Self Disclosure Theory

A Study on the Role of Self Disclosure in Heterosexual Romantic Relationships of people from the Indian ethnicity within the age group of 17-24.

According to the basic principles of Social Psychology, humans are social beings with the need to belong. This belongingness is seen to be the strongest and most intimate with romantic partners. One of the factors that play a crucial role to this intimacy is Self- Disclosure, an act of being transparent through communication to the other person involved (S. Jourard as cited in Interpersonal Relationship Communicational Theories of Oregon State University).

Self-disclosure, also known as the key to development and maintenance of relationships, is a process that takes place by the willingness of

As self-disclosure is a gradual process, it varies in time duration for individuals and tends tobe very time consuming. It’s gender biased, women disclose more than men (Jourard and Lasakow, 1958 as cited in Schneider, 1976; Dindia and Allen, 1992 as cited in Hogg and Graham, 2008). The amount of disclosure varies from culture to culture. In an observation by Lewin (1936 as cited in Hogg and Graham, 2008) Americans tend to disclose more than Germans when meeting initially, however as the relationship becomes very deep and intimate the Americans weren’t as personal as Germans. Overall, this theory is reductionist and generalized to fit the population of the

Therefore, to what extent do the Indians of that particular age group engage in being transparent to the person of the opposite gender, whom they are currently romantically involved with. As previous research has been analyzed, the possibility of self-disclosure playing a major role in maintenance of relationships is incredibly high.

Bibliography:

Brochers, T. (n.d.). Self Disclosure. Interpersonal Communication. Retrieved June 13, 2015, from www.abacon.com/commstudies/interpersonal/indisclosure.html

Hayes, N. (1993). Principles Of Social Psychology (Principles of Psychology) (1 ed.). New York, New York: Psychology Press.

Hogg, M. A., & Vaughan, G. M. (2001). Introduction to Social Psychology. Sydney: Pearson Education Australia. (Original work published 2008)

Interpersonal Relationship Communication Theories. (n.d.). Oregon State University. Retrieved June 14, 2015, from http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/comm321/gwalker/relationships.htm

Schneider, D. J. (1976). Social psychology . Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub.