The Effects of Central and Peripheral Graphics on Personal Disclosure

Forty-eight college students, twenty males and twenty-eight females, were used to assess the effects of central and peripheral graphic environments on personal disclosure and subjective evaluation. Scales developed by Cash (1972) were used to determine the type and amount of subjects' disclosure and non-disclosure; scales developed by Nehrabian and Russell (1974) were utilized to assess subjective evaluation of the environmental space in terms of information theory and approach-avoidance. Results replicated a previous study by Cash (1974), indicating that females made more positive self-references than males (p < .01) . Hales also chose to disclose less often than females (p < .05) . No significant differences resulted from the graphic environmental conditions. The data did produce substantial variance between the sexes in response to the environments. The trend of these responses yielded some evidence for a "reciprocity norm" between subjects and the environment analogous to that demonstrated between subjects (Chaikin and Derlega, 1974) .