ABSTRACT

This volume integrates scholarly work on disclosure and uncertainty with the most up-to-date, cutting edge research, theories, and applications. Uncertainty is an ever-present part of human relationships, and the ways in which people reduce and/or manage uncertainty involves regulating their communication with others through revealing and concealing information. This collection is devoted to collating knowledge in these areas, advancing theory and presenting work that is socially meaningful.

This work includes contributions from renowned scholars in interpersonal uncertainty and information regulation, focusing on processes that bridge boundaries within and across disciplines, while maintaining emphasis on interpersonal contexts. Disciplines represented here include interpersonal, family, and health communication, as well as relational and social psychology. Key features of the volume include:

  • comprehensive coverage integrating the latest research on disclosure, information seeking, and uncertainty
  • a highly theoretical content, socially meaningful in nature (applied to real-world contexts)
  • an interdisciplinary approach that crosses sub-fields within communication.

This volume is a unique and timely resource for advanced study in interpersonal, health, or family communication. With its emphasis on theory, the book is an excellent resource for graduate courses addressing theory and/or theory construction, and it will also appeal to scholars interested in applied research.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

part I|193 pages

Uncertainty

chapter 1|17 pages

Generally Unseen Challenges in Uncertainty Management

An Application of Problematic Integration Theory

chapter 2|19 pages

Reclaiming Uncertainty

The Formation of New Meanings

chapter 3|22 pages

The Theory of Communication and Uncertainty Management

Implications from the Wider Realm of Information Behavior

part I|57 pages

Factors Impacting the Association Between Uncertainty and Information Management

chapter 6|22 pages

Relational Uncertainty

Theory and Application

chapter 7|14 pages

Motivated Cognition In Interpersonal Contexts

Need for Closure and its Implications for Information Regulation and Social Interaction

part I|57 pages

The Nature of Information Seeking in Specific Contexts

chapter 8|19 pages

Use of the Risk Perception Attitude (RPA) Framework for Understanding Health Information Seeking

The Role of Anxiety, Risk Perception, and Efficacy Beliefs

chapter 10|18 pages

Information Regulation in Work—Life

Applying the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking to Organizational Networks

part II|225 pages

Disclosure Decisions

part II|86 pages

Predictors and Consequences of Withholding Information

chapter 14|21 pages

Why People Conceal or Reveal Secrets

A Multiple Goals Theory Perspective

chapter 15|20 pages

Secrecy in Close Relationships

Investigating its Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Effects

chapter 16|21 pages

Conflict Avoidance

A Functional Analysis

chapter 17|22 pages

The Standards for Openness Hypothesis

A Gendered Explanation for Why Avoidance is so Dissatisfying

part II|63 pages

Challenges to Disclosure

chapter 18|19 pages

Regulating the Privacy of Confidentiality

Grasping the Complexities through Communication Privacy Management Theory

chapter 20|23 pages

The Divorce Disclosure Model (DDM)

Why Parents Disclose Negative Information about the Divorce to their Children and its Effects