Psychological Reports, 1975, 37, 1167-1170. @ Psychological Reports 1975
EFFECTS OF SEX, BIRTH ORDER, TARGET'S RELATIONSHIP AND TARGET'S SEX O N SELF-DISCLOSURE BY COLLEGE STUDENTS CHARLES G. LORD A N D WAYNE F. VELICER U~ziversityof Rhode Island
Sunzmmy.-Jourard's
Self-disclosure Questionnaire (Jourard & Lasakow, Females were significantly more self-disclosing than males and both sexes disclosed mare to friends than to siblings, with prefermce for disclosure to siblings of the same sex but no discrimination by sex i n disclosure to friends.
1958) was administeted to 145 college students.
Jourard's Self-disclosure Questionnaire has been used by many investigators to measure individual differences in self-disclosure ro significant others. In the original questionnaire (Jourard & Lasakow, 1958) were 60 items pertaining to the subject's attitudes and opinions, tastes and interests, work (or studies), money, personality and body. Subjects were instructed to rate the extent of self-disclosure on each item to each of four target persons: mother, father, best male friend and best female friend. As described by Pedersen and Higbee (1968), different investigators have used different versions of the questionnaire, varying the number of items, the target persons, the instructions and sometimes even the nature of the items. The most consistent finding h a been that females have higher disclosure rates than males (Dimond & Munz, 1967; Hood & Back, 1971; Jourard & Lasakow, 1958; Pedersen & Breglio, 1968; Pedersen & Higbee, 1969). Modern interest in ordinal position of birth began with Schachter (1959) and has included findings of greater affiliative tendency under stress by firstborns as opposed to later-borns (Gerard & Rabbie, 1961) and higher need for affiliation on TAT stories by firstborns (Dember, 1964); however, Finneran (1958) found that, while firstborns have a greater need for affiliation, they do not succeed in gaining social approval and are less popular than later-borns. These rwo separate lines of inquiry were merged in two srudies (Dimond & Munz, 1967; Dirnond & Hellkarnp, 1969) which examined the amount of selfdisclosure by male and female first- and later-born high school students. Both srudies showed significantly higher self-disclosure rates for females and for later-bor ns. The present study was designed to serve four purposes: ( a ) replication of previous significant findings for subjects' sex and birth order, (b) examination of the previously unilnvestigated disclosure to siblings, especially as compared with disclosure to friends, ( c ) examination of sex of target, ( d ) identification of possible complex interactions of these four factors.
C. G. LORD
1168
&
W. F. VELICER
~ ' ~ T H OAND D
RESULTS
The subjects were 145 students enrolled in psychology courses at the University of Rhode Island. There were 106 females and 39 males, of whom 66 were firstborn and 79 were later-born. They were administered an abbreviated form of the questionnaire containing 42 of the original 60 questions. Three questions were eliminated from each of the original six categories of personal data because of constraints on administration time. Elimination was on the basis of relevance to a college population. The subjects were asked to indicate the amount of self-disclosure ( 0 = none, 1 = general, 2 = detailed; possible range of total scores 0 to 8 4 ) to best male friend, best female friend, most disclosed-to sister, and most disclosed-to brother and to indicate their own age and the age(s) of the target sibling ( s ) . Family size was not controlled. TABLE 1 SUMMARY FOR ANALYSISOF VARIANCEOP RATED TOTALDISCLOSURE Source Sex ( S ) Order ( 0 ) Relation ( R ) Target Sex ( T ) SO SR OR ST OT
RT SOR SOT SRT ORT SORT Error
SS
df
11664.12 1 188.31 1 15426.75 1 2522.87 1 0.19 1 0.31 1 986.69 1 134.56 1 151.56 1 1607.00 1 299.50 1 16.87 1 23.00 1 37.44 1 76.62 1 122545.62 482
MS
F
11664.12 188.31 15426.75 2522.87 0.19 0.31 986.69 134.56 151.56 1607.00 299.50 16.87 23.00 37.44 76.62 254.24
45.88 0.74 60.68 9.92 0.00 0.00 3.88 0.53 0.59 6.32 1.18 0.07 0.09 0.15 0.30
P
EFFECTS OF SEX, BIRTH ORDER, TARGET'S RELATIONSHIP AND TARGET'S SEX O N SELF-DISCLOSURE BY COLLEGE STUDENTS CHARLES G. LORD A N D WAYNE F. VELICER U~ziversityof Rhode Island
Sunzmmy.-Jourard's
Self-disclosure Questionnaire (Jourard & Lasakow, Females were significantly more self-disclosing than males and both sexes disclosed mare to friends than to siblings, with prefermce for disclosure to siblings of the same sex but no discrimination by sex i n disclosure to friends.
1958) was administeted to 145 college students.
Jourard's Self-disclosure Questionnaire has been used by many investigators to measure individual differences in self-disclosure ro significant others. In the original questionnaire (Jourard & Lasakow, 1958) were 60 items pertaining to the subject's attitudes and opinions, tastes and interests, work (or studies), money, personality and body. Subjects were instructed to rate the extent of self-disclosure on each item to each of four target persons: mother, father, best male friend and best female friend. As described by Pedersen and Higbee (1968), different investigators have used different versions of the questionnaire, varying the number of items, the target persons, the instructions and sometimes even the nature of the items. The most consistent finding h a been that females have higher disclosure rates than males (Dimond & Munz, 1967; Hood & Back, 1971; Jourard & Lasakow, 1958; Pedersen & Breglio, 1968; Pedersen & Higbee, 1969). Modern interest in ordinal position of birth began with Schachter (1959) and has included findings of greater affiliative tendency under stress by firstborns as opposed to later-borns (Gerard & Rabbie, 1961) and higher need for affiliation on TAT stories by firstborns (Dember, 1964); however, Finneran (1958) found that, while firstborns have a greater need for affiliation, they do not succeed in gaining social approval and are less popular than later-borns. These rwo separate lines of inquiry were merged in two srudies (Dimond & Munz, 1967; Dirnond & Hellkarnp, 1969) which examined the amount of selfdisclosure by male and female first- and later-born high school students. Both srudies showed significantly higher self-disclosure rates for females and for later-bor ns. The present study was designed to serve four purposes: ( a ) replication of previous significant findings for subjects' sex and birth order, (b) examination of the previously unilnvestigated disclosure to siblings, especially as compared with disclosure to friends, ( c ) examination of sex of target, ( d ) identification of possible complex interactions of these four factors.
C. G. LORD
1168
&
W. F. VELICER
~ ' ~ T H OAND D
RESULTS
The subjects were 145 students enrolled in psychology courses at the University of Rhode Island. There were 106 females and 39 males, of whom 66 were firstborn and 79 were later-born. They were administered an abbreviated form of the questionnaire containing 42 of the original 60 questions. Three questions were eliminated from each of the original six categories of personal data because of constraints on administration time. Elimination was on the basis of relevance to a college population. The subjects were asked to indicate the amount of self-disclosure ( 0 = none, 1 = general, 2 = detailed; possible range of total scores 0 to 8 4 ) to best male friend, best female friend, most disclosed-to sister, and most disclosed-to brother and to indicate their own age and the age(s) of the target sibling ( s ) . Family size was not controlled. TABLE 1 SUMMARY FOR ANALYSISOF VARIANCEOP RATED TOTALDISCLOSURE Source Sex ( S ) Order ( 0 ) Relation ( R ) Target Sex ( T ) SO SR OR ST OT
RT SOR SOT SRT ORT SORT Error
SS
df
11664.12 1 188.31 1 15426.75 1 2522.87 1 0.19 1 0.31 1 986.69 1 134.56 1 151.56 1 1607.00 1 299.50 1 16.87 1 23.00 1 37.44 1 76.62 1 122545.62 482
MS
F
11664.12 188.31 15426.75 2522.87 0.19 0.31 986.69 134.56 151.56 1607.00 299.50 16.87 23.00 37.44 76.62 254.24
45.88 0.74 60.68 9.92 0.00 0.00 3.88 0.53 0.59 6.32 1.18 0.07 0.09 0.15 0.30
P
