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2. Self Awareness

Introduction 1

  • The ability to recognize and understand our own emotions, as well as those of others, is fundamental to personal and professional growth.
  • Self-awareness and Self-reflection are essential components of emotional intelligence.
  • By honing our ability to recognize and label emotions, both within ourselves and others, we lay the foundation for meaningful connections, effective communication, and professional achievement.

Developing Self Awareness 2

  • Self-awareness (SW):
    • It is how we see ourselves and the effects we have on our environment.
    • It influences our behavior and the type of person we want to become.
  • Content of SW:
    • Internal SW: includes our affect, beliefs, cognitions, interests, goals, personality, values, and meaningful life patterns.
    • External SW: includes our perceptions of our physical appearance and our behavior. It also includes a social aspect of self-awareness, specifically, our self-evaluations in relation to what others tell us (feedback), our perceptions of how people relate to us and the effects our behavior has on others, and the extent to which we act in ways that are sensitive to others.
  • Accuracy of SW:
    • We are poor judges of our own capabilities, with an average correlation of 0.29 between self-evaluations and objective assessments.
  • Measures of Self-Awareness:
    • Self-report is the main way using questionnaires.
  • Effects of Self-Awareness:
    • SW is important to our behavior, satisfaction, and performance.
    • SW contributes to better decision making and team performance, increased leadership success, and more opportunities for career advancement.
    • SW s brings many psychological benefits, including increased self-regulation, more attention to others’ needs (pro-sociality), and less stress and anxiety.
    • Individuals who are low in self-awareness are likely to exhibit self-protection mechanisms such as denial, withdrawal, self-aggrandizement, and fear of failure.
  • Dark Side of SW:
    • SW can be a double-edged sword, it may be used to take positive actions or to justify existing negative behaviors.
    • White-knuckle alcoholics know they are alcoholics but do not take positive actions to address their issues. Instead, they try to use their mind and willpower to fix it.
    • Self-awareness can lead to excessive self-inspection, making it difficult to function or perform.

15 Ways to Develop Self Awareness 3

Only 10-15% of people are self-aware, although 95% of people think they are.

  1. Know your strength: strengths are the things that makes us unique.
  2. Know your weaknesses: weaknesses are the things that hold us back.
  3. Be curious about yourself: ask yourself questions.
  4. Let your guard down: be open to feedback, and accept to hear about the thing about you that you don’t want to hear.
  5. Always ask for feedback: ask for feedback from people you trust.
  6. Question your values and opinions: those things are not set in stone; they can change if you put them under investigation.
  7. Recognize your core values: what are the things that are important to you.
  8. Know what triggers you: what are the things that make you angry, sad, or happy.
  9. Become self-disciplined: self-discipline is the ability to control your emotions and behavior despite temptations and impulses.
  10. Be open: be open to new experiences and new people.
  11. Meditate: meditation is a great way to get to know yourself.
  12. Write things down: writing things down can help you to understand your thoughts and emotions.
  13. Take personality tests: personality tests can help you to understand your personality.
  14. Try new experiences: trying new experiences can help you to understand yourself.
  15. Read more fiction: reading fiction can help you to understand other people’s emotions and motivations.

References

  1. Learning Guide Unit 2: Introduction | Home. (2025). Uopeople.edu. https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=458247&chapterid=559994 ↩

  2. London, M., Sessa, V. I., & Shelley, L. A. (2023). Developing self-awareness: Learning processes for self-and interpersonal growth. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10, 261-288 (2023). https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-120920-044531 ↩

  3. Alux.com. (2022, August 24). 15 ways to develop Self Awareness [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/gRam0eedH0g ↩