Students' disposition to self-disclose and their perceptions of counselling appropriateness
Date
1980
Authors
Van der Molen, Harry John
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate people's beliefs about their willingness to disclose personal and private information about themselves to familiar persons in their lives and also to a professional counsellor. A second purpose was to draw a contrast between their willingness to disclose to a counsellor and to familiar persons. The final purpose was to investigate whether respondents who perceived themselves to be typically high, medium, or low disclosers would differ in their perceptions about the appropriateness of seeking counselling for commonly presented concerns.
Jourard's 60-item Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, with a few minor local modifications, and a 33-item Problem Checklist were administered to 127 senior undergraduate students in classes for Adolescent Psychology, Mathematics, and Sociology. The population consisted of 63 males and 64 females.
Sex differences in disposition to self-disclose were investigated by means oft-tests. Only 4 out of a total of 55 variables generated by the data showed significant sex differences and all of them concerned interaction with a counsellor. The small number of significant differences calls for much caution in their interpretation.
The perceived patterns of willingness to disclose to the targets (mother, father, best male friend, best female friend, spouse, and counsellor) were analyzed by two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures. The unmarried respondents consistently indicated that they would be most willing to disclose to the best male and female friends followed by the parents, and finally by the counsellor. Married students would disclose most to their spouses.
The perceived patterns of willingness to disclose on the topics (attitudes and opinions, tastes and interests, work/ studies, money, personality, and body) were also analyzed by two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures. Generally, the results showed that attitudes and opinions, tastes and interests, and work/ studies would be the topics of highest disclosure while less disclosure would be offered about money, personality, and body, respectively.
A series of one-way analyses of variance for repeated measures were used to test for significant differences among three subgroups of high, medium or low disclosers in their judgments about the appropriateness of seeking counselling for commonly presented concerns. No differences were found.
A stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to look for a significant relationship between an individual's willingness to disclose to familiar persons and his or her judgments about the appropriateness of seeking counselling. None was found.
The Pearson product-moment method was used to check for a correlation between disclosure scores to familiar persons with those to the university counsellor. Three correlations were significant. This did not support the contention that only those who were unwilling to disclose to significant others might disclose to a counsellor.
Some attention was also given in this study to instances where the respondents indicated they would misrepresent themselves or refuse to disclose.
Implications of this study for counselling and for future research in self-disclosure were discussed. Suggestions for a more rigorous approach to a behavioral process with many complexities were made.