Self-concealment (SC) is a psychological construct defined as “a predisposition to actively conceal from others personal information that one perceives as distressing or negative” (Larson & Chastain, 1990, p. 440).
Self-concealed personal information has three characteristics: it is a subset of private information, can be consciously accessed, and is actively concealed from others. The concealed personal information (thoughts, feelings, actions, or events) is highly intimate and negative in valence (p. 440). Self-concealment, the act of concealing personal information from others, is both conceptually and empirically distinct from self-disclosure, the act of revealing personal information to others (Larson & Chastain, 1990; Uysal, Lin, & Knee, 2010).
Secrets and secret keeping have been a longstanding interest of psychologists and psychotherapists (Larson, 1993). Jourard’s (Jourard, 1971a, 1971b) work on self-disclosure and Pennebaker’s research on the health benefits of disclosing traumatic events and secrets set the stage for the conceptualization and measurement of self-concealment. Jourard pointed to the conclusion that stress and illness result not only from low self-disclosure, but also–and even more so–from the intentional avoidance of being know by another person. In a later line of research, Pennebaker (Pennebaker & Chew, 1985; Pennebaker, Zech, & Rime, 2001) and his colleagues examined the confiding-illness relation or the inhibition-disease link and found that expressing (and explaining) thoughts and feelings about traumatic (negative life events) is associated with positive health outcomes. An extensive literature has explored the health benefits of disclosure using the\”Pennebaker paradigm\” and other research strategies. An underlying assumption of this work is that not expressing these trauma-related thoughts and feelings involves an inhibition process that is physiologically taxing and that leads to negative health outcomes. Pennebaker atttributed the unwillingness to disclose distressing personal information to either circumstances or individual differences. The self-concealment construct, and the scale for its measurement, the Self-Concealment Scale, were introduced to permit assessment and conceptualization of individual differences on this personality dimension.The original article by Larson and Chastain can be accessed here:
Jourard, S. M. (1971a). Self-disclosure: An experimental analysis of the transparent self. New York: Wiley.
Jourard, S. M. (1971b). The transparent self (rev. ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Larson, D. G. (1993). The helper\’s journey: Working with people facing grief, loss, and life-threatening illness. Champaign, IL: Research Press.
Larson, D. G., & Chastain, R. L. (1990). Self-concealment: Conceptualization, measurement, and health implications. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9(4), 439-455.
Pennebaker, J. W., & Chew, C. (1985). Behavioral inhibition and electrodermal activity during deception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1-7.
Pennebaker, J. W., Zech, E., & Rime, B. (2001). Disclosing and sharing emotion: Psychological, social, and health consequences. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stroebe & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research: Consequences, coping, and care. (pp. 517-543). Washington, DC US: American Psychological Association.
Uysal, A., Lin, H. L., & Knee, C. R. (2010). The role of need satisfaction in self-concealment and well-being. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(2), 187-199.