Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons^™

Understanding Boundary Turbulence And Privacy Rules From The Receiver’S Perspective In Mental Illness Disclosures, Ian Maltas

Honors Theses

The present study aims to address a gap in current research focusing on relational outcomes of mental illness disclosures by studying the perspective of people who listen to the disclosures (called “receivers”). This study uses Communication Privacy Management Theory to analyze the process of disclosure, and its main research focus is on motivations for disseminating private information, and how that impacts relationships and privacy rules between co-owners of information. A thematic analysis was conducted to answer this inquiry, and a data conference was held to determine relevant themes in the data. The present study finds that people chose to tell …