Intimate Self-disclosure Research Articles

Anticipated Reaction of others to Intimate Vs Nonintimate Self-Disclosure

22 men and 22 women were presented 8 hypothetical situations in which they disclosed something to a same-sex friend. They rated how good an impression they would create by each statement. In the 8 situations, the topic was positive or negative, intimate or nonintimate, and self-disclosure was high or low. Subjects expected that they would be less well received by high vs low self-disclosure when the topic was intimate. Only on a positive nonintimate topic did they expect to be better received through high self-disclosure.

A study of factors that influence self-disclosure and change of real-ideal self discrepancies

The purpose of this study is to explain self-disclosure intimacy and change of real-ideal self discrepancies using levels of objective self-awareness (OSA), interviewer feedback, real-ideal self discrepancies, following Duval & Wicklund's theory of objective self-awareness (1972). 56 female subjects were divided into groups of either high or low levels of discrepancies by pretest. Subjects were exposed to either their own tape-recorded voices (high OSA) or another's voice (low OSA) before disclosing on a series of topics given by a interviewer. The interviewer responded either in an accepting or a non-accepting manner to the subjects. The experiment showed that (1) high levels of OSA resulted in more intimate disclosure in response to accepting interviewer than to non-accepting interviewer feedback, but low levels of OSA did not. (2) The change of real-ideal self discrepancies amomg the low levels of discrepancy group was not affected by any variables in this experiment. However, among the high levels of discrepancy group, high OSA led to increasing discrepancies in the case of non-accepting interviewer feedback.

Perceived Intimacy of Expressed Emotion

Research on norms for emotional expression and self-disclosure provided the basis for two hypotheses concerning the perceived intimacy of emotional self-disclosure. The first hypothesis was that the perceived intimacy of negative emotional disclosure would be greater than that of positive emotional disclosure; the second was that disclosures of more intense emotional states would be perceived as more intimate than disclosures of less intense emotional states for both negative and positive disclosures. Both hypotheses received support when male students in Canada rated the perceived intimacy of self-disclosures that were equated for topic and that covered a comprehensive sample of emotions and a range of emotional intensities. The effects were observed across all the topics of disclosure examined.

聞き手の“聞き上手さ”・“口の軽さ”が開示者の好意・開示に及ぼす効果

One hundred and ninety-nine university students (101 males, 98 females) served in a study designed to examine various factors affecting a discloser's degree of liking of and self-disclosure to a recipient. Specifically, the effects of (1) the recipient's degree of openness (high, low), (2) whether or not the recipient conveyed the discloser's self-disclosure to a third party (yes, no), and (3) the intimacy of self-disclosure by the discloser (high, low) were assessed in terms of (a) change in self-disclosure by the discloser and (b) change in liking by the discloser. Results confirmed the hypotheses that: (1) the degree of openness of the recipient and the conveyance of self-disclosure by the recipient would interact with change in the discloser's liking of and self-disclosure to the recipient, and, (2) the degree of openness of the recipient and the intimacy of self-disclosure would interact with change in the discloser's liking of and self-disclosure to the recipient. Moreover, females were found to be more sensitive than males to conveyance by the recipient.

Does Happiness Mean Friendliness?: Induced Mood and Heterosexual Self-Disclosure.

The separate process model of mood and behavior suggested that positive mood is associated with a social, expansive, approach motivation, while negative mood is associated with an avoidant, egocentric motivation. The present experiment examined the differential impact of positive and negative mood stimuli that were self-relevant or non-self-relevant on males' social interaction and self-disclosure with a female. The self-relevant conditions were effective in altering both the subjects' self-esteem and mood states, while the non-self-relevant conditions were effective in altering only the subjects' moods. Supporting the separate process model prediction that positive mood increases sociability, the self-relevant and non-self-relevant positive mood inductions were equal in motivating more total communication and more moderately and highly intimate self-disclosures compared with the two negative mood conditions. The self-relevant and non-self-relevant negative mood conditions generally produced equivalent effects on communication behaviors, although the self-relevant negative mood subjects may have made a more rapid recovery from the negative experience than their counterparts.

Women's satisfaction in close relationships

A review of research on women's satisfaction in close relationships explores the paradox between the images of women in popular books that offer advice on relationship distress, and empirical evidence supporting women's knowledge and expertise in the expressive/interpersonal domain. Images of women portrayed in the popular relationship literature can be characterized by three themes: (a) Ignorance (women don't know what they want); (b) Incompetence (women need to be taught how to relate in close encounters); and (c) Illusion (women and men are “intimate strangers” with distinct and polarized styles of relating). These three themes are reframed as testable hypotheses that are explored through reviews of relevant research literature on close relationships. The ignorance hypothesis is not supported, in that women have been shown to articulate their relationship preferences in at least three areas: demonstrations of affection and caring, clear communication, and equality in allocation of relationship resources. The hypothesis of incompetence is also rejected, in that women have been shown to display effective relationship skills in verbal and nonverbal communication, intimacy of self-disclosure, and social-support, all of which relate to relationship expertise and satisfaction. The intimate stranger hypothesis is explored through a sampling of relationship variables that have been shown to be independent of gender, including motives of intimacy and affiliation, and personality traits related to sex roles and self-monitoring. Applications to psychotherapy with women are considered. It is concluded that attention to gender issues in therapy is essential if clinicians are to address the preference and power differentials that exist between women and men. The focus on gender polarities, however, must be balanced by consideration of interpersonal variables that may transcend the social stereotypes of women and men in close relationships.

Mild depression and self-disclosure intimacy: Self and others' perceptions

A study was conducted to examine the nature and intimacy of self-disclosures made by mildly depressed and nondepressed college students. Written statements about positive and negative topics were elicited from students, and the statements were evaluated as to tone and intimacy, first by the subjects themselves and then by a group of raters. Results indicated that the statements of the mildly depressed subjects were more negative in tone and more intimate than were those of the nondepressed subjects, but only in the negative topic condition. In general, subjects' self-evaluations of their statements were consistent with those of the raters, suggesting that they were aware of the intimacy of their disclosures. In addition, correlational analyses indicated that mood states were positively related to statement intimacy for the nondepressed subjects, but negatively related for the mildly depressed subjects. Results are discussed in terms of the relation involving self-disclosure styles, social interaction, and depression.

Effects of Intimacy and Sex-Role Congruency of Self-Disclosure

Four scripts that varied on dimensions of disclosure intimacy (high vs. low) and sex role of contents (masculine vs. feminine) were prepared. Each script was attributed to a male author half the time and a female author half the time. These scripts were presented to 80 male and 80 female undergraduate subjects, each of whom believed the script he or she read to have been written by another subject. Subjects' impressions of the authors of these scripts revealed that female subjects did not respond differently to sex-role-congruent (e.g., male author, masculine sex role) than to sex-role-incongruent (e.g., male author, feminine sex role) scripts. Male subjects, however, liked authors of incongruent scripts less than authors of congruent scripts, and rated sex-role-incongruent male authors as being in poorer mental health than sex-role-congruent male authors. Analysis of the intimacy of written disclosures returned by subjects revealed reciprocity of self-disclosure intimacy: Subjects who read high-intimacy scripts returned more high-intimacy disclosure than did subjects who read low-intimacy scripts. There were no main or interaction effects of sex role or sex of author on disclosure intimacy.

自己開示の対人魅力に及ぼす効果 ＩＩＩ 開示内容次元と魅力判断次元の関連性に関する検討

To examine effects of self-disclosure intimacy and desirability on interpersonal attraction, 48 female subjects were presented with a scene of conversation between two women over VTR, in which the level of intimacy and desirability of disclosure was manipulated independently. Then, they were asked to rate the attractiveness of the discloser from the point of view of the listener. Both disclosure dimensions had positive effects on interpersonal attraction. Also, the dimensions of disclosure had differential effects on attraction: The discloser who provided desirable information about herself was more highly evaluated in the “affiliation” dimension than one who provided undesirable one, while, the discloser who provided intimate aspects of herself was more highly evaluated in the “nurturance” dimension than one who disclosed superficial aspects.

Intimacy of Self-Disclosure and Response Processes as Factors Affecting the Development of Interpersonal Relationships

Abstract This study examined the effects of low and increasing intimacy as patterns of self-disclosure and the effects of perspective taking and egocentrism as response styles on the development of a meaningful relationship. Subjects, 44 American female nursing students, responded to a stimulus form consisting of either 15 low-intimacy or increasing-intimacy, open-ended statements; trained confederates responded to their disclosures with either egocentric or perspective-taking behavior. Results of this study indicated that perceptions of the interaction and the potential for further relationship development were more positive under conditions of increasing intimacy; progression of disclosures seemed to produce perceptions leading to further relationship development. The positive effects of perspective taking were strongly supported. Results suggested that progressive self-disclosure combined with response to the other's disclosures in a perspective-taking manner increase the probability of relationship de...

Gender Effects in an Initial Encounter: A Case Where Men Exceed Women in Disclosure

This research examined self-disclosure between all possible pairs of sex of discloser and sex of disclosure target. Assuming that socialization encourages women and men to play different roles, men were expected to take the initiative in comparison to women in the first encounter. Among acquaintances, males may exceed women in their disclosure of personal information in order to control the relationship's development. Results supported this prediction. Males disclosed more intimately than females to an opposite-sex partner whom they had just met. Males paired with a female also exceeded the level of disclosure intimacy for females paired with a female or males paired with a male. The intimacy of self-disclosure for males paired with a female (compared to females paired with a male) was more highly correlated with liking for the partner and with perceptions of the partner's positive feelings toward self. Being singled out as a disclosure target led subjects to infer that their partner liked them, but it did not lead to greater disclosure intimacy nor liking for the partner.

Self-disclosure: Intimate and nonintimate disclosures to parents and best friends as a function of bem sex-role category

Thirty-two androgynous, traditional, and undifferentiated males and females (N/it=192) completed a 6-item self-disclosure questionnaire containing 30 intimate and 30 nonintimate items. The targets were father, mother, and best male and female friends. Analyses of both intimate and nonintimate items indicated that amount of self-disclosure was related to sex role and not gender. Typical male-female differences in self-disclosure were not found because (a) androgynous males disclosed at significantly higher levels than traditional and undifferentiated males to most targets; (b) undifferentiated males and females disclosed significantly less than their androgynous and traditional counterparts. Intimate self-disclosure by androgynous males to father, and nonintimate disclosure by androgynous females to father, were particularly high. Both findings suggest a unique role for fathers in the development of androgynous persons. Androgynous females reported higher disclosure to best male friend than to mother. This is counter to the traditional female pattern and is interpreted as representing a greater degree of distancing from mother and openness to peers.

Gender and Sex-Role Differences in Intimacy of Self-Disclosure

The present study examined the relationship of gender and sex-role type to intimacy of self-disclosure. Participants wrote descriptions of themselves which were supposedly to be given to another person, whom they were led to believe they would later meet. Women were significantly more intimate in their self-disclosures than were men. Differences in intimacy of disclosure were also found for different sex-role types, but contrary to expectations, femininity was not positively related to disclosure. Instead, masculinity was negatively related to intimacy of self-disclosure.

Openers: Individuals who elicit intimate self-disclosure.

Openers: Individuals who elicit intimate self-disclosure.

Openers: Individuals who elicit intimate self-disclosure.

Openers: Individuals who elicit intimate self-disclosure.

Self-Disclosure, Attribution, and Social Interaction

An experiment was conducted to investigate relationships among intimacy of self-disclosure, attribution, and socialf interaction. Subjects first observed a -videotaped social encounter in which a stimulus person revealed either highly intimate or less intimate information, and then either made attributions on a free response measure or did not make attributions about the event and stimulus person. During a subsequent interaction between the subject and the stimulus person, unobtrusive measures of subjects' verbal and nonverbal behaviors were recorded. The attribution variation was included in the experimental design in order to investigate the role of attributional activity in mediating the effects of intimacy on behavior. It was predicted and found that the attribution variation interacts with level of intimacy on measures of overt behavior. Subjects who engaged in the task of reporting attributions exhibited more pronounced behavioral differences as a result of the intimacy manipulation than did subjects who worked on a distraction task. The results also indicated that the high intimacy variation led to a greater amount of attributional activity and fewer positive behavioral tendencies during the interaction than did the low intimacy variation. The results are discussed in terms of the function of dispositional attributional activity in facilitating a sense of control in social interaction.

Intimacy and Scarcity of Self-Disclosure

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the relationship between the intimacy of self-disclosure and liking for the self-disclosing person is mediated in part by the perceived scarcity of the revelations. Within a factorial design, subjects expecting to hear a same-sex partner disclose information which was low, medium, or high in intimacy, were either given no information about the scarcity of the disclosures or were led to believe that the partner would ordinarily reveal such information to a great many people or to very few people. Although both males and females gave clear evidence of disclosure reciprocity, males' liking for their partners failed to be influenced by either the intimacy or scarcity of the expected revelations. For females, when no scarcity information was provided, increased information intimacy produced greater liking. As anticipated, when scarcity was held constant at either a high or low level, the effects of intimacy on attraction were attenuated and nonsignificant. The findings are discussed in terms of a revised commodity theory formulation.

The Dyadic Trust Scale: Toward Understanding Interpersonal Trust in Close Relationships

Interpersonal trust is an aspect of close relationships which has been virtually ignored in social scientific research despite its importance as perceived by intimate partners and several family theorists. This article describes the development, validation, and correlates of the Dyadic Trust Scale, a tool designed for such research. It is unidimensional, reliable, relatively free ifrom response biases, and purposely designed to be consistent with conceptualizations qf trust from various perspectives. Dyadic trust proved to be associated with love and with intimacy of self-disclosure, especiallyjfor longer married partners. It varied by level of commitment, being lowest jor ex-partners and highest for those engaged and living together, for newlyweds, and for those married over 20 years. Partners reciprocated trust more than either love or depth qfself-disclosure. Future research could fruitfully relate dyadic trust to such issues as personal growth in relationships, resolving interpersonal conflict, and developing close relationships subsequent to separation or divorce.

Stress-coping abilities of individuals high and low in jealousy.

A review of experimental research on jealousy showed further research is required to understand the concept beyond a listing of basic differences in self-report. An analogue study of the coping abilities of people high and low in jealousy was conducted. Using the stress of intimate self-disclosure, individuals high and low in jealousy were able to use a cognitive coping strategy equally well. Alternative rival hypotheses are reviewed. Other results replicated previous findings that the jealous person tends to be more anxious, lacking in self-esteem, and possibly more depressed.

Sharing secrets: Disclosure and discretion in dyads and triads.

To develop a more comprehensive picture of the variables that influence disclosure patterns, the impact of group size on sharing secrets was explored. Given Derlega and Chaikin's suggestion that the existence of a closed dyadic boundary is a prerequiste for intimate self-disclosure, it was hypothesized that subjects would be more willing to disclose intimate information in a dyad than in a triad. The results of Experiment 1, which used a role-playing methodology, confirmed the hypothesis. The main effect of group size was observed over a range of roles and items of information. In addition to the main effect, group size interaction effects also indicated that the difference between dyad and triad disclosure rates increased with more intimate items of information and with more intimate roles. These interaction effects suggested that the importance of a closed dyadic boundary depends in part on the expected confidentiality of the interchange. In Experiment 2 the conversations of groups of acquaintances were recorded and rated for intimacy. As predicted, the conversations of dyads were more intimate than those of triads. Suggestions for understanding the intimate quality of dyads are discussed.