The Effects of Religious Affiliation in Northern Ireland upon Levels of Self-disclosure of Undergraduates

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between self-disclosure levels and religious affiliation of undergraduates in Northern Ireland. Since self-disclosure is usually an indicator of degree of interpersonal trust and intimacy, the primary hypothesis in this study was that, given the political situation in N.I. wherein religious convictions reflect political affiliation, females within this age group would self-disclose more to females of the same religious denomination than to those of the opposite denomination. Inventory scores of self-disclosure were obtained for Catholic and Protestant females, as were behavioural counts of disclosures made in interviews. In these interviews, the interviewer ‘presented’ as either a Catholic (C) or Protestant (P) to the 40 subjects (20 C, 20 P). Measures were obtained of strength of religious affiliation and degree of ‘liking’ for the interviewer. The results, which revealed few significant differences in self-disclosure levels, are discussed in the context of the Trust-Attraction Hypothesis and Social Identity Theory as explanations for self-disclosure across the religious divide. © 1995, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.