Self-Disclosure Flashcards
What is self-disclosure?
-The extent to which a person reveals personal information about themselves - intimate thoughts, feelings and experiences.
-An important process in the development of romantic relationships - greater disclosure leads to greater intimacy.
-People tend to prefer those who disclose intimate details.
-Peoppe reveal more intimate info to those they like.
What is the Social Penetration Theory?
-Self-Disclosure is a major concept in Altman & Taylor’s theory of how relationships develop.
-A gradual process of revealing inner self, giving away deepest thoughts and feelings, involving reciprocal exchange.
-As they increasingly disclose more and more info, partners ‘penetrate’ more deeply into each others lives.
What is Breadth and Depth of Self-Disclosure?
Two elements of Self-Disclosure, as both increase = more commitment, researchers use layers of an onion to illustrate this process:
Breadth - at beginning of relationship we reveal mostly superficial info, ‘low-risk’, we would reveal to anyone e.g, music taste, siblings.
Depth - as it develops, we progressively reveal more layers, encompassing a wider range of topics, things that matter to us e.g. painful memories, beliefs, secrets.
What is Reciprocity of Self-Disclosure?
-Reis & Shaver (1988) - for a relationship to develop, there needs to be a reciprocal element to disclosure.
-Once you decide to disclose something, hopefully your partner will respond in a way that is rewarding, understanding and empathetic, and disclose themselves.
What are 2 strengths of Self-Disclosure?
Research support for it leading to greater intimacy:
-Predictions from Social Penetration Theory have been supported by manye.g. Sprecher & Hendrick (2004) studied several straight dating couples and found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure and those who believed their partners did likewise more satisfied were more satisfied with and committed to relationships.
-Laurenceau et al (2005) used method involving daily diary entries, found self-disclosure in a partner linked to higher intimacy in long-term married couples, reverse also true.
Increases confidence in validity of theory that it leads to more satisfying relationships.
Research supports selectivity of self-disclosure:
-Kleinke (1979) found individuals perceived as selective of who they disclosed personal info to were seen as more attractive - recipients felt specially chosen.
-Supports idea that attribution for disclosure is important.
-Wortman et al (1976) reported when individuals believed specially chosen, felt trusted and admired thus rated the person disclosing favourably.
Support claim that it can increase attractiveness and level of intimacy as individuals feel rewarded.
What are 2 limitations of Self-Disclosure?
Cultural Differences:
-Tang et al (2013) reviewed research literature regarding sexual self-disclosure, concluded that men and women in the USA self-disclose more sexual thoughts than those in China.
-Both these levels of self-disclosure are linked to satisfaction in those cultures.
Limited explanation, based on findings from Western cultures not necessarily generalisable to others.
Online disclosure can lead to ‘boom and bust’ phenomenon:
-Researchers suggest relationships formed over internet involve higher levels of self-disclosure than in face-to-face situations.
-Anonymously disclosing means greater psychological comfort.
-Cooper & Sportolari (1997) refer to this as this because when people reveal more info earlier than they would face-to-face, relationships will get intense faster.
-Because underlying trust and true knowledge of person are not there to support relationship, it is difficult to sustain.
-They highlight instances where people who are certain they have found their soulmate online have left an established relationship to meet people who do not turn out who they seemed to be.
