The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

270 Chapter 8

increases in friendship quality. Thus, co-

rumination may have more psychological

costs for females than males. It appears to be a

pathway to closer relationships for males.

Sex of Recipient

When we say that females self-disclose more

than males, we are typically considering same-

sex friendships. Who is more likely to be on

the receiving end of self-disclosure? Dindia and

Allen’s (1992) meta-analytic review showed

two target effects. One indicated that people are

more likely to self-disclose to women than to

men. The other effect showed that people are

more likely to self-disclose to the same sex than

to the other sex. Thus, predictions for women

are clear. Women are more likely to disclose to

a woman than a man because a female target

meets both of the above conditions. For men,

the prediction is less clear. Do men disclose to

women or to the same sex? There may be some

topics that men discuss with men and others

that men discuss with women. Explore this

issue with Do Gender 8.1.

Sex of Discloser

Dindia and Allen (1992) conducted a meta-

analysis on sex differences in self-disclosure.

They found a small effect (d=-.18) indicating

that women self-disclose more than men. The

size of the sex difference was similar across self-

report (d=-.17) and observational (d=-.22)

studies. Subsequent research showed that the

sex difference in self-disclosure appears to be

larger in the context of close relationships than

among acquaintances or strangers (Consedine,

Sabag-Cohen, & Krivoshekova, 2007; Derlega,

Winstead, & Greene, 2008). Sex differences in

self-disclosure may be more apparent when

the nature of the topic is examined. Several

studies show that women are especially more

likely than men to self-disclose about personal

issues, such as relationship problems or areas

of personal weakness.

Females also engage in a form of self-

disclosure with friends that is referred to as

co-rumination(Rose, 2002): repeatedly dis-

cussing problems, including the causes, the

consequences, and negative feelings, with a

friend. Co-rumination is related to higher

friendship quality but also to greater anxi-

ety and depression. Does co-rumination lead

to closer relationships, or does co-rumina-

tion lead to depression? Or, are people who

are depressed more likely to engage in co-

rumination? A longitudinal study of third

through ninth graders disentangled the di-

rection of these relations (Rose, Carlson, &

Waller, 2007). The relation was reciprocal for

females: that is, co-rumination was associated

with increases in friendship quality as well as

increases in anxiety/depression over time, and

friendship quality and anxiety/depression pre-

dicted increases in co-rumination over time.

However, for males, friendship quality and

depression/anxiety predicted increases in co-

rumination, but co-rumination only predicted

DO GENDER 8.1

What Do Men and Women

Tell Each Other?

Come up with a list of topics. Ask a group of

men and women to report how frequently

they discuss each topic with their same-sex

friends and cross-sex friends. You could

have them pick their best same-sex friend

and best cross-sex friend. Divide the top-

ics into two groups: more intimate and less

intimate. Is there a sex of participant differ-

ence in self-disclosure? Is there a sex of tar-

get difference? Does it depend on the topic?

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