Developing Self-Awareness: Learning Processes for Self- and Interpersonal Growth
Summary & key facts
This article looks at what self-awareness is, how it develops, and what it does to our choices and relationships. The authors review recent studies and offer a way to think about self-awareness that covers how accurate our self-view is, how it is measured, and both its benefits and its downsides. They also looked at programs that try to raise awareness—like guided reflection, feedback, and coaching—and say we need better ways to measure change and to study how self-awareness matters online, in teams, and for society.
- Self-awareness means how you see yourself and the effects you have on the people and places around you.
- The paper reviews recent research to define self-awareness, how accurately people understand themselves, and how researchers measure it.
- The authors point out a "dark side": being too focused on your own thoughts can sometimes be harmful rather than helpful.
- They searched the research for educational programs that try to increase mindfulness and self-awareness using reflection, feedback, and coaching.
- The article offers a framework to tie together different theories and processes about how self-awareness develops over time.
- The authors call for better tools to measure and track changes in self-awareness, and for more study of its effects online, in teams, and across society.
Abstract
Self-awareness—how we see ourselves and the effects we have on our environment—influences our behavior and the type of person we want to become. This article examines recent research and areas of practice that address the meaning of self-awareness and how it develops over time. We build on extant comprehensive reviews of the literature to define self-awareness and its accuracy, measurement, and effects, including the dark side of being overly introspective. We offer a framework to integrate theory-based processes. We present the results of a literature search of educational interventions aimed at increasing mindfulness through reflection, feedback, and coaching. We conclude with calls for research and implications for practice in areas of measurement, tracking changes, interventions, and self in relation to others in areas of societal impact, self-presentation on digital media, and promoting self-awareness in relation to organization and team membership.
