An Empirical Study of Highly Personal Topics Involved in Self-Disclosure

Self-disclosure refers to what individuals reveal about themselves to others. This topic has been a focus of research by social psychologists, communication scientists and others for several decades. The current study aims to contribute to research in this area by examining the topics of self-disclosure of college students. Archival data previously collected from college students were used. Research participants were asked to recall a highly personal experience when answering questions about their self-disclosure behaviors dealing with the targets of mother, father, same-sex friend and dating partner. The study developed a taxonomy of topics that were identified by college students as being highly personal, and that were either disclosed or not disclosed. Ten topics were identified through this process, and each of them was disclosed significantly more frequently than not disclosed. Gender differences in topic identification, disclosure overall and within topic, as well as intimacy ratings of topics were also explored. This research contributes to the understanding of what college students identify as highly personal information, what they are willing to disclose, and how factors such as gender and intimacy of disclosure information affect self-disclosure.