Self-disclosure

self-disclosure definition

revealing personal information about yourself

• romantic partners reveal more about their true selves as their relationship develops

social penetration theory

• Altman and Taylor

• it is the gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else and then the partner reciprocating this

• when one partners reveals some personal information they are signalling “I trust you”

• to go further the other partner must also reveal personal information

• as they disclose more and more, romantic partners “penetrate” deeper into each other lives and gain a deeper understanding of each other

breadth and depth of self-disclosure

• Altman and Taylor

• as breadth and depth increases, romantic partners become more committed to each other

• we only reveal superficial details at the beginning of the relationship

• it is the kind of “low risk information” we would reveal to anyone

• however as the relationship develops self-disclosure becomes deeper - talking about deeper topics

reciprocity of self-disclosure

• Reis and Shaver

• for a relationship to develop, there needs to be a reciprocal element to disclosure

• once you have decided to disclose something that reveals your true self, hopefully your partner will respond in a way that is rewarding, with empathy and also their own intimate thoughts and feelings

• so there is a balance of self-disclosure between both partner = increases feelings of intimacy and deepens the relationships

strength - research support

• Susan and Susan

• studied heterosexual dating couples

• found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure for both partners

• men and women who used self-disclosure were more satisfied with and committed to their romantic relationships

• in a later study, Susan showed that relationships are closer and more satisfying when partners take turns to self-disclosure

• therefore = these supportive research findings increase the validity of the theory that reciprocated self-disclosure leads to more satisfying relationships

strength - real world application

• romantic partners sometimes use self-disclosure to increase intimacy and to strengthen their bond

• Hass and Stafford - found that 57% of homosexual men and women said that open and honest self-disclosure was the main way they maintained their relationship

• if partners who have low levels of communications use self-disclosure then this could bring about several benefits to their relationship in terms of deepening satisfaction and commitment

• therefore = this shows that psychological insight can be valuable in helping people who are having problems in their relationships

limitation - cultural differences

• Tang et al - reviewed research into sexual self-disclosure (i.e. disclosing about feelings related to specific sexual practices)

• concluded that men and women in the US (individualistic culture) self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in China (collectivist)

• therefore = self-disclosure theory is based on findings from individualistic cultures which are not necessarily generalisable to other cultures