“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” - Carl Jung.
In recent years, the concept of self-awareness has become more and more popular and commonly associated with mental health and well-being. Everyone has a basic understanding of what self-awareness is but we do not have any concrete ideas on where it comes from, what it requires and why some of us are more self-aware than others. Through a series of surveys, Psychologist Tasha Eurich found that although 95% of people think they are self-aware, only 10-15% truly are in a ‘holistic manner.’
In 1972, Shelley Duval and Robert Wicklund came up with a theory on self-awareness that helps us answer some of the questions that we grapple with to be self-aware and accept our selves. According to their theory, in any given moment, a person could be either be focused on the inner self or the outside world. When focused on the inner self, we evaluate our thoughts, feelings, behaviours to see whether we are acting in accordance with our standards and values or not. Although we may not realise it, we take part in this process of self-evaluation on a regular basis to assess the correctness of our thoughts and feelings. But what happens when we realise that we are not acting in accordance with our standards? Silvia and Duval (2001) suggest that this can go one of two ways. Either we work towards reducing the discrepancy between our actions and our standards, or we avoid it entirely. This decision is based on a number of different factors that influence our perception of how things will turn out. In simpler terms, if we think that we can actually reduce this discrepancy through our actions, we tend to make an effort. However, if we think that there is very little likelihood of reducing this discrepancy and that it will take too much work, we tend to avoid it entirely. To understand this concept more clearly, let’s look at an example:
Let’s say Sid is an elite cricket player who is currently struggling with his performance. He sets very high standards for himself for each match and through the process of self-evaluation he realises the discrepancy between his standards and his actual performance. This process further allows him to understand why this discrepancy exists in the first place and whether something can be done to fix it. Through the processes of reflection and introspection (the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes), Sid realises that his performance is suffering because of his weakness in fielding. He realises that with more practice in this skill and with the right coaching, his performance can meet his standards. Therefore, to fix this discrepancy Sid spends more time and effort training and eventually is able to perform up to his standards.
Through this, we hope to example highlights a number of important factors.
Firstly, we feel it shows how being self-aware makes us understand what our standards and values are in the first place and whether our thoughts, feelings and actions are in accordance with them.
Secondly, it helps us better understand the reason behind the discrepancy between our actions and standards if there is one.
Lastly, it helps us realise the steps we need to take to fix this discrepancy and whether we are capable of these steps or not. In some cases, we may realise that we are actually incapable of the actions required to fix the discrepancy.
This realisation sometimes may come with feelings of incapability and unworthiness; however, it speaks volumes on how self-aware we really are. But it is important to note, this may show us that we are aware of what our true strengths and weaknesses are and what we are capable of achieving through them. In such cases, there are other ways of overcoming the internal discrepancies such as adjusting our standards to what we think is more achievable.
Having explored what self-awareness is, let’s look at some of the benefits of practicing this trait in our daily lives:
1. One of the key benefits of self-awareness is an enhanced ability to understand others’ perspectives. Better perspective-taking improves our ability to be empathetic and therefore improves our social interactions, relations and connections with others.
Improved self-control(acceptance) or self-regulation is another benefit of self-awareness. Self-awareness can restrain anti-social impulses and increase personal responsibility to adhere to internalized social standards (Carver, 2003).
High self-esteem and pride are additional benefits to increased self-awareness. While seeing oneself as falling short of social standards can present in negative affect, the opposite can be true if one sees themselves as the cause of success.
It leads to better decision-making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992).
It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related wellbeing (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015).
Check out the following video for a quick and fun activity on how to teach and develop self-awareness skills through art: on our linked Instagram post
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References
Courtney E. Ackerman, MSc., Researcher - What Is Self-Awareness and Why Is It Important? [+5 Ways to Increase It] - https://positivepsychology.com/self-awareness-matters-how-you-can-be-more-self-aware/
Kelly Miller, BA, CAPP- Benefits of Self-Awareness According to Science - https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-self-awareness/
Tasha Eurich, PhD, What Self-Awareness Really Is (and How to Cultivate It) – https://hbr.org/2018/01/what-self-awareness-really-is-and-how-to-cultivate-it
Duval, S., & Wicklund, R. A. (1972). A theory of objective self awareness. Academic Press.
Sutton A., Williams H. M., Allinson C. W. (2015). A longitudinal, mixed method evaluation of self-awareness training in the workplace. European Journal of Training and Development, 39(7), 610–627. doi:. 10.1108/EJTD-04-2015-0031
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