Five Perspectives to Enhance Self-Understanding (original) (raw)

Theoretical Approaches to Investigate Self-Understanding: Literature Review

Open Journal for Psychological Research, 2018

In this informational-analytical paper results of the most relevant international research on selfunderstanding are analyzed and summarized. This work is aimed to summarize different approaches of investigating self-understanding from various perspectives of developmental psychology, psychology of knowledge, narrative psychology, psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology. An attempt is made to separate the phenomenon of self-understanding from selfknowledge, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-reflection, etc. The analysis of the features of selfunderstanding is carried out in the framework of two different tendencies: it is viewed as a cognitive phenomenon (emphasis on the process and result of the formation of knowledge about oneself) and as an existential phenomenon (appealing primarily to the value-semantic aspects of self-understanding).

Self-Awareness and Self-Understanding

European Journal of Philosophy, 2019

In this paper, I argue that self-awareness is intertwined with awareness of possibilities for action. I show this by critically examining Dan Zahavi's multidimensional account of the self. I show how the distinction Zahavi makes among 'pre-reflective minimal', 'interpersonal', and 'normative' dimensions of selfhood needs to be refined in order to accommodate what I call 'pre-reflective self-understanding'. The latter is a normative dimension of selfhood manifest not in reflection and deliberation, but in the habits and style of a person's pre-reflective absorption in the world. After reviewing Zahavi's multidimensional account and revealing this gap in his explanatory taxonomy, I draw upon Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Frankfurt in order to sketch an account of pre-reflective self-understanding. I end by raising an objection to Zahavi's claim for the primitive and foundational status of pre-reflective self-awareness. To carve off self-awareness from the self's practical immersion in a situation where things and possibilities already matter and draw one to act is to distort the phenomena. A more careful phenomenology of pre-reflective action shows that pre-reflective self-awareness and pre-reflective self-understanding are co-constitutive, both mutually for each other and jointly for everyday experience.

Self-knowledge: An expanded view

Journal of Personality, 1983

This paper argues for a more extensive study of self-knowledge. From the cognitive perspective, self-knowedge is a critical component of personality. Until quite recently, however, the study of self-knowledge has been narrowly conceived, focusing primarily on how individuals describe their roles and characteristic behaviors. Yet individuals also have knowledge about their preferences and values, their goals and motives, and their rules and strategies for regulating behavior. These dynamic aspects of self-knowledge are significant because they can be importantly revealing of future behavior. The content and organization of self-knowledge is important first because it indicates which domains of behavior are regarded as the most selfrelevant. It is in these domains that the strongest links between personality and behavior will be observed. Second, self-knowledge cognitively represents desired and undesired states for the self, as well as specific ideas about how to realize or avoid these states. It thus indicates the likely course of behavior in self-relevant domains. A number of recent research efforts can be intepreted as explorations of self-knowledge. These are briefly reviewed and integrated to provide a general outline for an expanded view of self-knowledge. Philosophers, poets, and psychologists alike share in the belief that the fount of self-knowledge runs broadly and unceasingly. Self-knowledge is thought to participate importantly in the social life of every individual. And while its usefulness or veridicality is sometimes challenged (e.g., Bem, 1972; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977), there is little argument with the notion that selfknowledge is both highly available and easily accessible. Self-knowledge is a central construct of cognitive personality theory (

Organization and development of self-understanding and self-regulation: Toward a general theory

In M. Boekaerts, P. R. Pintrich, & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Handbook of Self-regulation (pp 209-251). New York: Academic Press, 2000., 2000

This chapter reviews research and theory on self-understanding and self-regulation, focusing on the understanding of mind, self-concept, and self-regulation. It specifies the mental processes involved in each and outlines their development from childhood to early adulthood. Also, it places these processes in the broader context of cognition and personality.

Self-Knowledge and Self-Awareness

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1997

His research interests are in social cognition with a particular focus on the mental representation of trait and behavioral knowledge about the self A lagergoal of this research is to examine the extent to which a common set of principles can explain the way in which knowledge of self and others is represented in the mind.

Self-Awareness Part 1: Definition, Measures, Effects, Functions, and Antecedents

Self-awareness represents the capacity of becoming the object of one's own attention. In this state one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self. This paper surveys the self-awareness literature by emphasizing definition issues, measurement techniques, effects and functions of self-attention, and antecedents of self-awareness. Key self-related concepts (e.g., minimal, reflective consciousness) are distinguished from the central notion of self-awareness. Reviewed measures include questionnaires, implicit tasks, and self-recognition. Main effects and functions of self-attention consist in self-evaluation, escape from the self, amplification of one's subjective experience, increased self-knowledge, self-regulation, and inferences about others' mental states (Theory-of-Mind). A neurocognitive and socioecological model of self-awareness is described in which the role of face-to-face interactions, reflected appraisals, mirrors, media, inner speech, imagery , autobiographical knowledge, and neurological structures is underlined.