Self-disclosure Flashcards
Define self-disclosure.
Self-disclosure is the idea of revealing personal information about yourself as your relationship develops and this can strengthen the romantic bond. In the early days of a relationship, we love to learn as much as we can about our new partner and the more we learn the more we seem to like them. By revealing ourselves to another person, we share our likes and dislikes, our hopes and fears, our attitudes and interests and what really matters to us. Self disclosure has a vital role in a relationship beyond the initial attraction but most people are careful what they disclose to begin with.
What is the social-penetration theory?
The gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else, or giving away your deepest thoughts and feelings. In romtanic relationships, it involves the reciprocal exchange of information between intimate partners. When one person reveals information, they display trust and as they increasingly disclose more and more information to each other, romantic partners ‘penetrate’ more deeply into each others lives and gain a greater understanding of each other.
Two elements of self-disclosure.
Breadth and depth.
Explain breadth of self-disclosure.
What we disclose at the beginning of a relationship, is superficial and ‘mostly on the surface’ like the outer layers of an onion. This is the kind of ‘low-risk’ information that we would share with: friends, co-workers and acquaintances. The breadth of disclosure is narrow because many topics are ‘off-limits’ in the early stage of a relationship and may be too much information that could threaten the relationship.
What happens as both breadth and depth of self-disclosure increase?
Romantic partners become more committed to each other.
What image is usually described when explaining self-disclosure?
An onion due to its layers. Self-disclosure is like peeling bak these layers to reveal our true selves.
Explain depth of self-disclosure.
As a relationship develops, self disclosure becomes deeper and progressively removes more and more layers so we can reveal our true selves and encompass a wider range of topics. Eventually we are prepared to reveal intimate, high-risk information, painful memories and experiences, strongly-held beliefs, powerful feelings and secrets.
As well as breadth and depth, what else does self-disclosure need?
Reciprocal exchange of information.
Once you have decided to disclose something that reveals your true self, hopefully your partner will repond In a way that is understanding, rewarding, empathetic and also their own intimate thoughts and feelings. So in a successful relationship, there is a balance of self-disclosure.
Give a strength of self-disclosure.
Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure. In short, men and women who used self-disclosure and those who believed their partners did likewise were more satisfied with and committed to their romantic relationship. They found that self-disclosure was linked to high levels of intimacy in long term married couples. This shows the more couples self-disclose, the happier they are in their relationship. This therefore gives the theory validity.
Give a counterargument to Sprecher and Hendrick’s study into self-disclosure.
However, the fact that this conclusion has been made from a correlation means that it does not consider other factors contributing to happiness. A correlation does not tell wether this is a valid conclusion to draw
Give a limitation of self-disclosure.
The prediction that increasing depth and breadth of self-disclosures will lead to more satisfying and intimate romantic relationships is not true for all cultures. To a large extent it depends on the type of self-disclosure . For example, Tang et al concluded that men and women in the USA (an individualist culture) self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in china (a collectivist culture). Both these levels of self-disclosure are linked to relationship satisfaction in those cultures.
The self-disclosure theory is therefore a limited explanation of romantic relationships, based on findings from individualistic cultures which are not necessarily generalisable to other cultures
