Self Disclosure

• Self Disclosure

  Revealing personal information about yourself-

  eg thoughts feelings and experiences.

  More disclosure = greater feelings of intimacy
• Social penetration theory

  •SPT is the gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else, of giving away your deepest thoughts and feelings.•In romantic relationships, it involves the reciprocal exchange of information between intimate partners. When one partner reveals some personal information they display trust; to go further the other partner must also reveal sensitive information.
• Social penetration theory


  •As they increasingly disclose more and more information to each other, romantic partners 'penetrate' more deeply into each other's lives, and gain a greater understanding of each other.
• Romantic partner disclosure

  1. Disclose more and more information to each other

  2. Penetrate more deeply into each other's lives

  3. Gain a greater understanding of each other
• As breadth & depth of disclosure increase


  Romantic partners become more committed to each other
• Early relationship disclosure

  • Superficial, mostly 'on the surface', like the outer layers of an onion
  • Low-risk information we would reveal to anyone, friends, co-workers, even acquaintances
• Breadth of early relationship disclosure

  Narrow because many topics are 'off-limits'
• Penetrate

  (in romantic relationships) Disclose more and more information to each other, gaining a greater understanding
• Revealing too much too soon


  Might get the response 'too much information', possibly even threatening the relationship before it's had a chance to get going
• Self-disclosure in a developing relationship

  1. Becomes deeper

  2. Progressively removes more and more layers

  3. Reveals true selves

  4. Reveals intimate, high-risk information (painful memories, strongly-held beliefs, powerful feelings, secrets)
• Reciprocity of self disclosure

  •As Reis and Shaver point out, for a relationship to develop, as well as an increase in breadth and depth 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 understanding, empathy and also their own intimate thoughts and feelings.•So there is a balance of self-disclosure between both partners in a successful romantic relationship, which increases feelings of intimacy and. . . deepens the relationship.
• Norms of self disclosure

  • People should engage in only a moderately personal level of self-disclosure in the early stages of a relationship
  • Self-disclosure should be neither too personal, or too impersonal
• Norm of reciprocity

  People expect others to return the services they provide, be it money, favours or, in romantic relationships, self-disclosure
• There is considerable evidence that people possess a norm of reciprocity concerning self-disclosure
• The more one person discloses to another

  The more disclosure is expected in return
• Cultural differences in self-disclosure

  • The prediction that increasing depth and breadth of self-disclosures will lead to more satisfying and intimate relationships is not true for all cultures
  • It depends on the type of self-disclosure
• The theory is limited as it is based on findings from Western (individualist) cultures which are not necessarily generalisable to other cultures