Evaluation

• Practical application 


  -Couples counselling: therapist encourages self disclosure between couple. Th reciprocity is encouraged. This can help prevent a further loss of attraction.
• Virtual relationships 


  -The 'boom and bust' phenomenon in online relationships.

  -Found that the anonymity of online interaction gave web-users a sense of security and made them disclose personal information much earlier than face to face.

  -The necessary trust foundation has not been established. This shows that the breadth of relationship needs to be established first.
• Methodological issues 


  -Research has only found correlations between self disclosure and relationship satisfaction.

  -Cannot state self disclosure causing the satisfaction.

  -Could be that increased self disclosure is caused by increasing feelings of intimacy. (can't state a cause or effect relationship from a correlation).
• Culturally bias 


  -Social penetration theory developed on ideas of individualistic culture, so don't apply to collectivist cultures.

  In collectivist cultures there is more sexual thoughts and feelings than romantic relationships like China.
• Comparison to physical attractiveness

  -Self disclosure underestimates the influence of physical attractiveness.

  -The matching hypothesis theory states that people are more attracted to someone who has a similar attractiveness level to them.

  -Couples don't engage in self-disclosure if they don't match on physical attractiveness.