Self Disclosure

Factors Affecting Attraction

What are the 3 elements of self-disclosure?

Social penetration theory, breadth and depth, reciprocity

What is self-disclosure?

Revealing personal information about yourself as a relationship develops which can strengthen a romantic bond.

What is social penetration theory?

The gradual reciprocal process of revealing your deepest thoughts and sensitive information which signals trust and as each reveal more they penetrate more into each other’s lives.

What is breadth and depth?

Low risk information is revealed first and as the relationship develops more sensitive information is revealed like layers of an onion.

What is reciprocity?

For a relationship to develop and breadth and depth to increase self-disclosure must be reciprocal as in you both reveal sensitive information about yourselves equally in response to one another

Strengths

• Research support – Sprecher and Hendrick found strong correlations between satisfaction and self-disclosure in couples and relationships are closer when self-disclosure is reciprocal – valid

• Real world application – can help people who want to improve their relationship as deliberate use of self-disclosure can help increase intimacy and bond. Haas and Stafford found that for 57% their relationship was maintained and improved

Limitations

• Cultural differences – increasing breadth and depth may not improve relationships for al cultures. Tang found that despite sexual self-disclosure being higher in US than China, levels of satisfaction were no different. – ungeneralisable

• Methodological issues – most self-disclosure and relationship research is correlational. The order of self-disclosure to satisfaction is not clear and it could be that higher satisfaction leads to self-disclosure not the other way around. – invalid