Search

This study examines whether different nationalities would vary in their modal disclosure patterns. Twenty-five female undergraduates enrolled at the University of Nottingham, England and 25 co-eds from the University of Florida comprised the samples for this study. All subjects were unmarried, and all came from comparable middle-class backgrounds. There was no significant interaction between nationality and target-persons. Further analysis of target-persons showed that the subjects agreed in disclosing significantly more to females than to males. Though the groups did not differ significantly for amount of disclosure to any one target-person, the mean total disclosure to all four target persons combined was highest for the American subjects. The two groups were then compared on readiness to disclose the different items on the questionnaire to each target-person, as follows: The number of English girls and American girls who had disclosed each item to a given target-person were employed as the xs and ys for Pearsonian product-moment correlations between the nationalities. One may conclude that, although the two groups differed in average disclosure- output, they agreed markedly in attitude concerning the relative disclosability of the questionnaire items to each target-person. Self-disclosure is one means by which a person permits himself to be known by others.