Attitude toward the disclosure of self‐attributions and the complexity of interpersonal constructs

Abstract

The relationship between one's attitude toward self‐disclosure in interaction and the complexity of his system of dimensions for construing the behavior and character of others was examined within a cognitive‐developmental framework in which development was hypothesized to be a function of the range and intensity of one's social experiences. Significant correlations involving three indices of construct usage reflecting the differentiation and integration of the motivational constructs in a perceiver's cognitive system suggest that it is one's motivational constructs which are elaborated through self‐disclosing interactions and which, in turn, allow for the formation of the kind of subjectivity satisfying impressions that favorably orient one toward the mutual disclosure of self‐attributions.