Self Disclosure

• Self-Disclosure


  Revealing personal informations about yourself, leading to greater intimacy and satisfaction.
• Social Penetration Theory


  Altman and Taylor:

  • Gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else
  • Reciprocal exchange of information
  • As they increasingly disclose more information, they 'penetrate' more deeply into each others lives
  • 'Depenetration’ = gradually disclosing less as they disengage
• Breadth and Depth


  As both increase, partners become more committed to each other. Onion metaphor:

  • Disclose superficial information at start
  • Danger of revealing too much too soon
  • Relationship develops and more layers are revealed
  • Eventually high-risk and intimate details are disclosed
• Reciprocity


  Reis and Shaver:

  • Once a partner has disclosed something personal, the other should respond in a way that is rewarding or empathetic
  • Balance of self-disclosure between partners
  • Increases intimacy and deepens relationship
• Eval : Strength


  Sprecher and Hendrick studied heterosexual couples and found strong correlations between satisfaction and self-disclosure
• Eval : Weakness


  Most support for the concept comes from correlational research, meaning it's hard to establish a cause and effect, reducing the validity of the concept.
• Eval : Weakness


  Social Penetration Theory is based on research in Western individualist cultures so may not apply to collectivist cultures. Tang et al found that women and men in the USA disclose more sexual thoughts than in China, showing self-disclosure is culturally biased.