Relationships: Self Disclosure Flashcards
What is self disclosure?
A process of communication by which one person reveals information about themselves to another. It can include basic biographical information, as well as thoughts,feelings, aspirations, failures, successes, fears and likes/dislikes.
What does self disclosure affect attraction?
> According to Taylors social penetration theory (SPT), relationships can only develop if there is an exchange of information. The act of self disclosure can increase attraction by revealing personal information, the disclosure signals that they trust the other person and want to establish a closer relationship. Through this process, the relationship can move beyond the superficial towards the intimate.
How does Breadth and Depth affect the extent to which self disclosure will or wont affect attraction?
- SPT predicts that attraction in a relationship will develop if partners increase both the breath and the depth of their disclosures.
- Increasing the breadth of disclosure means that partners disclose more information across a range of topics (eg, family, previous romantic relationships and political views).
- According to SPT, this will increase the level of attraction between partners as it acts as a signal of trust.
- Increasing the depth of disclosure means moving from the disclosure of ‘low risk’ information to ‘high risk’ information, that might potentially lead to betrayal and mistrust.
- This could increase attraction as according to SPT the disclosure of such sensitive information acts as a signal of trust.
How does disclosure reciprocity affect the extent to which self disclosure will or wont aftertaste attraction?
- According to SPT attraction in a relationship also depends on disclosure reciprocity. This occurs when after one person reveals personal information of a certain depth, the other person in turn discloses information of the same depth.
- Failure to reciprocate can lower attraction, as it signals the non reciprocating partner does not trust the other.
- It can induce positive feelings and drive forward of the relationship by leading partners to increase the breadth and the depth of their self disclosures.
How does the timing of depth disclosures affect the extent to which self disclosures will or wont affect attraction?
Mistimed intimate disclosures may reduce attraction as they may create an unwelcome pressure to reciprocate a disclosure of similar depth, but in the context of a relationship where the necessary level of trust has not yet been established.
What supporting research is there for the role that self disclosure plays in attraction?
For example, Laurenceau (2005) used a longitudinal design to study the diaries
96 married couples and found that participants who recorded high levels of selfdisclosure in their relationship also reported greater feelings of intimacy as a couple. If we take intimacy as an indicator of greater attraction, then these findings
demonstrates the importance of self-disclosure as a factor affecting attraction in
romantic relationships. This is exactly what one would expect from Altman and
Taylor’s social penetration theory, as the higher levels of self disclosure signify
trust, which leads to closer relationship based on mutual attraction. These
findings are especially credible as they make use of a longitudinal design. One
advantage of this design is that it provides a full chronological view of events,
allowing the researchers to make stronger claims about the causal relationship between self-disclosures and intimacy. This is superior to relying on a questionnaire administered at a single time, as this would make it difficult to establish the direction of causation between self disclosure and intimacy.
Why is a limitation of self disclosure on attraction that it is overly simplistic?
Explaining attraction only in terms of a single factor, like self-disclosure, may
mean ignoring other aspects of romantic attraction, such as… [insert name of one of the other factors affecting attraction e.g., level of physical attractiveness OR factors outlined by filter theory, such as complimentarity of needs]. This suggests that research into romantic relationships could benefit from the
use of a more holistic account, that seeks to account for the way multiple factors work together to explain what we find attractive, rather than reducing attraction to a small set of variables, like levels of self-disclosure. Moreover, since people are individuals, there is enormous variation in what people find attractive. It is therefore questionable whether taking a nomothetic approach that seeks to establish general laws about how levels of self-disclosure affect attraction is a valid approach. This again highlights the value of an idiographic approach, that could describe the unique ways individuals perceive attractiveness (including physical attractiveness), rather than seeking to develop general laws about the factors affecting attraction.
Why may self disclosure theories be socially biased?
For example, Tang (2013) found that men and women in the USA tended to
disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings than romantic partners in China; however, the level of relationship satisfaction was similar in both cultures. This shows that whilst high levels of self-disclosure may contribute to attraction in the US, it seems to have little relevance to the level of attraction in China. Therefore, self-disclosure is not necessarily a universal requirement for successful relationships. This suggests that theories like social penetration theory may be only be applicable to the cultural context within which they were developed (I.e., a Western context)
