The reflective journal provides you with the opportunity to reflect on your learning in this subject and its applicability to you as a manager and/or leader?
Fundamentally, I feel that the relationship grows stronger and stronger when the individuals desire to disclose more about themselves and their working experiences. Surprisingly, I have realized that two people might work together for many years but may not know each other properly (Thon & Jucks, 2014). For Instance, I and one of friend use to study in same school but never knew that we were classmates. Later on after coming to college, we realized that we studied in the same school. This happened when we started working in a team project. In various companies or in different professional areas, the culture encourages the coworkers not to share their feelings which make the communication process ineffective among themselves. Therefore, self-disclosure helps to be more supportive and open in such environment.
In order to write this reflective journal, I had to research a lot. Thus, through research I came across various definition of Self-disclosure. I understood that self-disclosure is the procedure of letting other people knows about what you want, what you feel and what you think. This is one of the most significant ways to help other people know about you (Shih, Hsu, Yen & Lin, 2012). Self-disclosure helps to build up the interpersonal relationships, resolve conflicts and improve communication. The self-disclosure is generally made by unconscious or conscious decisions like for example, we generally express or share our personal information with the counselors because we feel they can help us to solve our issues. Thus self-disclosure helps to build up relation and solve issues (Joinson, Reips, Buchanan & Schofield, 2010).
Various psychologists believe that the self-disclosure is a hallmark for building intimacy. Revealing emotions, values, goals, motive and intentions help to increase intimacy feel and liking (Hassija & Gray, 2012). They believe that leaders who reveal their authentic selves to the followers not only build trust but also engender strong teamwork and greater cooperation. Thus from this I would say that it is a leadership competency, that everybody must try to acquire. Self-disclosure is based on fact (Einspanner, 2013). This can be discussed with a small example:
Client: Can you brief me about your qualifications and training?
Counselor: Sure, I am pursued my first year degree in psychology and working in this clinic as a part of advance training
Client: How many clients have you checked this date?
Counselor: Around 100 people since my under graduation training and around 8 people in my advance training
This shows that it is very much important to be appropriate in professional nature. It is mainly used to build up strong relationship. Looking at the example, I feel that self-disclosure can civilize the connection between the client and the counselor and increase the intimacy and feeling of trust (Bareket-Bojmel & Shahar, 2011). Disclosing relevant information would help to gain the confidence of other person you are interacting with, as client and counselor in the example. Thus looking at this example, I would like to discuss few advantages of self-disclosure in building relationship (Reece, Brandt & Howie, 2011).
As a coin has two sides, similarly, self-disclosure also has some disadvantages. Like showing less self-disclosure might result in suspicion and uncertainty in the feelings of person, similarly, high self-disclosure may lead to revulsion. Being too much disclosed makes the opponent become too comfortable. This sometimes makes the problem to remain unsolved. In case, if you are working as a counselor, the client might start seeing you as a friend instead of professional helper. Executed or poorly timed self-disclosure will lead to distrust. This can make the opponent or the person you are interacting with feel that you are impaired and not listening to his/her issue properly (Balon, 2007).
Looking at these disadvantages, I would suggest people to focus on few theories before implementing self-disclosure. According to social penetration theory, people engage in a process of self-disclosure that is reciprocal in nature which changes the depth and breadth of a developed relationship. The depth refers to the sensitive and personal information and breadth refers to various issues or topics that can be discussed. This theory says that people balance the relationship through proper dialect and gradually penetrates through personalities of each other (Tang & Wang, 2012). Then the social comparison theory states that people evaluate themselves through comparison with others. By disclosing the values and beliefs, one can determine if they are similar or different. In short, the disclosure helps to understand whether the person is interested in developing relation with another person or not (Howes, 2003). The final theory is the Johari Window. This theory helps to understand the unknown, blind, hidden and open areas of self (Shenton, 2007). The below given figure shows four windows of Johari:
Figure: Johari Window
The first window is the “open” pane whether our information is known to others and also self. The bottom left window is the “hidden” where the information is known to self but others are not aware of that information. The upper right window is the “blind” window in which other people are aware about us but we our self lack in understanding self. Lastly, the bottom right window is the “unknown” area which contains information that neither known to other nor known to ourselves (Biech, 2008).
Understanding all the theories and concepts of self-disclosure, I would like to comment that self-disclosure includes needs, feelings, thoughts and observations. Suppose, I say that I live in San Francisco but my move to London is a good decision shows that I am sharing my thought, similarly if I say that I am very happy staying in London, shows my feeling. Lastly If I say that may friend is in need of job and I have asked him to move to London shows the needs and observation. Thus this helps to maintain trust and increase intimacy.
This reflective journal discusses the concepts of self-disclosure, how it is helpful in building relations and also analyzes the disadvantages of being highly self-disclosed. The author tries to relate the concept with three different theories social penetration theory, social comparison theory and Johari window in reflective journal.
References
Balon, R. (2007). Self-disclosure in Psychotherapy. Annals Of Clinical Psychiatry, 19(3), 205-207. doi:10.1080/10401230701557727
Bareket-Bojmel, L., & Shahar, G. (2011). Emotional and Interpersonal Consequences of Self-Disclosure in a Lived, Online Interaction. Journal Of Social And Clinical Psychology, 30(7), 732-759. doi:10.1521/jscp.2011.30.7.732
Biech, E. (2008). The Pfeiffer book of successful team-building tools. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Einspanner, J. (2013). Privacy online: Perspectives on privacy and self-disclosure in the social web. New Media & Society, 15(8), 1401-1402. doi:10.1177/1461444813500461a
Hassija, C., & Gray, M. (2012). Negative Social Reactions to Assault Disclosure as a Mediator between Self-Blame and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms Among Survivors of Interpersonal Assault. Journal Of Interpersonal Violence, 27(17), 3425-3441. doi:10.1177/0886260512445379
Howes, D. (2003). Sensual relations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Joinson, A., Reips, U., Buchanan, T., & Schofield, C. (2010). Privacy, Trust, and Self-Disclosure Online. HHCI, 25(1), 1-24. doi:10.1080/07370020903586662
Reece, B., Brandt, R., & Howie, K. (2011). Human relations. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Shenton, A. (2007). Viewing information needs through a Johari Window. Reference Services Review, 35(3), 487-496. doi:10.1108/00907320710774337
Shih, D., Hsu, S., Yen, D., & Lin, C. (2012). Exploring the Individual’s Behavior on Self-Disclosure Online. International Journal Of Human-Computer Interaction, 28(10), 627-645. doi:10.1080/10447318.2011.654198
Tang, J., & Wang, C. (2012). Self-Disclosure Among Bloggers: Re-Examination of Social Penetration Theory. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, And Social Networking, 15(5), 245-250. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0403
Thon, F., & Jucks, R. (2014). Regulating privacy in interpersonal online communication: The role of self-disclosure. Studies In Communication Sciences, 14(1), 3-11. doi:10.1016/j.scoms.2014.03.012
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download