When Does Exchanging Personal Information Constitute “Self-Disclosure”?

Abstract

Ss were 60 pairs of undergraduate males. One member of each pair interviewed the other about sexual experience. Four measures of self-disclosure were obtained: respondents' questionnaire scores, E's ratings of respondents' behavioral self-disclosure, respondents' post-interview self-ratings of self-disclosure, and interviewers' ratings of respondents' self-disclosure. Respondents' sexual experience and sex guilt were also measured. There was no agreement among interviewers’, respondents‘, and E's self-disclosure ratings; however, respondents' self-disclosure questionnaire scores were positively correlated with their self-ratings. Sexual experience was the best predictor of behavioral self-disclosure. The data suggested that exchanging personal information cannot be equated with “self-disclosure,” and that interpersonal factors determine when such communication will be perceived as “self-disclosure.”