life with you. The social penetration theory is solely revolved around self-disclosure. The deeper the information you find out about someone, the more intimate the relationship will …show more content…
be.
Analysis
At the start of camp Coach Boone orders the team to get to know their roommates and the players around them by asking questions about each other to try and get to know one another better. This is illustrating self-disclosure perfectly because due to the racial differences they weren’t asking any in depth detailed questions, only questions that were on the outer most layer of their personality structure. Such as the name of their parents, kind of music they enjoyed, and their other interests. You can’t attain an intimate relationship by merely asking surface level questions, you must penetrate slowly but continue a constant penetration in order to reach the desired relationship. The reason there was no in depth questions asked or answered is because the law of reciprocity. Altman and Taylor believe that “self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of relationship development” (Griffin, 2012).
Another instance where the social penetration theory took place in this film is after the few altercations Julius and Gary had at the beginning of football camp.
Some of which penetrated their inner core of their personality structure. One incident that caused this was Gary calling out Julius for his missed assignment on a play, and Julius responded by calling Gary a bad leader. Gary continues by saying, “I think you’re a waste of god given talent”, which causes Julius to answer back with “Well attitude reflects leadership captain.” (Bruckheimer). The conflict between the two made them both curious as to why the other acted a certain way and wanted to find out what deep down under all the layers caused them to act this way. The social penetration theory is confusing at times though because people can penetrate layers promptly at the start of a relationship but the closer you get to the interior of that person the tougher it is to penetrate those deep internal
layers. The football team connects with each other not with self-disclosure, but by having the comfort feeling that the person next to them is struggling just as much as they are and they are in it together. They realize this essential moment when they are awakened at the break of dawn and Coach Boone takes them on a run through the battlefield of Gettysburg. He gave a speech which spoke to and touched each of the boys that day. He made them grasp that the battle of racism is over and there is no need to fight over it any longer. The social penetration theory doesn’t touch on this but I believe by struggling and being a part of something together makes your relationship that much more intimate. This bonding is what the Titans went through all of camp and made their relationships as a whole grow so profoundly.
Conclusion
The film Remember the Titans does an astonishing job at demonstrating how a high school football team uses concepts of the social penetration theory to overcome racism and exceeds everyone’s expectations of them. Through self-disclosure breadth and depth of self-disclosure they penetrated each other’s personality structure. In order to obtain an intimate relationship you must show reciprocated vulnerability.
References
Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill.
Bruckheimer, J. & Yakin, B. (2000). Remember the Titans. United States: Walt Disney Pictures
Dejzon Walker
Movie Paper Assignment
Com 200
Summer 2012
Dejzon Walker
Com 200
August 6, 2012
Remember the Titans relationship development The time era that this film was connecting to was the early 1970’s due to the heavy civil topics such as discrimination and racism. T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia at the time was a desegregated school and the hiring of their first African American head coach Herman Boone which raises the racial tension throughout the community. Coach Boone seizes the job from Bill Yoast who is a Caucasian and has already been nominated for the Virginia High School Hall of Fame. The two coaches set aside their differences because …show more content…
of their best interest for the young boys and Coach Yoast decides to join Coach Boone’s staff as an assistant coach. The team is integrated for the first time and it seems as if it was the wrong thing to do. The team is constantly arguing and fighting throughout their football camp due to racial differences. The two captains Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell on defense are even bumping heads and constantly disagreeing over the smallest things that go wrong. Once the team figures out that they are all there at camp for the same reason despite the racial difference that’s when they become one. After camp is over the team comes back and the long awaited yet anticipated season is underway, but before getting off the bus Coach Boone informs the team that some of the people in the community will not accept the racial integration as easily as they have. They must sustain an undefeated season while dealing with off field racism and discrimination. The main purpose of this essay is to show how the Titans used many concepts from the social penetration theory to grow closer as a team and prevailed over the racial differences. By pulling specific cases from the film I will identify how each of them are examples of social penetration theory and give supported information to support my claims.
Summary of Theory Social Penetration Theory is a form of communication that was created by theorists Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor which explains how we let people into our personal space and at what rate. The textbook definition of social penetration is “The process of developing deeper intimacy with another person through mutual self-disclosure and other forms of vulnerability” (Griffin, 2012). The word penetration isn’t being used as a sexual term in this case, it is merely stating how one must puncture our multilayered structure of personality. Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor compare this personality structure to an onion, layer by layer, which contains different information about ourselves.
You must take your time slowly and penetrate each layer which is creating an intimate relationship with another.
Our most outer layer is our public self that’s available to anyone who is interested in knowing. To reach the inner core which holds our morals, self-concepts, unsettled conflicts, and deeply felt emotions you must have self-disclosure. This is the sharing of personal information that one might keep to themselves normally due to our vulnerability and the possibility of getting hurt. “The depth of penetration represents the degree of personal disclosure”, meaning the more personal detail you are revealing the deeper connection you are likely to have (Griffin, 2012). The law of reciprocity states that the openness you demonstrate with a partner about your deepest information more they are willing to share about their personal life with you. The social penetration theory is solely revolved around self-disclosure. The deeper the information you find out about someone, the more intimate the relationship will …show more content…
be.
Analysis
At the start of camp Coach Boone orders the team to get to know their roommates and the players around them by asking questions about each other to try and get to know one another better. This is illustrating self-disclosure perfectly because due to the racial differences they weren’t asking any in depth detailed questions, only questions that were on the outer most layer of their personality structure. Such as the name of their parents, kind of music they enjoyed, and their other interests. You can’t attain an intimate relationship by merely asking surface level questions, you must penetrate slowly but continue a constant penetration in order to reach the desired relationship. The reason there was no in depth questions asked or answered is because the law of reciprocity. Altman and Taylor believe that “self-disclosure is reciprocal, especially in the early stages of relationship development” (Griffin, 2012).
Another instance where the social penetration theory took place in this film is after the few altercations Julius and Gary had at the beginning of football camp.
Some of which penetrated their inner core of their personality structure. One incident that caused this was Gary calling out Julius for his missed assignment on a play, and Julius responded by calling Gary a bad leader. Gary continues by saying, “I think you’re a waste of god given talent”, which causes Julius to answer back with “Well attitude reflects leadership captain.” (Bruckheimer). The conflict between the two made them both curious as to why the other acted a certain way and wanted to find out what deep down under all the layers caused them to act this way. The social penetration theory is confusing at times though because people can penetrate layers promptly at the start of a relationship but the closer you get to the interior of that person the tougher it is to penetrate those deep internal
layers. The football team connects with each other not with self-disclosure, but by having the comfort feeling that the person next to them is struggling just as much as they are and they are in it together. They realize this essential moment when they are awakened at the break of dawn and Coach Boone takes them on a run through the battlefield of Gettysburg. He gave a speech which spoke to and touched each of the boys that day. He made them grasp that the battle of racism is over and there is no need to fight over it any longer. The social penetration theory doesn’t touch on this but I believe by struggling and being a part of something together makes your relationship that much more intimate. This bonding is what the Titans went through all of camp and made their relationships as a whole grow so profoundly.
Conclusion
The film Remember the Titans does an astonishing job at demonstrating how a high school football team uses concepts of the social penetration theory to overcome racism and exceeds everyone’s expectations of them. Through self-disclosure breadth and depth of self-disclosure they penetrated each other’s personality structure. In order to obtain an intimate relationship you must show reciprocated vulnerability.
References
Griffin, E. (2012). A First Look at Communication Theory (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGrawHill.
Bruckheimer, J. & Yakin, B. (2000). Remember the Titans. United States: Walt Disney Pictures