Self-Disclosure and Self-Actualization as Predictors of Love

• Main Author: Bissett, David Woody
• Other Authors: Critelli, Joseph W.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: North Texas State University 1983
• Subjects: self-actualization; self-disclosure; interpersonal attraction; Self-disclosure.; Self-actualization (Psychology); Love.
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc331541/

Maslow (1956) suggested that self-actualization in an important determinant of the type of love experienced in heterosexual relationships. Recent work has suggested that the self-actualization of each member of a couple may also be important in determining the level of self-disclosure intimacy which occurs in the couple, and also that self-disclosure itself is an important determinant of interpersonal attraction. The present study employed the technique of path analysis (Wright, 1960) to determine 1) the direct and indirect contribution of each partner's self-actualization to his experience of five love components identified by Critelli, Myers, Ellington, and Bissett (1981), 2) the contribution of each partner's self-actualization to his self-disclosure intimacy, and 3) the contribution of the partner's self-disclosure intimacy to their experience of the five love components.