Self Disclosure

self-disclosure

reveals our feelings, attitudes, beliefs, memories etc., to our partner so they understand us better.

social penetration theory: altman and taylor

the gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else.

social penetration theory and romantic couples

romantic couples use this to signify trust in each other and gain greater understanding of each other.

onion analogy

social penetration theory is like peeling an onion, after each layer is deeper to the onions core (the inner self)

breadth

there are a lot of disclosures at the start of a relationship but they are superficial (don't have much meaning).

breadth is the _____ layer of an onion

outer

depth

as a relationship develops we reveal more high risk information about ourselves on a wider range of topics. (removing more layers)

reciprocity of self-disclosure

self-disclosure by one partner encourages the other to reveal information about themselves, deepening the relationship between them

research: sprecher and hendrick

studied heterosexual dating couples, strong correlations between several measured of satisfaction and SD. partners who used SD (and believed their partners did) were more satisfied/committed to their relationships.

sprecher and hendrick's research doesn't provide support for self-disclosure because..

it doesn't outline if self-disclosure is a cause of relationship satisfaction, rather it just proves that it could be a factor for increasing satisfaction. cannot establish cause and effect therefore validity is low.

sprecher and hendrick's research cannot be generalised to the wider population because..

the research was conducted on heterosexual couples only, meaning it cannot be applied to homosexual couples. therefore it lacks population (external) validity.

supporting research: haas and stafford (1998)

57% of homosexual men and women said that open and honest SD was the main way they maintained and deepened their relationships.

how does haas and stafford support self-disclosure theory?

it suggests that relationship maintenance and development is a result of SD as it was the main way couples developed. therefore it can be applied to real life, as people who have problems in relationships can improve their relationships.

other discussion points for haas and stafford

limitation, uses interviews so social desirability bias is possible. lacking internal validity limitation, only studied homosexuals so it can't be applied on heterosexuals. lacking population validity.

contradicting research: tang et al (2013)

found that men/women in the US self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts/feelings than men/women in china. despite lower SD levels in china, satisfaction had no difference between US china.

what does tang et al argue about self-disclosure?

argues against the fact that SD is a main important factor as it doesn't have the same effect universally, suggesting that SD may be ethnocentric as there is significant cultural variation in SD but not satisfaction in relationships.