Page 52 - Essentials of Human Communication

Self-Disclosure 31

Video Choice point
My Brother’s in trouble
Marisol and her older brother Jose have always been close, choosing to spend time to-
gether and confiding in each other. Lately, Jose’s self-esteem has hit a new low and he and Marisol have
drifted apart. Jose’s long-term relationships ended, an expected A turned into a C-, and a hoped-for job
interview never materialized. Marisol wants to be able to help him get through this rough patch. She
considers the topics covered in this chapter, especially self-esteem and the ways in which it may be
enhanced, as she contemplates her communication choices. See how her choices play out in the video
“My Brother’s in Trouble.”
Watch the Video “My Brother’s in Trouble” at MyCommunicationLab

Objectives Self-Check
● Can you define self-concept, self-awareness, and self-esteem and identify the ways in which
self-awareness and self-esteem may be increased?

Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure is a type of communication in which you reveal information about yourself
(Jourard, 1968, 1971a, 1971b). You can look at self-disclosure as taking information from the
hidden self and moving it to the open self. Overt statements about the self (e.g., “I’m getting
fat”), slips of the tongue (e.g., using the name of your ex instead of your present lover’s
name), unconscious nonverbal movements (e.g., self-touching movements or eye avoidance),
and public confessions (e.g., “Well, Jerry, it’s like this …), all can be
considered forms of self-disclosure. A new and popular variation on
self-disclosure is Twitter; when you send a tweet responding to the
question, “What are you doing?” you’re disclosing something about
yourself, most often something you’d readily reveal to others. Usually,
however, the term self-disclosure refers to the conscious revealing of
information that you normally keep hidden.
Self-disclosure is “information”—something previously
unknown by the receiver. This information may vary from the
relatively commonplace (“I’m really afraid of that French exam”) to
the extremely significant (“I’m depressed; I feel like committing
suicide”). For self-disclosure to occur, the communication must
involve at least two people. You cannot self-disclose to yourself—
the information must be received and understood by at least one
other individual. The test below focuses on the influences of self-
disclosure to be discussed next and will help you to personalize
the discussion that follows.

TeST YourSelf

How Willing to Self-Disclose are You?

Respond to each of the following statements by indicating the likelihood that you would disclose such items of
information to, say, other members of this class in a one-on-one face-to-face situation, on Facebook (either
posting or commenting) and on the phone.
Use the following scale to fill in all three columns: 1 = would definitely self-disclose; 2 = would probably self-
disclose; 3 = don’t know; 4 = would probably not self-disclose; and 5 = would definitely not self-disclose.