Self-Disclosure as a Relationship Disengagement Strategy: An Exploratory Investigation

Interactants are strategic goal seekers in their interpersonal communication. However, to date, research has concentrated almost exclusively on the communicative strategies by which actors achieve a goal of relationship initiation. Relationship disengagement occupies an important motivational force, as well. This study initiated exploration of the communicative strategies by which actors disengage their relationships, focusing in particular on the verbal strategy of self-disclosure. Undergraduate volunteers were exposed to one of four hypothetical scenarios: Respondent Intent (Maintain or Disengage) and Other's Intent (Maintain or Disengage). Twenty Likert-type items of willingness to self-disclose on a variety of topics constituted the dependent measures and were clustered into three primary factors. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that respondents were less willing to self-disclose when they desired to disengage the relationship.