Relationships: FAA - Self Disclosure Flashcards
Self-disclosure
Revealing personal information to another person
Who came up with social penetration theory?
Altman and Taylor
What is STP?
How relationships develop through gradual process of revealing inner self to someone and giving away deep thoughts/feelings
Characteristics of STP
Gradual process
Revealing personal info = sign Of trust means relationship stronger
What must a partner do in STP?
Reciprocate revealing personal info
What does reciprocating imply?
Partner willing to reveal personal info indicates relationship has reached certain developmental stage
More disclosure means?
Deeper penetration into each other’s lives
Greater understanding of each other is gained
What is key according to STP?
Breadth and depth of self-disclosure
Onion analogy - start
Start of relationship:
breadth is narrow
Information overload may be off-putting
Onion analogy - development
Depth increases
more likely to reveal intimate information inc secrets/painful memories
What happens as both depth and breadth increase?
Romantic partners become more committed to one another
What is revealed early on in a relationship?
Low risk information
What is revealed as the relationship progresses?
High risk information
Reid and Shaver
Argue there must be reciprocity in addition to broadening and deepening to self disclose
Key idea: must be balance of self disclosure from both partners in successful relationship
A03 STP support: Sprecher and Hendrick procedure
Studied heterosexual dating couples
A03 STP support: Sprecher and Hendrick findings
Strong positive correlations between several measures of relationship satisfaction and self-disclosure (both theirs and their partners)
A03 STP support: Sprecher and Hendrick suggests
Men and women who use self disclosure and those who believe their partners also disclosed, were more satisfied with, and committed to, their romantic relationship
A03: Criticism of Sprecher and Hendrick
Support comes in the form of correlational evidence, causal conclusions can’t be made
A03: STP doesn’t apply to all cultures
Tang et al (2013)
A03 Tang et al: Procedure
Reviewed findings on sexual self disclosure
A03 Tang et al findings
Concluded men and women in US (individualist culture) self disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in China (collectivist culture).
Although self-disclosure was still linked to satisfaction in both cultures, the pattern of self-disclosure is different
A03 Tang et al suggests
STP Is a limited explanation of romantic relationships which is not necessarily generalisable to other cultures
A03 criticism
Self disclosure ignores physical attractiveness and filter theory as factors affecting physical attraction
E.g PA has halo effect by Palmer and Peterson, another aspect
Matters bc SD is incomplete theory
