Anxiety and self-disclosure: Toward a motivational model.

Abstract

The self-disclosures of socially anxious and nonanxious Ss were compared within the framework of R. M. Arkin's (1981) motivational theory of social anxiety. Ss (N = 84 women) were paired with a confederate who disclosed at either a high or a low level of intimacy (i.e., the classic reciprocity paradigm). Consistent with R. M. Arkin's theory, anxious Ss were concerned with self-protection during the task and disclosed at a moderate level of intimacy regardless of their partner's behavior. In addition, anxious Ss did not reciprocate their partners' disclosures as well as did nonanxious Ss. The self-protective behaviors of the anxious Ss were associated with less liking and more discomfort on the part of their partners. This suggests that the adoption of self-protective strategies may elicit negative interpersonal reactions that maintain self-defeating interpersonal patterns in socially anxious people.