Relationships: Self-disclosure

Question 1

What’s self-disclosure??

Answer 1

Revealing personal information about yourself to a new partner!

Question 2

Who developed Social Penetration Theory and when??

Answer 2

Altman & Taylor (1973)

Question 3

What is Social Penetration Theory??

Answer 3

Describes the gradual process of revealing your inner self to someone else.

When one person reveals something, it’s a sign of trust

Increase of disclosure over time = Penetrate more into each other’s lives

Question 4

Why are breadth and depth of self-disclosure relevant to Social Penetration Theory??

Answer 4

• As they increase, partners get more committed to each other
• Breadth of disclosure is initially narrow
• ‘low risk’ information is initially disclosed (e.g. to colleagues)
• ‘high risk’ information includes painful memories and experiences

Question 5

Who stated that Reciprocity was relevant to Self-disclosure??

Answer 5

Reis & Shaver (1988)
Stated that self-disclosure needs to be reciprocal!

Question 6

How is Reciprocity relevant to Self-disclosure??

Answer 6

• Once personal info is disclosed, you hope partner will respond in an appropriate way
• Successful relationship = balance of self-disclosure
• Reciprocal self-disclosure increases intimacy

Question 7

What are the 3 AO3 points for Self-disclosure??

Answer 7

• Laurenceau et al (2005)
• Tang et al (2013)
• Hass & Stafford (1998)

Question 8

What did Laurenceau et al (2005) do?? (AO3)

Answer 8

Studied daily diary entries of partners and found that self-disclosure was linked to higher levels of intimacy in long-term married couples. The reverse was also true.

-> Increases validity of the theory

Question 9

What did Tang et al (2013) do??

Answer 9

Couples from individualist cultures disclosed more information of a sexual nature, compared to collectivist China.

Types of self-disclosure differ between cultures so it’s a limited explanation of romantic relationships.

Based on western studies so it isn’t generalisable and is ethnocentric (culture bias)

Question 10

What did Hass & Stafford (1998) state??

Answer 10

Self-disclosure can be applied to therapy!
- Main way to deepen and maintain commitment in a relationship
- Research support for self-disclosure highlights importance of getting partners who are ‘closed off’ or ‘bad at communication’ to open-up.