Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire Research Articles

The effects of therapists’ attractiveness and attributes on clients’ inclination toward self-disclosure – to wear makeup or not to wear makeup?

ABSTRACT Previous research suggests that more attractive therapists can encourage clients to disclose themselves more. On account of the halo effect, it can be conjectured that this relationship is mediated by other perceived attributes of therapists, such as their counselling competence and empathic understanding. Nonetheless, no study has been undertaken to examine this mediation effect. This study was therefore geared towards testing the indirect effect of therapists’ physical attractiveness on clients’ inclination towards self-disclosure via therapists’ core attributes. In addition, the application of cosmetic makeup, therapist age, and client sex were considered. A total of 129 young adults were recruited to complete the Therapist Attribute Inventory and Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire based on one of the four photographs of female therapists with or without wearing makeup. The data was analysed using 7 PROCESS Macro models. The results indicate that positive ratings on perceived therapist attractiveness can be transferred to other therapist attributes, which in turn promote clients’ inclination towards self-disclosure. The application of cosmetics has an impact on this mediation effect, albeit being in an unexpected fashion. This has implications for whether therapists should wear makeup in a Hong Kong Chinese counselling setting and how it would affect clients’ self-disclosure.

Can virtues enhance the benefits of expressive writing among healthy Chinese? A pilot study

Objective: This study aims to explore the relationship between virtues and self-disclosure via a cross-sectional study and an intervention study among Chinese.Methods: In study one, 144 healthy individuals completed the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire (CVQ) and the short version of Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. In study two, 41 undergraduates voluntarily attended a nine-week intervention. Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) was adopted as the well-being indicator. They were asked to complete the vitality sub-scale of CVQ and SWLS at week one for obtaining the virtue scores and baseline scores of well-being. After an eight-week intervention, SWLS was completed again to examine the intervention efficacy.Results: Among the three virtues, only vitality had the significant and positive relation with self-disclosure. After eight weeks, the high-vitality group obtained the significant growth of satisfaction with life. The change degree of satisfaction among high vitality individuals was significantly higher than the low vitality group.Conclusion: Prescreening of individual vitality may be helpful for identifying the sensitive targets of expressive writing intervention. However, considering that this is a preliminary study, more rigorous randomized controlled trials will be helpful to test this conclusion in future.

A voxel-based morphometry study of regional gray and white matter correlate of self-disclosure

Self-disclosure is an important performance in human social communication. Generally, an individual is likely to have a good physical and mental health if he is prone to self-disclosure under stressful life events. However, as for now, little is known about the neural structure associated with self-disclosure. Therefore, in this study, we used voxel-based morphometry to explore regional gray matter volume (rGMV) and white matter volume (rWMV) associated with self-disclosure measured by the Jourard Self-disclosure Questionnaire in a large sample of college students. Results showed that individual self-disclosure was significantly and positively associated with rGMV of the left postcentral gyrus, which might be related to strengthen individual’s ability of body feeling; while self-disclosure was significantly and negatively associated with rGMV of the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), which might be involved in increased positive emotion experience seeking (intrinsically rewarding). In addition, individual self-disclosure was also associated with smaller rWMV in the right inferior parietal lobule (IPL). These findings suggested a biological basis for individual self-disclosure, distributed across different gray and white matter areas of the brain.

The Relationship of Homophobia to Intimacy in Heterosexual Men

ABSTRACT Interpersonal intimacy is more difficult to achieve for American men than women. Research has shown that men disclose less, have fewer close friendships, and are viewed by their wives as low in intimacy. Among the barriers to intimacy among men, Tog-noli (1980) suggested that homophobia is the most powerful. The present study tested this idea by asking men to disclose a personal secret to either a male confidant, a female confidante, or by writing the secret. It was expected that the presence of a male confidant would stimulate homophobic feelings and inhibit disclosure, while the other two conditions would result in more personal disclosure. A correlation between intimacy of disclosure and level of homophobia was also expected. Subjects were 75 heterosexual men, 31 to 50 years of age, randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. They also completed the Miller Social Intimacy Scale, the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, the Index of Homophobia, and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Results showed that homophobia was inversely related to level of social intimacy. There was some indication that homophobia does relate to less intimate disclosure to other males. Thus this study found some support for the idea that homophobia is an obstacle to intimacy for men.

Self-disclosure and nursing students: the replication of a Jourard study

A person's willingness to disclose things about him or herself is an important facet of all social interaction. In professional helping relationships effective management of treatment and therapy may depend ultimately on a person's self-disclosures. Sidney Jourard claimed in 1971 that “disclosure begets disclosure”. It is important therefore to explore professional helpers' willingness to disclose things about themselves, as this may influence the dialogue which they have with their clients and patients. In this paper we describe a replication of a small study carried out by Sidney Jourard in 1961. An opportunistic sample of 25 undergraduate nursing students was asked to complete Jourard's self-disclosure questionnaire. Analysis of the findings suggested that, overall, the students in this study were more self-disclosing than was the case in the earlier study. Other findings are noted as are the limitations of this form of exploration of self-disclosure.

Effects of gender, target's gender, topic, and self-esteem on disclosure to best and midling friends

Two studies examining self-disclosure as a function of discloser's gender, target's gender, topic, class standing, and self-esteem are reported. In the first study, 172 college students were given a test containing items from a modified Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire and the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory, and asked to report disclosure to their best, nonromantic, same-and cross-sex friends; the second study was a replication of the first, but the 138 subjects were questioned about disclosure to “midling”-level friends. The expected effects were found—topic, target's gender, etc.—and self-esteem level and class standing were found to influence disclosure levels as well. The η2 and correlations are reported, so that readers can see an estimate of the effects' magnitudes as well as their significance levels.

Intimacy Status and Couple Communication

Based on Erikson's theory that successful resolution of the intimacy vs. isolation crisis results in the enhancement of one's capacity to maintain close relationships, it was hypothesized that a fully developed capacity for intimacy would affect the depth of a person's self-disclosure to his or her romantic partner. A sample of 49 couples ranging in age from 22 to 57 completed an intimacy status interview, the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (JSDQ), a relationship satisfaction measure, and were videotaped while discussing topics of varying levels of privacy from the JSDQ. Those with full (Intimate status) vs. partial (Merger and Pseudointimate statuses) resolutions to the intimacy crisis were best differentiated by their JSDQ scores and their satisfaction scores. Couples' analyses indicated that the individual's own intimacy status, plus the combined intimacy statuses of the partners in the couple, together best predicted both partners' self-disclosure and the male partner's satisfaction with the relationship. Intimate status females were most positive in the videotaped dialogue when their partners were also in the Intimate status. Results were interpreted as supporting Erikson's theory.

Psychotherapy Training and Marital Stress

To test the psychodynamic premise that psychotherapy training induces emotional depletion and detracts from marital intimacy, 29 married mental health trainees completed the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, the Marital Attitudes Evaluation, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and an abbreviated version of the Sexual Interaction Inventory. Contrary to expectation, marital distress was not greater among psychiatric residents and psychology interns more deeply involved in psychotherapy training than among their less invested counterparts. The failure to confirm is discussed in relation to alternative theoretical formulations and methodological limitations.

The Relationship Between Identity and Intimacy in Early Adulthood

Abstract This investigation examined the relationship between identity and intimacy in young adults and determined whether prior measures of identity and intimacy status would be useful with subjects in this age range. Fifty 22- to 35-year-old men and women participated in structured interviews designed to assess identity and intimacy status. They also completed the Identity Status Incomplete Sentences Blank for Adults and several other paper-and-pencil inventories: the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, the Inventory of Psychosocial Development, the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, and the Yufit Intimacy-Isolation Scale. Results suggest that there is a relationship between identity status and intimacy in adults, that the interviews and the Identity Status Incomplete Sentences Blank for Adults are more closely related to each other than to other measures of theoretically similar constructs, and that these measures of identity and intimacy are useful with adults. In supplementary analyses few sex ...

Effects of Examiner Variables on Reported Self-Disclosure: Implications for Group Personality Testing

The interactions of three examiner variables-gender, ethnicity (Anglo or Mexican American), and style of administration (nondirective, directive, or neutral)-on the responses of Mexican American and Anglo, male and female university students' responses to Jourard's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire were investigated. An analysis of variance procedure was used and several interactions were statistically significant. The results of this study indicate that global examiner variables such as gender and ethnicity as well as more subtle variables such as verbal style of administration can greatly effect group test results. These effects are compounded when the respondents are of different gender and ethnicity. Implications of these findings for group personality tests are discussed.

Effect of therapist expectations and need for approval on self-disclosure.

Previous therapy analogue studies of self-disclosure have treated Ss as a homogeneous group without examining possibly relevant S variables. In the present study, 68 female students identified as high or low in need for approval listened to a tape-recorded interview between a high self-disclosing therapist and a female client under one of two therapist expectation conditions: Clear expectation of high self-disclosure vs. ambiguous expectation. Ss then indicated on the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire the degrees to which they would be willing to disclose to the therapist. It was predicted that high need for approval Ss would disclose most under the clear expectation condition, while low need for approval Ss would not be affected by the therapist expectation. A significant Need Approval X Therapist expectation interaction supported this prediction. Further analysis indicated that items for the Work, Money, and Personality subsections of the disclosure questionnaire contributed most to the interaction. Implications for differential treatment of high need for approval Ss who were entering therapy were discussed.

Loneliness and patterns of self-disclosure.

The first study in this paper examined the hypothesis that feeling lonely is related to a self-perceived lack of self-disclosure to significant others. Thirty-seven male and 38 female undergraduates rated themselves on the UCLA Loneliness Scale and the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. Analyses showed that for males and females, loneliness was significantly and linearly related to a self-perceived lack of intimate disclosure to opposite-sex friends. For females, loneliness was also associated with a perceived lack of self-disclosure to same-sex friends. The second study investigated the relationship between loneliness and actual disclosure behavior. Twenty-four lonely subjects and 23 nonlonely subjects were paired with nonlonely partners in a structured acquaintanceship exercise. Both opposite-sex pairs and same-sex pairs were included in the design. Postexercise ratings by partners indicated that lonely subjects were less effective than nonlonely subjects in making themselves known. Analysis of the intimacy level in the conversations showed that lonely subjects had significantly different patterns of disclosure than nonlonely subjects. We suggest that the self-disclosure style of the lonely person impairs the normal development of social relationships.

The interactive effects of counselor gender, physical attractiveness and status on client self-disclosure.

Investigated client self-disclosure and client perception of counselors (as expressed in counselor evaluations) as a function of the sex, attractiveness and status of the counselor, and the sex of the client. Counselor gender and attractiveness were established by means of stimulus photographs; counselor status was defined in terms of education and experience. Ss (160 college students) first rated their counselors on intelligence and empathy; they then completed Jourard's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire while role-playing clients in therapy. A four-factor between-Ss analysis of disclosure scores revealed that clients disclosed more of themselves to male than to female counselors when the counselors were high in either status or attractiveness. Results supported the hypothesis that the effect of counselor gender on client disclosure depends on an interaction of counselor gender with other counselor variables.

The Recipient of Self-Disclosure

Summary In order to assess the validity of the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, 82 male and female subjects answered questionnaire items in terms of disclosure to a specific, same-sexed friend who accompanied each subject to the experiment. Each friend also completed the same questionnaire in terms of his or her perception of the subject's actual disclosure in the past. The two ratings were rank-order correlated and the resulting correlation coefficient of .76 indicated a high degree of agreement between each subject and paired friend. The result was interpreted as support for the validity of the JSDQ under conditions where specific disclosures to a significant person are measured.

Level and Flexibility of Self-Disclosure

Two contrasting methods of examining self-disclosure have focused on different aspects of this variable. Jourard and Lasakow (3) studied level, i.e., how much is disclosed, whereas Chelune (2) assessed flexibility of disclosure across different situations and targets. The Jourard Self-disclosure Questionnaire (3) and the Self-disclosure Situation Survey (2) have been the primary measures of these two variables, respectively. It was the primary purpose of this study to examine the interrelationship becween indices of level and flexibility of disclosure derived from these rwo instruments. Subjects were 98 male and 30 female undergraduates (mean age = 19.8 yr., range 18 to 23 yr.) who completed Chelune's 20-item survey (M = 3.67, SD = 1.28) and a modified version of Jourard's 60-item questionna~re for the targets of strangers, acquaintances, and close friends. No differences in gender were observed so data for males and females were combined. Each instrument was scored for both level and flexibility of disclosure. For Chelune's survey, the typical flexibility score was used, i.e., the standard deviation across items, as well as the over-all level of disclosure. For Jourard's questionnaire, the over-all level of disclosure across targets was used as well as two measures of flexibility. Content flexibility was a difference score becween scores on items in the content areas of high and low intimacy. The target flexibility score was computed as a standard deviation across the disclosure targets. Pearson correlations were computed for the two measures of disclosure level and the three of disclosure flexibility. Significant relationships were observed between: Jourard's level and target flexibility, r = .47, p < ,001; Jourard's level and content flexibility, r = .25, p < .01; Chelune's level and flexibility, s = -.20, P < :0,5; Chelune's level and Jourard's target flexibility, r = -.17, p < .05; Chelune's flex~b~l~ty and Jourard's target flexibility, r = .28, p < .01. No significant relationships between measures of the following pairs of conceptually similar variables were also observed: Jourard's and Chelune's levels; Jourard's content flexibility and target flexibility; Jou;atdSs content flexibility and Chelune's flexibility. The small magnitude of variance accounted for even when significant correlations were observed raises concerns about Jourard's and Chelune's measures as the same variables. The effectiveness of using self-report pencil-and-paper measures to assess aspects of self-disclosure is uncertain. Closer attention to studying specific aspects of target, content, and situational contexts of self-disclosure appears warranted.

Effects of Familiarity on Self-Disclosure in a Client-Counselor Relationship

A modified version of Jourard's self-disclosure questionnaire was administered at periodic intervals to 33 undergraduates in psychology who were volunteer counselors for youths referred to the Wayne County Juvenile Court. They reported self-disclosure for themselves and their clients. It was predicted that self-disclosure would increase in a linear fashion with time and that clients' self-disclosure would be related to level of disclosure by counselors. Although the change in self-disclosure was statistically significant, the linear trend did not account for the major portion of the variance. The quadratic and quartic trends were also significant for the counselors' self-disclosure, while the linear and quartic trends accounted for most of the variability in clients' self-disclosure. These clients disclosed significantly more than the student-counselors. Although the 18 female dyads disclosed more, sex differences were not statistically significant.

Sex Differences in Predictability of Self-Disclosure for Instrumental and Terminal Values

The Rokeach Value Survey (Rokeach, 1973) and the Jourard Self-disclosure Questionnaire (Jourard, 1971) were administered to 31 college males and 56 college females. As hypothesized, terminal values were significantly better predictors of reported self-disclosure than instrumental values for females, while instrumental values were better predictors of self-disclosure than terminal values for males. These findings were attributed to the more general ‘expressive vs instrumental orientation’ of sex-role socialization which is thought to underlie the distinction between terminal vs instrumental values.

The meaning and measurement of self-disclosure

Abstract Self-disclosure is defined by Jourard as ‘accurate portrayal of the self to others'. Jourard's theory states that people do not know themselves; his measure, the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (JSDQ), assumes that they do. Self-disclosure in Jourard's theoretical sense is not satisfactorily measured by the JSDQ, nor by such behavioural measures as rating people on the length of time they speak on personal topics. More adequate measures are discussed, based mainly on the principles of expressive consistency and of focusing on the dominant process, self-disclosing or self-alienating, rather than on the content which is disclosed or concealed.

The meaning and measurement of self-disclosure

Abstract Self-disclosure is defined by Jourard as ‘accurate portrayal of the self to others'. Jourard's theory states that people do not know themselves; his measure, the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (JSDQ), assumes that they do. Self-disclosure in Jourard's theoretical sense is not satisfactorily measured by the JSDQ, nor by such behavioural measures as rating people on the length of time they speak on personal topics. More adequate measures are discussed, based mainly on the principles of expressive consistency and of focusing on the dominant process, self-disclosing or self-alienating, rather than on the content which is disclosed or concealed.

Patterns of self-disclosure in homosexual and heterosexual college students

Two hypotheses concerning self-disclosure were investigated and confirmed in the present study, comparing homosexual and heterosexual college students. The first hypothesis was that self-disclosure, as measured by the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, would be positively correlated with psychological femininity. The second hypothesis was that homosexual males and heterosexual females would exhibit similar patterns of high disclosure and femininity. No significant differences were found in total disclosure between homosexuals and heterosexuals, although homosexuals disclosed less to father, and more to friends than to parents. The conclusion was that psychological femininity and masculinity are more important than biological sex in determining self-disclosure.