Factors affecting attraction: Self-disclosure

Self-disclosure

• Self disclosure involves revealing personal information about yourself to another person.

• Information can be low-risk e.g work vs high risk like wishes and fears.

• Romantic partners reveal more about their true selves as the relationship develops.

• These revelations strengthen the relationship if used

  appropriately.

Altman and Taylor (1973): Social Penetration Theory

• Self- disclosure is a major concept within this theory of how relationships develop.

• Relationships are a gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone.

• It is a reciprocal exchange.

• Happens only when sufficient trust has been established – reduce embarrassment.

• Increasing disclosure = greater understanding of each other. Once the relationship has reached a certain stage then self-disclosure is welcomed and (hopefully) reciprocated.

Reciprocity of self-disclosure

Reis and Shaver (1988)

• There needs to be reciprocity to disclosure.

• Hopefully your partner will respond to the disclosure in a way that is rewarding = empathy, own intimate thoughts.

• Balanced self-disclosure in a successful romantic relationship – increases intimacy and deepens the relationship.

Breadth and depth

• We reveal a breadth of low risk information is revealed early on in a relationship - we would reveal this to anyone (friends, co-workers etc)

• High risk information comes out as the relationship progresses. No one wants to reveal too much too soon.

• Self-disclosure becomes deeper where we discuss the topics that matter most to us, we reveal intimate information like painful memories and strong beliefs.

• Builds commitment in relationships.

• Disclosure of personal information by others as rewarding, as it signals their liking of us and their desire to be more intimate with us.

Depenetration

Describes how dissatisfied partners self-disclose less as they gradually disengage from the relationship.

Strengths

• One strength of Social Penetration Theory is supporting research. For example Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong correlations between measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure. Sprecher et al (2013) suggested that relationships are closer when partners take turns to disclose (it is reciprocated). This matters because the supportive research findings increase the validity of the theory.

  • However, the study was only done on heterosexual couples, meaning homosexual relationships were not taken into account. Non-heterosexual relationships may have different dynamics and therefore, to them, self-disclosure may not be the most important factor affecting attraction. This lowers the generalisability of the theory

• One strength is that research into self-disclosure can help people who want to improve their communication in their relationships. For example Haas and Stafford (1998) found that 57% of homosexual men and women said that open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained and deepened their relationships. If less skilled partners learn these skills then it could benefit their relationships. This matters because psychological insights can be valuable in helping people who are having issues in their relationships.

Limitations

• Social Penetration Theory 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.

• 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.