Women's Self-Disclosure in Intimate Interpersonal Relationships

Introduction

Kalbfleisch (1993) points out that interpersonal relationships are the "cherished ingredients of our everyday social milieu." There are no substitutes, according to Kalbfleisch, for the people that "we turn to in times of need, look to for comfort and companionship, laugh, cry and share our lives with throughout the cycle of our existence" (p. 3).

Many researchers have exclusively examined interpersonal relationships from the perspectives of communication, psychology, sociology, and family studies (Kalbfleisch, 1993, p. 3), because interpersonal relationships are considered the backdrop of human social life. Many studies conducted in the past (Greenwood, 1991; Planalp et al., 1988; Derlega et al., 1985) suggest and demonstrate that gender is important contextually when examining the manner in which people self-disclose, particularly in initial interactions. This points to the need for further research related to interactions beyond initial ones. More studies comparing communication behavior and establishing female-to-male or female-to-female patterns need to be conducted. This study serves to fill some of the gap related to this area of research.

The aim of this paper is specifically to examine the extent to which interpersonal relationships evolve from initial interactions between women, and in particular, how these relationships flourish or are influenced by the number of partners and the length of partnership a woman shares with the object of her disclosure. The specific variables and questions examined arising from this investigation include the following:

What impact, if any, does the length of a relationship have on a woman's use of self-disclosure?

What impact, if any, does the number of relationships a woman has have on her use of self-disclosure?

Problem Statement

The paper will identify the main problem to be examined, explore the theoretical expectations of the researcher related to the variables being studied, discuss the literature currently available on the topic of self-disclosure, and make recommendations for future research. These recommendations will address what needs to be further studied with regard to women's use of interpersonal communication in relationships. The researcher will draw conclusions from information acquired via the literature review.

In general, studies suggest that women have higher levels of self-disclosure than men. When women are observed in interpersonal intimate relationships, their use and level of self-disclosure may be expected to influence variables including their level of communication satisfaction and the number and length of interpersonal relationships they maintain. What exactly, however, is the relationship between self-disclosure and the number of interpersonal intimate relationships women maintain?

Theoretic Expectations

Englebert (2002) suggests that women can use self-disclosure to make their partner feel closer to them during conversation and interaction. Self-disclosure can take place in any number of settings, including in the home, in a car, or in social settings. In an intimate relationship, self-disclosure is more likely to occur in a private setting between partners. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the length and number of relationships a woman maintains as compared with her use of self-disclosure in an intimate relationship, as a gap currently exists in research on this area.

Literature Review

The researcher expects that the research will reveal the extent to which women use self-disclosure to build intimacy and feelings of closeness in intimate relationships, based on the number and length of the relationships they have. Particularly relevant to this inquiry, the chief variable to be examined is the use of self-disclosure by women in intimate settings.

Much research has been conducted that broadly examines gender differentiation with regard to the use of self-disclosure in interpersonal relationships. This literature review attempts to survey studies previously conducted on self-disclosure and women's use of self-disclosure with respect to their familiarity with partners.

To understand why the researcher is focusing on women, one must first recognize that many gender differences have been uncovered with respect to self-disclosure. Buck (1979) points out that women tend to display their emotions more outwardly than men, and that men are more likely to repress their emotions than to share them. Other research has suggested that women tend to be more emotional and expressive as a result of social orientation (Kalbfleisch, 1993, p. 131).

Research also suggests that women are generally more emotionally expressive than men, display emotion more often and openly, engage in spontaneous behavior, and communicate more frequently (Kalbfleisch, 1993, p. 112). With regard to the length of relationships, wives tend to disclose more often to their husbands, suggesting that self-disclosure is more commonly utilized in longer-term or close relationships (Kalbfleisch, 1993, p. 112).

Preliminary research suggests that women and men engage in traditional gender roles, and that women tend to self-disclose more than men about non-sexual topics, whereas men are more likely to disclose in a sexual context but less likely overall to disclose about intimate and other topics (Byers, 1999, p. 180). Moreover, Byers and Demmons identify good communication as "important to developing and maintaining a rewarding and problem-free sexual relationship," citing Chesney, Blakeney, Cole, and Chan (1981). Many authors have argued that self-disclosing in an intimate setting leads to greater satisfaction and fewer problems (Byers & Demmons, 1999; Russell, 1990).

Byers and Demmons further suggest that use of the GMSEX — the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction survey — can serve as a reliable method to support the validity of arguments that self-disclosure is critical to the advancement of intimate relationships for women (Lawrance & Byers, 1998). The survey attempts to elicit information regarding the level of disclosure individuals are willing to share with their partner.

A study conducted by Miller and Kenny (1986) shows that women in long-term relationships generally demonstrate a higher level of self-disclosure, and that self-disclosure is reciprocated, when compared to women in short-term relationships. Correlations between length of acquaintance are positive, suggesting that self-reported disclosure "is a relational value" that tends to increase based on the length of a relationship a woman has with an intimate partner, regardless of the number of partners she has had or currently has (Erber & Gilmour, 1994, p. 120).

Gilmour and Erber (1994) also suggest that a variable such as self-disclosure operates in the same way as affect, meaning that "it has large amounts of relationship variance and high levels of reciprocity" and that the variable "is likely to be highly tied to affect" (p. 119).