factors affecting attraction - Self disclosure

What is self disclosure

Relationships are a gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone this is to strength the relationship appropriately

Romantic relationships involve a reciprocal exchange of info between partners. This leads to a deeper understanding of eachother and is an important mechanism though which a relationship develops

Breadth and depth

There are two elements to this idea - breadth and depth. Altman and Tyler use the onion metaphor to explain this as they increasingly disclose more and more info romantic partners “penetrate” more deeply into each others lives

Breadth = low risk info is revealed early on in a relationship (info we would reveal to anyone) many topics are off limits early on, we should not reveal too much too soon

Depth= high risk info comes out as the relationship progressed, SD is deeper, revealing our true self’s, high risk info such as painful memories and experiences, beliefs, secrets

Reiss and shaver

Suggest there has to be a reciprocal element to SD for the relationship to develop. Once you have disclosed something that reveals your true self’s, hopefully your partner will respond in a rewarding way (understanding, empathy) And will also reveal their own intimate thoughts and feelings

There tends to be a balance of SD in successful romantic relations

Onion layers

Superficial- orientation, when first meet reveal superficial shell - hobbies, dislikes and frost impressions

Intimate - exploratory, personality shows through verbal and nonverbal communication. Become more intimate

Personal - affective, entire personality revealed, developed an understanding of each other, discuss personal topics can argue and critcise eachother

Core - stable, expose what makes a person who they are, disclosure is open and comfortable can predict how others will react

Individuals differences

• research has indicated differences in SD based on gender, personality and age

• Dindia and Allen found women disclose more than man though men are more likely to reveal personal information to people they do not know

• The personality of both disclosed and recipient may be significant too - for example some recipients may see disclosure as a positive thing (having been carefully selected to receive such info) but this may not be the case for all as some may see it as a case of “too close, too soon”

Research support

• sprecher and Hendrick - heterosexual relationships found strong correlations between self disclosure and measures of satisfaction and commitment

• Laurenceau et al - asked pps to write a diary daily found that SD was linked to higher levels of intimacy in long term married couples

• These findings increase the validity of SD leading to more successful romantic relationships

Furthermore sprecher et al showed relationships are closer and more satisfying when partners take turns to self disclosed

Culture differences

• the prediction that increasing SD leads to a more satisfying and intimate romantic relationship is not true for all cultures

• It depends on the type of SD

• Tang et al received literature on sexual SD concluding men and women in the USA self disclose significantly more than men and women in China. Both of these levels of SD are liked to relationship satisfaction in those cultures

• SD is therefore a limited explanation which is not generalisable beyond western cultures