Virtual Flashcards
Research support for self-disclosure in virtual relationships:
-Evidence to suggest that self-
disclosure is a process of virtual relationships has been found by Joinson (2001).
-In a laboratory experiment, Joinson found participants in the computer condition showed significantly more self-disclosure than the face-to-face participants.
-In experiment 2, pairs who could see one another over video had significantly lower levels of self-disclosure than pairs without a video.
-These findings that the use of self-disclosure is boosted in virtual
relationships appear to be replicated in real life, for example, -Parks & Floyd (1996) studied
relationships formed by internet users and found that people report disclosing significantly more in their internet encounters compared to their face-to-face relationships. -These findings support the suggestion that more rapid and intimate self-disclosure is both given and expected in virtual relationships more so than in face-to-face ones.
Research to support absence of gating in virtual relationships:
Evidence that the absence of
gating is a key feature the development of virtual relationships comes from Bargh et al.
(2002).
-He found that intimacy developed more quickly with virtual than face-to-face relationships because of a lack of gating features that typically prevent intimate disclosures
in face-to-face relationships. -Furthermore, Mckenna and Bargh (2002) looked at computer
mediated communication by lonely and socially anxious people and found that they were able
to express their ‘true selves’ more than in face-to-face situations. 70% of the romantic relationships that initially formed online survived more than two years, which is a higher proportion than for relationships that formed in the offline world (49%, Kirkpatick and Davis).
-Studies such as these support the idea of that a lack of gating helps individuals to develop (virtual) relationships where they would have had many more barriers in face-to-face ones.
Relationships are multi-modal
-One limitation of the explanations of the nature of virtual relationships is the lack of recognition that relationships are conducted both online and offline and through many different media.
-The interaction between people online will influence the interaction in the face-to-face relationship including the level and speed of self- disclosure.
-As such these two kinds of communication have to be considered together and not separately.
-Additionally, there are many types of CMC being used which leads to different levels of disclosure.
-For example, disclosure occurs more on gaming sites and in chat rooms and less on dating sites as future face-to-face meetings are anticipated.
-This suggests that the current theories may underestimate the complexity of virtual relationships reducing the validity of the explanations.
