self disclosure

• Self disclosure is revealing personal information about yourself, including your deepest thoughts and feelings. Romantic partners reveal more of their true selves as their relationships develops.

  More disclosure = greater feelings of intimacy
• Self-disclosure is a central concept in Social Penetration Theory.

  Social penetration theory claims that by gradually revealing emotions and experiences and reciprocal sharing, people gain a greater understanding of on another and display trust. 
• Altman and Taylor –

  Onion metaphor:  Self-disclosure is a process of removing layers.

  Breadth and depth and important factors in self-disclosure

  As these increase commitment does

  Used metaphor of onion

  -We reveal superficial info first-Moving into intimate details later

  Breadth is restricted at first as some topics are ‘off limits’

  As depth increases so can breadth
• As both breadth and depth increases, romantic partners become more committed to one another.

  Low risk information is revealed early on in a relationship and high risk information comes out as the relationship progresses.
• Depenetration – dissatisfied partners disclose less as the gradually disengage from the relationship
• Shaver: for a relationship to develop and increase breadth and depth, there need to be a reciprocal element to disclosure.

  There needs to be balance in self-disclosure between both partners in a successful relationships so that intimacy can increase.
• Weakness

  Much self-disclosure research is correlational, It is usually assumed that greater self-disclosure creates more satisfaction but a correlation does not tell us if this is a valid conclusion to draw. Alternative explanations are just as likely.

  Therefore self-disclosures may not cause satisfaction directly, reducing the validity of social penetration theory of self-disclosure
• Strength

  several predictions about self-disclosure derived from social penetration theory have been supported by research.

  Susan Sprecher and Susan Hendrick (2004) studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong correlations between several measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure for both partners.

  These supportive research findings increase the validity of the theory that reciprocated self-disclosure leads to more satisfying relationships.
• Strength

  research into self-disclosure can help people who want to improve communication in their relationships.

  Romantic partners sometimes use self-disclosure deliberately to increase intimacy and strengthen their bond. Stephen Haas and Laura 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.

  This shows that psychological insights can be valuable in helping people who are having problems in their relationships
• Weakness

  it is not true for all cultures that increasing depth and breadth of self-disclosures leads to a more satisfying and intimate romantic relationship.

  research into sexual self-disclosure concluded that men and women in the US (individualist) self-disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in China (collectivist)

  Therefore self-disclosure theory is a limited explanation of romantic relationships because it is based on findings from individualist cultures which are not necessarily generalisable to other cultures.