The Effect Of Keeping Secrets On Interpersonal Closeness:a Mediating Role Of Loneliness And Intervention

Secrets are always full of mystery,in all walks of life,everyone’s heart is kept a secret.The presence of a very important secret can have adverse effects on the individual,which in turn can affect one’s physical health.This study focuses on the effect of the number of secrets an individual keeps on his or her perceived interpersonal closeness and the possible mediating mechanisms,and based on this,an intervention study was conducted.Study 1 used the Common Secrets Questionnaire.Loneliness Scale(3rd edition)and Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale to conduct a questionnaire survey on 305 national citizens to understand the current status of keeping secrets,loneliness,and interpersonal intimacy,and to explore the relationship between them.Study 2 was based on Study 1.50 subjects from Study 1 who currently held at least one secret were screened for the written emotional disclosure writing intervention.Divided into an experimental group and a control group,25 subjects in the experimental group were given the written emotional disclosure writing intervention while the control group was given the written daily affairs record writing to analyze and explore whether the written emotional disclosure writing intervention had a significant effect on the subjects’ feelings of loneliness and interpersonal closeness.The specific results were as follows.1.There was a significant gender difference in the number of secrets kept,in the dimension of concealing secret information there was a significantly higher number of secrets kept by men than by women;there was a significant difference in the dimension of the number of secrets in the mind in terms of age groups;there was no significant difference in the number of secrets kept in terms of the highest educational level,which indicates that the level of education has no significant effect on the number of secrets kept.Loneliness and interpersonal intimacy were not significant on gender,age,and highest education level,which indicates that gender,age size and education level have no significant influence on people’s loneliness and interpersonal intimacy.2.The relationship between the number of secrets in the mind,the number of concealed secret information,loneliness and the degree of interpersonal intimacy showed a two-by-two significant correlation,the number of secrets in the mind and the number of concealed secret information both negatively predicted the degree of interpersonal intimacy and significantly positively predicted loneliness,and loneliness had a significant negative predictive effect on the degree of interpersonal intimacy.3.Loneliness played a mediating role between the number of secrets kept and the degree of interpersonal intimacy.The details were as follows.(1)Loneliness played a fully mediating role between the number of secrets kept in the mind and the degree of interpersonal intimacy.(2)Loneliness plays a fully mediating role between the amount of secret information concealed and the degree of interpersonal intimacy.4.A written Emotional disclosure paradigm intervention for subjects who currently keep at least one secret in their minds helped subjects significantly reduce loneliness and was effective in increasing interpersonal closeness.The analysis of the results led to the following conclusions.1.The number of secrets,loneliness and interpersonal intimacy are closely related,specifically,the more secrets individuals keep in their hearts,the stronger loneliness they feel and the more distant interpersonal intimacy they feel;the stronger loneliness individuals feel,the more distant interpersonal intimacy they perceive around them.2.The more secrets an individual keeps,the more interpersonal intimacy he or she perceives will be reduced by the strong feeling of loneliness.3.Writing tasks can effectively reduce individuals’ loneliness and increase interpersonal closeness to some extent.