Self-Disclosure

Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations

One of the first researchers to examine self-disclosure was Sidney Jourard. Jourard, who was a psychotherapist, described self-disclosure and claimed that it was positively associated with individuals' health and well-being. He argued that being able to share feelings, thoughts, and experiences with another person often serves as a relief to individuals and may elicit support and validation from listeners.

The importance of self-disclosure to the development of interpersonal relationships was initially highlighted by Irwin Altman and Dalmas Taylor. In fact, Altman and Taylor's Social Penetration Theory describes self-disclosure as inextricably tied to relational development. The theory suggests that increases in relational intimacy are a result of individuals sharing increasingly personal information about themselves with each other. When people first meet and do not know each other well, they tend to exchange information that is impersonal and talk about a limited range of topics. [Page 1418]As they come to know and trust each other, they begin to disclose more personal information and talk about a relatively broad range of topics. According to the theory, sharing information is not only a means for individuals to become more intimate with each other, it also is a way for them to evaluate the rewards and costs that may be associated with their relationships. Altman and Taylor suggested that as long as the rewards partners perceive as associated with their relationship are greater than the costs they believe they will incur, relational development will continue.

Altman also argued that relational partners experience an ongoing struggle about how much information to disclose and how much to conceal. In-line with this idea, more recent theory and research suggest that people utilize self-disclosure to regulate and define their relationship boundaries. Thus, self-disclosure may be employed strategically as a means to get closer to someone or it may be avoided in order to preserve relational distance.

In addition to examining the links between self-disclosure and relationship development, researchers and theorists have studied the degree to which individuals reciprocate self-disclosure. Reciprocity occurs when a person discloses to a listener, and the listener discloses in response. Reciprocity has been studied in experiments where a confederate, who disclosed at various levels, was introduced into small groups. Members of the groups responded to the confederate by matching the degree to which the confederate disclosed. Although self-disclosure often is reciprocated within a single situation, it also can be reciprocated at some other time in a different situation. Indeed, in long-standing relationships, reciprocity may take place over relatively long periods of time. For example, research has demonstrated that although husbands and wives may not reciprocate each other's disclosures immediately, they tend to match how much they disclose to each other over time. Reciprocity may be viewed as an expression of trust between partners, as a tendency of individuals to model or mimic each other's behavior, or as a relational norm.

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