What Lies Beneath? An exploration of Secrets held by Urban Youth

Every day in life one may have myriad experiences, however, there may be some events or thoughts that an individual may choose not to share it with anyone. This ability to keep the information to ourselves, is not an easy process and is an active intentional cognitive process. Secrets is something that each individual has, however, there has been a lack of empirical interest in this topic. What may be the function of this process and does it have any links to developmental stages or does it inform any aspects of counseling? In an exploratory study, secrets from 172 participants were collected and analyzed. The results provide evidence that suggests secrets may have a developmental basis. Further, the feelings associated with secrets are negative, thus providing support for our contention that the events precipitating the secret have their source in the shadow archetypes.