Research Proposal:
“Blurred Lines”: What to share with whom online
Attachment theory describes how children develop expectations regarding how caregivers will
respond to their distress. Reliable and responsive care is thought to contribute to secure
attachment, whereas unreliable and/or rejecting care is thought to contribute to insecure
attachment (Bowlby, 1969; 1973). Early attachment experiences with primary caregivers
continue to be influential in adult relationships. Current research in adult attachment uses a
dimensional approach and plots attachment in the hypothetical space between the orthogonal
dimensions of anxiety and avoidance (Brennan et al., 1998). Using this approach, individuals
who are low in attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety are considered securely attached;
individuals who are high on either attachment avoidance or attachment anxiety are considered
insecurely attached. Those with secure attachment exhibit effective strategies for regulating
emotion, allowing them to cope with distress and rely on others for support. In contrast,
individuals who are anxious or avoidant have difficulty regulating their emotions and
maintaining healthy relationships (Cassidy, 1994; Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007). Individuals high
in attachment anxiety desire closeness to others, but also fear rejection, separation, and
abandonment (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991). These individuals often exaggerate their
emotional displays in an attempt to have their attachment needs met. In contrast, individuals high
in attachment avoidance prefer to be self-reliant due to feelings of distrust and discomfort in
relation to others. These individuals tend to over-regulate their emotional displays in order to
maintain emotional distance (Shaver & Mikulincer, 2007).
Research shows that an individual’s attachment pattern can be predictive of his or her style of
communication and disclosure to others (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991; Mikulincer &
Nachshon, 1991). Generally speaking, a gradual process of self-disclosure of personal
information serves to establish trust and mutual understanding in interpersonal relationships.
Securely attached individuals tend to disclose appropriate amounts of personal information with
others in a judicious manner. Disclosing too much personal information (over-sharing) or too
little (under-sharing) can negatively affect relationship development (Kafetsios & Nezlek, 2002).
For example, over-sharing has been linked to the hyperactivating strategies employed by
anxiously attached individuals, whereby they demand attention, exaggerate feelings of distress,
and tend to ruminate. Conversely, habitual concealment of information in the context of
relationships is associated with the deactivating strategies utilized by avoidant individuals (e.g.,
cognitive and behavioural withdrawal from interpersonal relationships). Under-sharing can lead
to psychological distress and adverse physical symptoms, like headaches and back pain
(McWilliams & Bailey, 2010).
The Internet has become a widely accessible tool for social communication and relationship
development. Initially, it was expected that self-disclosure in computer-mediated communication
(CMC) would be lower than in face-to-face communication. This expectation was based on early
theories of interpersonal communication that proposed that, when social presence was low,
messages were more likely to be impersonal and unemotional. More recent suggestions are that
new norms of self-disclosure and social interaction emerge in online environments. Bargh et al.
(2002) maintain that the relative anonymity of online communication coupled with the lack of
usual gating features for the establishment of close relationships (e.g., physical appearance),
reduce the perceived risks of disclosing personal information (i.e., “blur the lines” of healthy
sharing). Studies to date have not confirmed that new norms of self-disclosure exist online (e.g.,
social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+). Moreover, it is not known whether
attachment patterns influence CMC in the same way as in face-to-face communication. Whereas
little research has examined relations between attachment patterns and self-disclosure, a few
studies have investigated a type of over-sharing; namely, sexting. Sexting is the act of sending,
creating, or receiving sexually suggestive images or text messages through a cell phone. Both
attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance have been found to be significant predictors of
sexting, which suggests they may play a role in over-sharing behaviour on social networking
sites (Drouin & Landgraff, 2012; Morey et al., 2013). Thus, the purpose of the present study.
The proposed research will examine whether the attachment patterns of young adults will predict
their sharing of personal information in CMC in the same way as in face-to-face relationships.
Young adults (specifically, undergraduates) are an appropriate demographic for such a study.
Whereas this study will assess the range of online platforms that young adults utilize for
interpersonal communication purposes, the study will focus on Facebook. Facebook is the
leading social media platform in the United States, with 71 percent of online adults using the
network (Pew Research Center Internet Project, 2013). Facebook has been selected as the object
of this study given its widespread popularity and its various means of sharing information,
including instant messaging, statuses, and photos. Under this umbrella, it is necessary to
ascertain how often individuals share information, the nature of the information that is shared,
and how different types of online sharing (e.g., Skype, email, and Facebook) differ. In short, who
shares what with whom in person and online. Undergraduate students will be recruited for
participation in this study through advertisements posted online and in print media (e.g., student
newspapers). These advertisements will direct interested participants to an online site where they
will be able to complete a series of questionnaires, assuming they provide their informed
consent. FluidSurveys is a password-protected website that ensures confidentiality by not
recording any information from the computer accessing the website, aside from data supplied in
the questions. Once the questionnaire package is completed, there is no way to link the data
provided to the originating computer. In addition, FluidSurveys is a Canadian company, ensuring
that no data are stored in international locations where security can. The measures for this study
will include: an author-constructed demographic measure that asks about their age, gender,
education level, as well as their experience with CMC (i.e., percentage of time spent in various
CMC sites (e.g., Facebook, Skype, email, Google+, Twitter). Other measures will include: the
Self-Disclosure Index (Miller et al., 1983); Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R;
Fraley et al., 2000) to measure attachment, as well as measures of mood (Depression Anxiety
Stress Scale-21 [DASS-21]; Lovibond & Loveibond, 1995), general anxiety (Spielberger Trait
Anxiety Inventory-Trait [STAI-T]; Spielberger et al., 1983) and specific anxiety (Anxiety
Sensitivity Index-3 [ASI-3]; Taylor et al., 2007), both of which have been linked to attachment
and/or self-disclosure (e.g., Fonagy et al., 1996; Prager, 1986; Watt et al., 2005).
Predictions for the proposed study are as follows: (1) Participants with a secure attachment will
reveal a consistent pattern of disclosure both offline and online; (2) participants with attachment
anxiety will reveal a tendency to over-share both offline and online, as well as display more
symptoms of depression, stress, general and specific anxiety; and (3) participants with
attachment avoidance will reveal a tendency to under-share both offline and online, with no
disturbances in mood or anxiety.
Fit of Proposed Research with the University Strategic Research Plan
According to the St FX University Strategic Research Plan, the Culture and Human
Development cluster “spans a wide range of topics aimed at increasing our understanding of how
humans develop individually and collectively. Research within this cluster can focus on any
psychological, social, educational or artistic aspect of the human experience.” The proposed
research clearly fulfills the aims of this Culture and Human Development cluster with its focus
on the development of adolescents and young adults. Adolescence represents a unique
developmental period of the life span marked by significant developmental changes across all
areas of functioning (physical, cognitive, social, and emotional). Adolescent development is
influenced by a multitude of forces that can either serve to facilitate or hinder a youth’s transition
into adulthood. Social and emotional concerns lie at the forefront of the vast changes that occur
in adolescence, with adolescents now spending more time with friends than with parents (Larson
& Richards, 1994) and the friendships that are formed during this period are characterized by an
intimacy not seen in earlier childhood relationships (Bauminger et al., 2008). As a result, this is
a period in which patterns of self-disclosure become particularly important. A major task for
adolescents and young adults is learning to navigate this more intimate social world and decide
what kind of information to share with others, how much information to share, and with whom.
The growing popularity of computer mediated communication among adolescents has made the
Internet a prominent social context for their development. The Internet serves to magnify
disclosure to others, as it eliminates boundaries of time and space in ways that are not possible
offline. Adolescents are currently able to share more information than they did in the past. Social
networking sites like Facebook reflect how much individuals think about their self-presentation,
allowing them to selectively develop their online personas by choosing what to post and what not
to post online. Recent media cases profiling the consequences of over-sharing online clearly
demonstrate the risk of blurring the lines between what is appropriate to share (or not) with
others. These cases highlight the importance of investigating the role of attachment in young
adults’ self-disclosure patterns in computer mediated communication.
Attachment theory and research has served us well in guiding our understanding of individual
differences in healthy and unhealthy disclosure tendencies within interpersonal relationships.
Research findings suggest that attachment may be a significant predictor of individual
differences in the sharing of personal information on social networking sites. Analyzing the
similarities and differences between offline and online communication may offer insight into the
motivations driving self-disclosure, and inform approaches to educating youth about what to
share with whom online. Rather than shelter adolescents and emerging adults from the Internet,
the goal is to enable them to embrace its positive qualities and benefit from sharing information
appropriately, regardless of their formative attachment experiences. The proposed research
should be of interest to the St FX student population and, hopefully, will both stimulate and
encourage discussion of an important topic.