Self disclosure

• Self-disclosure refers to the information we choose to reveal about ourselves within a romantic relationship. The aim of self-disclosure is to increase the intimacy, understanding and empathy between two individuals. This is under the condition that the self-disclosure is reciprocal.
• The social penetration theory - Altman and Taylor (1973):

  • The process of self-disclosure allows one person to penetrate deeper into the life of their partner, thus increasing intimacy and trust. The researchers have used an onion analogy to illustrate this. As the relationship progresses, more layers of the onion are removed, representing deeper and more meaningful information being disclosed. This is only likely to occur if the exchange of such information is reciprocal. Such exchanges represents a stage in the relationship which is serious and characterised by trust.
• Types of social penetration:

  • Breadth - The types of topics that can be discussed. Certain areas may not be appropriate until a certain level of friendship.
  • Depth - Level of information about a topic is no longer considered 'TMI', so nothing is off limits.
• Strengths of self disclosure:

  • Practical advantages - Hass and Stafford found that homosexual couples with high levels of intimacy and commitment within their relationships (57%) reported the use of self-disclosure as a way to maintain it. Therefore, this supports the use of therapies which focus on increasing the depth and breadth of self-disclosure for couples who struggle with intimacy, as well as increasing trust within the relationship. These are the predictions made by social penetration theory, thus further increasing the validity of this theory
• Strengths of self disclosure:

  • Strong validity - Laurenceau found that, on the basis of daily diary entries, high levels of intimacy and trust were strongly associated or correlated with high levels of self-disclosure, in married couples. This suggests that the depth and breadth of self-disclosure is strongly predictive of the intimacy and quality of romantic relationships, which again supports the validity of the social penetration theory as an indicator of relationship quality.
• Strengths of self disclosure:

  • Supporting studies - Sprecher and Hendrick (2004) conducted the 'Student dating' research, where men and women were found to have similar levels of self disclosure and a positive correlation between the amount of self disclosure and measures of the quality of the relationship was found. This suggests that self disclosure is reciprocal with partners, and high levels of it is linked to stronger levels of attraction.
• Limitations of self disclosure:

  • Correlational studies - Causal conclusions cannot be made. For example, simply because there is a correlation between satisfaction and self-disclosure does not necessarily mean that the former causes the latter. Correlational studies can never establish ‘cause and effect’ relationships between two variables because they may also be affected by the ‘third variable problem’. Therefore, this means that correlational studies cannot be relied upon to demonstrate the mechanism of self disclosure in relation to the quality of relationships
• Limitations of self disclosure:

  • Cultural differences - Tang found people in the US (individualist culture) self-disclose significantly more sexual thoughts and feelings than people in China (collectivist culture). Even though the level of disclosure was lower in China, relationship satisfaction was no different from that in the US.