Self Disclosure

Question 1

What is self disclosure?

Answer 1

• the extent to which a person reveals intimate, personal information about themselves to another person.

Question 2

What is self-disclosure an important process in?

Answer 2

• the development of romantic relationships, with greater disclosure leading to greater feelings of intimacy.

Question 3

What do people tend to prefer in terms of self-disclosure?

Answer 3

• people tend to prefer those who disclose intimate details to those who disclose themselves to a lesser extent.

Question 4

Who do people reveal more information to?

Answer 4

• people which they like and they tend to like those whom have revealed intimate information to them.

Question 5

What did Sprecher’s research show about the level of disclosure received?

Answer 5

• the level of self-disclosure received in a romantic relationship was a better predictor of liking and loving than the level of self-disclosure that is given.

Question 6

What did Sprecher’s research show about the link between self-disclosure and relationship stability?

Answer 6

• Found that self-disclosure was positively related to relationship stability.
• In a study of 50 dating couples, Sprecher’s found that the amount of overall disclosure in the relationship was predictive of whether the couples stayed together for longer than 4 years.

Question 7

What has research found about the type of self-disclosure?

Answer 7

• that it is not the self-disclosure per se that predicts relationship satisfaction, but the type of self-disclosure.

Question 8

What did Sprecher’s research find about the type of self-disclosure and its effect on relationships?

Answer 8

• Sprecher found that disclosure of, for example, experiences of personal disappointments and accomplishments, and information about previous sexual relationships, have greater influence on relationship satisfaction than more neutral types of self-disclosure.

Question 9

What is the norm about self-disclosure at the beginning of a relationship?

Answer 9

• people should engage in only a moderately personal level of self-disclosure in the early stages of a relationship.

Question 10

How does the norm of reciprocity affect a relationship?

Answer 10

• the more one person discloses to another, the more is expected in return.

Question 11

Evaluation - Research Support For The Importance Of Self-Disclosure

Answer 11

• Meta-Analysis Collins and Miller: supports the central role that self-disclosure plays in the development and maintenance of romantic relationships.
• They found that people who engage in intimate disclosure tend to be liked more than people who disclose at lower levels and people like others as a result of having disclosed to them.
• Collins and Miller also found that the relationship between disclosure and liking was stronger if the recipient believed that the disclosure was shared only with them rather than being shared indiscriminately with others.

Question 12

Evaluation - Cultural Differences In Patterns Of Disclosure

Answer 12

• Cultures differ in the extent to which various topics are considered appropriate for conversation.
• West: people typically generally engage in more intimate self-disclosure than Non-Westerners.
• Chen: Americans disclose more than Chinese or Japanese.
• Cultural norms shape how comfortable men and women are in self-disclosing.
• Nakanishi: Japanese women prefer a lower level of personal conversations than do Japanese men. This is opposite to self-disclosure patters in the West, where women prefer more disclosure than men.
• The importance of self-disclosure as an aspect of attraction is moderated by the influence of culture.