Influence Of Self-disclosure Research Articles

The effects of private self-consciousness and perspective taking on satisfaction in close relationships.

We extended the scope of recent studies in which self-awareness and perspective taking have been used as predictors of social competence or adjustment: We analyzed their influence on the satisfaction experienced in monogamous, heterosexual relationships. Members of 131 couples answered questions concerning themselves and their relationships. We predicted that individual differences in private self-consciousness would be positively related to relationship satisfaction because of the greater self-disclosure resulting from that heightened self-attention. Second, we predicted that individual differences in perspective taking would foster relationship satisfaction, independent of any influence of self-disclosure. Both expectations were confirmed. Scores on the private self-consciousness scale were predictive of reported self-disclosure, and self-disclosure was predictive of satisfaction in the relationship. Furthermore, once the influence of self-disclosure was removed, no effect of self-consciousness on satisfaction remained. In contrast, after disclosure was controlled, perspective-taking scores were significantly related to satisfaction and were in fact unrelated to disclosure at all. These findings indicate that two personality characteristics having to do with habitual attention to behavioral tendencies, to emotions, and to motivations significantly enhance the quality of close heterosexual relationships in different ways. Results are discussed in terms of current theory in the related fields.

Self-Disclosure in Friendship

An experimental investigation of the influence of self-disclosure on friendship was conducted by manipulating the level of self-disclosure. 65 same-sex pairs were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions, intimate self-disclosure, nonintimate self-disclosure and control (no disclosure); the treatment conditions were independently verified by judges' ratings. One member of each pair was randomly selected as the confederate or first speaker and was provided with a list of 7 conversation topics. There were no lists provided in the control condition. The dependent variable, level of friendship as measured by the Acquaintance Description Form (Wright, 1969), was rated before and after Ss engaged in self-disclosure, and the influence of the experimental conditions on friendship scores was assessed by analyses of covariance. The results showed that the general level of friendship increased as a function of intimate and nonintimate self-disclosure; however, intimate disclosure produced greater increases in friendship than nonintimate disclosure. The unique influence of self-disclosure on male friendship patterns is discussed.