How to Develop and Strengthen Self-Awareness: Key Benefits and Common Mistakes

What is self-awareness

What does self-awareness mean? This can be literally translated as “knowing oneself” or “knowing oneself.” The term comes from philosophy. It is no longer possible to say exactly who introduced this concept, but in psychology it is associated with the name of L.S. Vygotsky. This is what the author calls knowledge about himself: “a person’s awareness of himself as an individual, the focus of a person’s consciousness on himself: on his own body, needs, feelings, behavior.”

Let’s explain the concept of self-awareness in simple words, give a definition from psychology, and outline the main characteristics. In psychology, a person’s knowledge of himself is the subject’s awareness of himself as a separate unit, personality, participant in society and understanding of his place in the world.

What parts does a person's knowledge of himself consist of? From a person’s awareness and assessment of his thoughts, behavior, desires. It is connected with many other “itself”:

self-esteem;
self-esteem;
self-worth;
self-help;
introspection;
self-realization, etc.

Self-knowledge is based on a person’s acceptance of himself and awareness of his uniqueness. The search for purpose and self-determination in life, the individual’s beliefs and values, and worldview depend on this, in turn. Knowledge about oneself helps a person assess the prospects for further development in life.

Definitions of self-awareness from other sciences are practically the same:

In social science, the definition is: “this is a person’s awareness of his actions, feelings, thoughts, motives of behavior, interests, and his position in society. And also this awareness of oneself as an individual capable of making decisions and being responsible for them.”
In philosophy, the definition is formulated as follows: “this is a person’s awareness, assessment of his knowledge, moral character and interests, ideals and motives of behavior, a holistic assessment of himself as a feeling and thinking being, as the author of activity. This is the self-consciousness of the soul.

Let's look at the features of knowing about ourselves. A person’s perception of himself influences how the subject’s relationship with society develops. But at the same time, society influences the formation of an individual’s self-awareness.

So, how does the social conditioning of self-awareness manifest itself? Let's look at it with an example. Until the age of 6-7 years, a child has not yet developed critical thinking, so instead of self-esteem, he is guided by the assessment of adults. From their words, the child determines what he is like. If parents convince him that he is bad and unworthy, then the child grows up with such an attitude. In the future, when building relationships with society, he adheres to precisely this belief, and therefore he comes across bad people, manipulators, tyrants.

An example of self-awareness from life: a person understands that he lacks perseverance and motivation to move up the career ladder. He begins to analyze why he lacks motivation and compares his actions with the behavior patterns of successful people. As a result, he draws up a plan to develop the necessary qualities in himself and soon achieves success.

Interesting! Sometimes self-knowledge is called a person’s ability to separate and distinguish himself from everything that surrounds him.

A little history

The ancient Greek philosopher Plotinus, who lived in the 3rd century. n. e., was the first to see the spiritual, divine principle in everything corporeal. It was thanks to him that psychology became the science of consciousness, which was understood as self-consciousness.

According to the teachings of Plotinus, the soul of an individual comes from a certain world soul. She is directed towards her. In addition, the philosopher believed that a person has another vector of activity, It is directed towards the world of feelings. Each soul, as Plotinus believed, has one more direction. It is expressed in turning towards oneself, one’s own content and one’s invisible actions. This appeal monitors the work of the soul, being at the same time its original mirror.

Many centuries later, a person’s ability not only to think, remember, feel and perceive, but also to have certain internal ideas about such functions was called reflection. By this term they began to mean a certain mechanism that is certainly present in the activity of the subject, at the same time combining his orientation in the internal world, that is, in himself, with orientation in the external world.

But whatever the explanations for such a phenomenon, they all boiled down to a search for a certain dependence of mental impulses on physical causes, communication with people around them, and on processes occurring in the body. However, the factors influencing the emergence of reflection, which was once discovered by Plotinus, were never discovered. The theory of the ancient Greek philosopher remained self-sufficient for a long time, becoming the initial concept in the psychology of consciousness.

This topic interested scientists in subsequent periods of human existence. A similar direction is developing today. Moreover, recently there has been the greatest activity in its study. For example, interesting research on personal self-awareness was conducted in 1979 by Lewis and Brooks-Gan. Scientists attached a red dot to the babies' noses and then held them up to a mirror. Children who recognized their reflection pulled their little hands to their own nose. In this case, scientists believed that in these children self-awareness had already received its definite development. In such experiments, children under one year old tended to gravitate towards the reflection in the mirror. 25% of children aged 15 to 18 months touched their nose, as did 70% of 21-24 month olds.

Researchers believe that a specific area of the brain, located in the frontal lobe, plays a major role in the development of self-awareness. An experiment conducted by Lewis and Brooks-Hahn indicated that a person's understanding of the inner self first begins to emerge when he reaches the age of 18 months. This period coincides with the onset of rapid cell growth occurring in the front of the brain.

Levels

Knowledge about oneself presupposes the formation in a person of a self-concept - a stable system of ideas about oneself. It is a product of self-awareness. In the self-concept, three levels can be distinguished, they are also called levels of self-awareness:

cognitive – a person’s ideas about himself as a person, individuality, knowledge and acceptance of all his characteristics;
evaluative – a sense of self-worth, self-worth, including a person’s awareness of the significance and value of his profession, external features, character;
behavioral – behavioral attitudes and a person’s attitude towards his own personality.

Self-regulation of behavior

The formation of a person’s self-awareness allows him to control internal mechanisms and experiences. At the same time, it becomes possible for a person to improve his own mood, as well as change his way of thinking or reorient his concentration on a particular object.

A child who finds himself in society also learns to manage his behavior. Gradually he realizes what is good and what is bad in his actions, how he can behave and how not.

A person living in society has a need to observe etiquette standards. The individual has to adapt to them, while listening to his self-awareness.

Often, performing one or another necessary activity is obligatory for a person. And in this case, self-regulation of behavior comes into play. After all, the execution of all actions is possible only after receiving the internal permission of one’s “I”.

The structure of self-awareness

What is included in the structure of self-awareness? The structure of a person’s self-awareness includes the following elements:

Cognitive component or self-understanding. This is a person’s knowledge of himself and the development of self-images. Usually there are four: the real self (what a person is), the ideal self (what he would like and could be), the fantastic self (what he dreams of being if he had no limitations) and the mirror self (how a person is seen those around him in his opinion).
Emotional-evaluative component or self-attitude. Acceptance or non-acceptance of oneself, confidence or uncertainty, a sense of self-worth or devaluation of oneself - all this and the like are included in this element. In general, this is a person’s emotional and evaluative attitude towards himself: self-esteem, self-respect, self-acceptance. It is formed on the basis of social norms, stereotypes, and standards. And also based on a person’s comparison of himself with other people.
Behavioral component or self-regulation. This is the desire to fit into society, to be accepted and understood, to meet its norms, to become a respected person and a valuable unit.
Self-actualization. This component ensures the realization and self-development of a person. Signs of healthy self-actualization of the individual: life “here and now”, doing what you love, continuous self-development, openness to new things, honesty with yourself and others, a responsible and conscious attitude towards life, self-confidence.
Level of aspiration. This is the desire to conquer goals that are a little further than the zone of current development, that is, a little more complicated than what a person has already conquered.

According to other sources, the main components of self-awareness look like this:

Self-knowledge (intellectual aspect). Formed through self-observation and self-assessment.
Self-control (self-regulation). Driven by self-esteem. The more stable and adequate the self-esteem, the higher the level of self-control.
Self improvement. Working with self-images.

The formation of a substructure is associated with the level of development of self-awareness. Let's analyze the structure through the diagram:

Note! Self-knowledge is one of the stages in the development of consciousness. And consciousness is a person’s ability to subjectively experience and interpret events in the external and internal world.

Too Much Introspection Can Kill You

Late at night, the blind old man was preparing to return home after visiting his friend.
And he asked to take a lantern with him. The friend was surprised: “Why do you need a lantern? You won’t see anything anyway.” “I won’t see, but others will see me and won’t bump into me.”

The friend gave the old man a lantern, and he left. But he didn’t have time to go far when a guy bumped into him.

The old man was indignant: “Aren’t you watching where you’re going? Don’t you see the lantern?”

"Flashlight? Well, it’s turned off,” the guy answered.

Reflection is like a flashlight—it can provide light, but it does not guarantee vision.

Functions of self-awareness

What functions and roles does a person’s knowledge about himself perform? In psychology, it is customary to distinguish the following functions of self-awareness:

Function of development and self-improvement. The need for self-realization pushes the individual onto the path of positive changes, the transformation of the ideal self into the real self.
Existential function. Self-awareness helps a person find meaning and purpose in life.
Regulatory function. On the basis of his self-awareness, a person builds relationships with society, regulates and organizes his behavior and activities.
Integrative function. A person seeks a balance between personal and social, internal and external world.
Protective function. Despite the desire for positive changes, a person at the same time struggles to maintain his usual self-image. In life, this looks, for example, like defending personal boundaries.

Forms

Personal knowledge about oneself is a person’s system of ideas about himself, his mental and physical states. There are several forms of self-awareness.

According to the typology of V.V. Mironov forms of self-awareness are:

Well-being. This is a person’s awareness of his body and its place, participation in the world.
Self-identification. A person's identification with a social or cultural group.
Personal knowledge about yourself. A person recognizes himself as someone similar to other people, but at the same time different from them. Along with this comes awareness of freedom of action and responsibility for them. Against this background, self-control and self-esteem come into play.

Sometimes these forms are called levels of human self-awareness. The first form is the lowest level, the third is the highest.

In addition to forms, it is customary in psychology to distinguish types or types of self-awareness:

Public or social. This is a complex of collective beliefs and ideas about society during a certain period of time.
Private. This is a person's awareness of certain aspects of himself. For example, when a subject looks in a mirror and sees his own face.
Moral. This is a system of moral images and ideals to which a person strives.

All types are closely related to each other.

Formation of individuality

Each person is unique in their own way. He appears simultaneously from several positions, being an individual, a personality and a subject of activity. However, this does not mean that everyone will be able to achieve a harmonious interaction of all properties, qualities, and methods of activity throughout their life. In other words, not all people are capable of becoming individuals.

Indeed, self-awareness and personality development occur differently for everyone. At the same time, not every person is able to fully use their potential capabilities, achieving the highest results in a particular activity. The individual’s professional self-awareness also suffers from this. In this case, a person’s work becomes unproductive and uncreative.

To develop individuality, you will need to make enormous internal efforts. And here you can’t do without self-awareness. The formation of personality occurs under the influence of events occurring around it and emerging experiences. But it is worth noting that these tests benefit the individual. Without difficult situations and experiences, her development would have stopped immediately.

The life of any person proceeds in such a way that he, voluntarily or involuntarily, learns new things, and also makes some efforts to realize his dreams and plans. And self-awareness plays a major role in this.

As a rule, individuality does not come cheap for anyone. People are forced to defend it in front of loved ones and colleagues, who sometimes simply do not understand the desires that have arisen. Building your own image, unlike anyone else, allows you to form the “I-concept” of a person’s self-awareness. It determines what a person will become in the future, and also thanks to what he will achieve his goals. And all this is greatly influenced by the level of self-awareness.

How self-awareness is formed

The problem of self-awareness is complex. In psychology, it is considered from different angles. For example, they study the development of knowledge about oneself in accordance with age-related changes in a person.

How self-awareness is formed as a person grows up (stages of development of knowledge about oneself):

From 0 to 1 year. A rudimentary knowledge of oneself arises. The child understands that he exists. The first level of development of self-awareness is characterized by awareness of biological needs: food, water, care.
From 2 to 3 years. Allopsychic knowledge about oneself. The child begins to see himself as an independent person, to separate his actions from the actions of other people.
From 4 to 7 years. Self-psychic knowledge about oneself is formed, that is, the child can already evaluate, understand and recognize his physical states, emotions, and feelings.
From 8 to 17 years. The formation of self-awareness ends. The young man develops a stable system of ideas about himself.

In the future, knowledge about oneself is not formed, but modified. Thus, a person’s self-awareness mainly develops by the age of 17.

What influences the formation of self-awareness? The formation of knowledge about oneself is influenced by the significant environment, society as a whole, the assessment of the subject by other people, status in the peer group, a person’s assessment of himself, the ratio of the images of the real self and the ideal self.

Here are the prerequisites for the formation of self-awareness:

a person’s awareness of his similarity with other people;
consciousness of one's Self as an active principle;
a person’s consciousness of his mental properties and qualities;
formation of a system of social and moral attitudes.

L.S. Vygotsky believed that the development of the structure of self-consciousness occurs according to a pattern close to the development of higher mental functions.

Meditation practice

Much is known about the power of this wonderful activity. It attracts with its unconventional approach. By mastering the technique of meditation, a person gets the opportunity to truly influence the emotional component of his life. He is no longer tormented by fears, doubts and uncertainty. As a result, even the most complex and ambiguous decisions are made easier. From now on, it becomes easier to believe in yourself, to discover those prospects that previously went unnoticed.

There are a large number of meditation practices. All of them deserve close attention, but a person must make the final choice independently.

Learning the great art of relaxation is incredibly useful for both physical and mental health: more strength appears for self-realization, fresh creative ideas appear.

Developing Self Awareness

The development of human self-awareness begins at birth and continues throughout life. Let us briefly present the plan for the development of self-awareness:

the child’s awareness of the very fact of his existence (at the physical level through sensations, awareness of himself in his physical body);
the child’s separation of himself from the surrounding world and society;
the child’s awareness of his emotions, feelings and desires;
development of self-esteem (evaluation of actions, behavior, personal qualities);
the ability to determine mental states, recognize feelings and motives;
awareness of advantages and disadvantages and other individual characteristics, development of images of the real Self and the ideal Self;
the formation of a sense of self-worth that does not depend on external circumstances.