self disclosure

• self disclosure 


  revealing personal information about yourself to a romantic partner
• social penetration theory

  • gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone
  • reciprocal exchange of information which displays trust so they disclose more and more info to each other
  • gain a greater understanding of each other and penetrate into each others lives
• breadth and depth

  • breadth and depth increases so that partners become more committed to each other
  • at the start, we disclose alot but it is mostly superficial and low-risk information we could reveal to anyone
  • breadth is narrow at the start as lots of topics are off limits as if we reveal too much, too soon then it is seen as unattractive
  • becomes deeper revealing our true selves and eventually disclosing intimate, high-risk info
• reciprocity

  • needs to be reciprocal for a relationship to develop
  • a balance increases intimacy and deepens the relationship
• strength

  • studied heterosexual dating couples and found strong correlations between measures of satisfaction and self-disclosure
  • those who used self-disclosure and believed their partners did, were more satisfied and committed to the relationship
  • increases validity of the theory
• strength

  • can help those who want to improve communication in their relationship
  • 57% of gay men and women said that open and honest self-disclosure was the way they maintained and deepened their relationships
  • those who limit communication to small talk can learn to use self-disclosure to benefit the relationship
  • has a good value
• weakness

  • cultural differences
  • breadth and depth is not true for all cultures
  • usually depends on type of self-disclosure
  • usa men and women disclose more sexual thoughts and feelings than men and women in china
  • limited explanation of romantic relationships as not universally generalisable