self disclousure Flashcards
Self-disclosure definition
When a person reveals intimate personal info ab themselves to another person
What does disclosing lead to
Disclosing thoughts and feelings and allowing a partner to reveal their ‘true selves’ leads to greater intimacy in romantic relationships, and ultimately to more satisfaction
social penetration theory
Altman and Taylor
By gradually revealing emotions and experiences and listening to their reciprocal sharing, people gain a greater understanding of each other and display trust.
Two elements: breadth and depth
Breadth: at first, people often share a lot of information about certain aspects of themselves
Depth: but consider some topics to be ‘off-limit’
As they build trust in their partner’s understanding, breadth increases and then depth also increases. In the beginning, people only disclose superficial details about themselves, such as their music taste, hobbies and interests, and gradually move to revealing more intimate details, such as religious and political beliefs, family values and difficult experiences.
Research into SD
Sprecher:
Procedure: 156 undergrad US students paird into two preson dyads
2/3 of these were female-female and 1/3 male/female
All engaged in sd tasks over skype
Two conditions: reciprocal ( both ask qs taking turns) and non-reciprocal (one ask qs in the first interaction and then swap in second interaction)
Findings: Individs in reciprocal condition reported more liking, closeness, perceieved similarity and enjoyment
= turn taking disclosure reciprocity is more likely to lead to positive interpersonal outcomes than extended reciprocity
AO3:
str: gay research
str: boom and bust
lim: western=cultural bias
lim: nomothetic
str: gay research
One strength of the concept of self-disclosure is that is it supported by research.
For example, Has and Hartford (1998) found that 57% of gay men and women considered open self-disclosure as a main way to maintain close relationships.
This demonstrates the importance of self-disclosure in romantic relationships, just as the theory has predicted.
str: boom and bust
Boom and bust:
The importance of establishing trust in a partner before revealing more intimate information about ourselves is supported by the ‘boom and bust’ phenomenon in online relationships (Cooper and Sportolari).
They found that anonymity of online interactions gave web-users a sense of security and made them disclose personal information much earlier in relationships than they would face-to-face, making relationships exciting and intense (‘boom’).
However, because the necessary trust foundation had not been established, the intensity of the relationship was impossible to sustain, leading to break-up (‘bust’).
This shows that breadth of relationships needs to be established first, before proceeding to a deeper self-disclosure, just as Social Penetration Theory suggests.
lim: western
Social Penetration Theory was developed based on research in a Western, individualist culture, so it may not apply to collectivist cultures.
For example, Tang et al. (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 high in both cultures.
This shows that self-disclosure is not a requirement for successful relationships in all cultures, making Social Penetration Theory culturally biased.
lim: nomothetic
STP is unable to adequately explain the formation of all types of relationships and is limited by taking a nomothetic approach.
By claiming that higher self-disclosure will invariably lead to greater relationship satisfaction, this theory ignores many other factors that can influence relationships, such as cultural practices and personality.
Furthermore, by reducing relationship satisfaction to a single factor, Social Penetration Theory ignores many other aspects of romantic attraction, such as physical attractiveness, similarity of attitudes and complementarity.
This suggests that research into romantic relationships could benefit from the use of an idiographic approach that studies couples’ unique experiences in detail, rather than trying to establish a set of laws that apply to all couples.
