Self-Disclosing Communication

Abstract

Self-disclosure is a relatifiely infrequent form of communicaticn but one which is claimed to be important in a variety of contexts. Various writers have identified individuals' ability and willingness to self-disclose as determinants of their personal health and satisfaction, success in being imderstood and working competently with others, and ability to provide communication experiences which others find satisfying and therapeutic. This paper summarizes the contributions of the self-disclosure literature for an understanding of self-disclosing communication. Although this literature i s extensive, a considerable portion of it is irrelevant from a communication perspective. Conceptualizations of self-disclosure differ in important ways, making it difficult to compare studies. Further, much of the research studied self-disclosure as a personality trait rather than a process of com mtrnication or analyzed exchanges of messages in terms of a linear model of communication. The present study explicates a conceptualization of self-disclosure as an invitation to share experience and communication as an interpersonal transaction. Five generalizations about self-disclosing communication consistent with these conceptualizations are drawn from the literoture. The utility of the review for analyses of particular communication problems is described.According to Jourard ( 1964: 3 ) , communicators continually confront the choice whether to "permit our fellow men to know us as we now are or . . . ( t o ) seek instead to remain an enigma, an uncertain quantity, wishing to be seen as something we are not." To some extent, Jourard has posed a false dilemma because speakers reveal something of themselves whenever they speak. Watzlawick, Beavin and Jackson ( 1967) believe that all messages contain information about the speaker's perception of the relationship between himself and his auditors, and other analyses describe multiple message systems which, particularly in oral speech, function independently of the intended verbal content. For example, nuances of word choice (Wiener and Mehrabian, 1968) and nonverbal properties of the voice (Pearce and Conklin, 1971;Pearce and Brommel, 1972) enable listeners to draw systematic inferences about the speaker.Although speakers are frequently oblivious of and sometimes try to suppress these cues, under some conditions individuals

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