COM 352 Read, Write, Think Paper

This assignment was to write a paper off of a peer reviewed journal article regarding one of the communication theories we had learned in this semester.

I chose to write about Social Penetration Theory, focusing on the self-disclosure aspect of the theory in my paper.

Originally written in October 2024

Read, Think, Write Paper

The journal article I chose was, “Self-Concept Clarity and Loneliness among College Students: The Chain-Mediating Effect of Fear of Negative Evaluation and Self-Disclosure.”  I chose this article because it involved self-disclosure from social penetration theory. The study was trying to find how self-concept, fear of negative evaluation, and self-disclosure predict loneliness in college students. The key findings in this article were related to how those factors impacted college students’ levels of loneliness.  

There were four hypotheses addressed in this article. The first hypothesis was “Self-concept clarity has a negative predictive effect on loneliness.” The second one was “fear of negative evaluation mediates the relationship between self-concept clarity and loneliness.” The third hypothesis was “self-disclosure also mediates the relationshipbetween self-concept clarity and loneliness.” The fourth and final hypothesis was “fear of negative evaluation and self-disclosure play a chain-mediating ​role​ between self-concept clarity and loneliness” (Pang et al., 2024). 

This fits the standards of an objective study, as social penetration theory is an objective theory, and the study has testable hypotheses and quantitative research. The study collected data through an online questionnaire for participants to answer questions with a scale.  They collected answers from 1,145 participants. The participants were asked questions that measured the participants self-concept, fear of negative evaluation, self-disclosure, and lonelinessthrough a scale.  

The main results of the study supported all four hypotheses. Regarding the social penetration theory, the study stated that a lack of self-clarity hinders self-disclosure which results in loneliness. The fear of negative evaluation also results in a lack of self-disclosure according to the study’s results. The study also concluded that, “, enhancing self-concept clarity, reducing excessive concerns and anxieties associated with negative evaluations, and increasing the levels of self-disclosure can potentially alleviate loneliness among college students.” (Pang et al., 2024). 

One big theoretical implication for this study is how resources that would help increase a student's self-concept and self-disclosure, could help reduce loneliness. This could have an easy real-world application, by making more of these types of resources and their benefits known and available to college students.  

I would want to continue studying what hinders self-disclosure among college students. This time, I would be looking more specifically at what hinders self-disclosure in social situations among potential friends, or where potential friendships could arise. 

This is important to study because of the rise in loneliness among the Gen Z age group. “​79​ percent of Gen Z, or adults in the 18 to 22 age group, said they felt alone” according to a 2019 Cigna poll (Vultaggio, 2020). By improving one's ability to self-disclose, Gen Z will be able to form closer relationships and reduce the rates of loneliness.  I also think that by discovering what is holding students back from deepening their relationships with others, we can find or create more resources to help people develop their ability to self-disclose and have more intimate relationships.  

Social Penetration theory helps with this phenomenon because of self-disclosure. Self-disclosure in social penetration theory is defined as, “The voluntary sharing of personal history, preferences, attitudes, feelings, values, secrets, etc. ​With another person” (Griffin et al., 2019).​  ​​And​​ according to the social penetration theory, self-disclosure is needed to form close relationships with others. By understanding what is holding people back from self-disclosure we can find more solutions to help overcome those barriers, or ways to address them so that they are not as daunting. 

Some potential methods to complete this study would be another poll or survey of Gen Z participants, who answer more in-depth questions about why they would hesitate to self-disclose to a person. And answer questions about when they would be willing to self-disclose; This would be a more objective method. ​A more interpretive method would be to have one on one interviews with Gen Z participants, who report having close relationships, and those who report not having close relationships. Asking both groups' participants questions about when they would choose to self-disclose to a person.​