The effects of biological sex, sex-role type, and target gender on self-disclosure

Includes bibliographical references (pages 67-75)The current human awareness movement has created\ud major changes in the way many individuals think, behave,\ud and communicate. The purpose of this study was to investigate\ud the interacting affects of sex-role orientation,,\ud biological sex, and target recipient gender upon levels of\ud self-disclosure. Two measuring instruments were employed\ud in this study: (1) the Bern Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) which\ud measured subjects' sex-role orientations, and (2) the\ud Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire (JSDQ) which measured\ud subjects' self-disclosure levels to male and female targets.\ud The sample consisted of 200 male and female undergraduate\ud students enrolled in introductory speech communication\ud courses. Six research hypotheses were posited in a linear\ud fashion predicting that sex-role orientations would determine\ud levels of self-disclosure. It was predicted that\ud feminine sex-role type would display the highest levels of\ud disclosure followed by androgynous and then masculine\ud sex-role types.\ud Two 2x4 ANOVAs were performed to analyze the data. The\ud results provided no support for any of the research hypotheses.\ud However, a significant main effect was discovered\ud for biological sex and disclosure levels supporting previous\ud research. The results of this study echo Jourard and\ud Lasakow's (1958) findings that females disclose more than\ud males. Several suggestions for future research directions\ud are discussed