A Personal Construct Approach to Perception of Disclosure Targets

Abstract

Investigating the perception of targets for self-disclosure from the perspective of the psychology of personal constructs, it was predicted that respondents from a mixed-nationality group would (a) characterize friends more than acquaintances in terms of ‘superordinate,’ personality-descriptive dimensions, (b) ‘differentiate’ friends more than acquaintances by extensive application of constructs to them, and (c) ‘polarize’ targets for high disclosure by construing them sharply and meaningfully in terms of personally significant dimensions of meaning. All predictions received significant support for 34 college students (Mdn_age 22 yr.) who responded in writing to a questionnaire. The results suggest the fruitfulness of further examining self-disclosure and friendship formation from a vantage point which emphasizes the perceptual and interpretive framework of an adult person.