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IB DP Psychology — Human Relationships | SL / HL | Paper 2
🎯 Learning Intentions By the end of this note, you will be able to:
- Define communication, self-disclosure, and social penetration theory using IB-aligned terminology.
- Explain how self-disclosure operates as a strategy for relationship formation and maintenance.
- Describe the role of communication patterns — including demand-withdrawal and positive communication — in relationship satisfaction and stability.
- Evaluate research evidence for communication strategies using supporting and opposing studies in ACAS format.
- Apply communication and relationship strategy concepts to a real-world case study from the sociocultural and cognitive perspectives.
- Discuss the extent to which communication strategies explain relationship success and breakdown.
- Analyse research on communication using relevant concept areas: Bias, Causality, Perspective, and Responsibility.
Introduction & Context
Think about the last time a conversation with someone close to you went badly. Perhaps you felt unheard, or the other person shut down and refused to engage. Perhaps you said something vulnerable and it was met with silence. Whatever the details, the experience probably left a mark — not just on the conversation, but on the relationship itself. This is not coincidental. Psychologists have long recognised that the way people communicate is not merely a symptom of how a relationship is going — it is one of the primary forces that shapes it.
Relationships do not simply exist; they are actively constructed and maintained through the things people say, the things they choose to reveal, and the patterns they fall into when conflict arises. Some couples and friendships seem to navigate difficulty with ease, while others spiral into cycles of criticism and withdrawal. The question psychologists ask is: what distinguishes these patterns, and can they be changed? This note explores the psychological research on communication strategies — from the gradual process of opening up to another person, to the destructive cycles that predict relationship breakdown.
🧅 Analogy — The Onion Imagine a relationship as peeling an onion. On the outside are the layers everyone can see — your name, your job, your opinions on safe topics. As you peel inward, you reach more personal layers: your fears, your past experiences, your deepest values. Social penetration theory suggests that relationships deepen as people gradually peel back these layers together. But just as cutting an onion too fast can sting, revealing too much too soon can overwhelm the other person and damage trust rather than build it.
Core Concepts
When two people first meet, they rarely begin by sharing their deepest secrets. Instead, they exchange surface-level information — names, interests, where they grew up. Over time, if the relationship feels safe and rewarding, they begin to share more. This gradual process of opening up is so universal that psychologists Altman and Taylor formalised it into a theory. Understanding this process helps explain not just how relationships form, but why some deepen into genuine intimacy while others remain permanently shallow.
📖 Key Definition — Social Penetration