Self-awareness in psychology is What is self-awareness? Definition and concept

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

One of the basic in the doctrine of personality is the problem of self-consciousness. It is not surprising, because the concept is very complex and multifaceted. Scientific researchers have devoted a lot of work to this phenomenon. Self-awareness in psychology is the process of understanding and evaluating oneself as an individual as a subject of various activities and as a person who has a set of own interests, value orientations, motives, ideals.

Definition of concept

Psychologists say that not only a person is distinguished by self-consciousness, but also a society, class, nation or any other social group, but only if these elements reach understanding and awareness of the system of relationships, common interests, common activities. Self-consciousness in psychology is when a person separates himself from the entire external environment and determines his place in a turbulent natural and social life. This phenomenon is closely related to such a concept as reflection, theoretical thinking.

The criterion and starting point of how a person relates to himself is the people around him, that is, the emergence andthe development of consciousness takes place among their own kind, in society. Social psychologists argue that in three areas the formation and formation of an individual as a person is possible, namely: in activity, in communication and in self-awareness.

V. S. Merlin's theory

The process of socialization provides for the expansion and deepening of the ties and relationships of the individual with other people, certain groups, society in general. The image of "I" develops and becomes more stable. The formation of self-consciousness, or that very “I”, occurs gradually, throughout the entire life path, and not immediately, from birth. It is a complex process subject to many social influences. In this regard, V. S. Merlin singled out the components of self-consciousness:

• First - a person is aware of his differences and distinguishes himself from the outside world.
• Second - the individual is aware of himself as an active subject, capable of changing the reality around him, and not as a passive object.
• Third - a person is aware of his own mental properties, processes and emotional states.
• Fourth - a person develops social and moral aspects, self-respect as a result of the experience gained.

Self-awareness: three directions in science

Modern science has a variety of views on the emergence and development of consciousness and self-consciousness. In the traditional approach, this concept is considered as the initial genetically primary form of human consciousness, which is based on self-awareness and self-perception. It develops in childhood, when the child gets to know hisbody, is aware of it, distinguishes his "I" from the "I" of others, looks in the mirror and understands that it is he.

This concept indicates that the special and universal aspect of what we call ethnic identity is self-experience, which gives rise to it.

But scientists did not stop, and S. L. Rubinshtein offered the opposite view. For him, the problem of self-consciousness is different and lies in a different area. It lies in the fact that this phenomenon has the highest level and is, as it were, a product and result of the development of consciousness.

There is also a third point of view, which suggests that consciousness and the psyche, as well as self-consciousness, are characterized by parallel simultaneous development, unified and interdependent. It turns out that a person cognizes the world with the help of sensations, and he has a certain picture of the outside world, but in addition to this, he experiences self-sensations that form his idea of himself.

The development of the phenomenon

Self-awareness in psychology is a process that consists of two main stages:

• The first involves building a diagram of your physical body and forms a sense of "I".
• The second stage begins when intellectual capabilities, conceptual thinking are improved and reflection develops. The individual is already able to comprehend his life. But no matter how much we want to think rationally, even the reflexive level still has a connection with affective experiences, at least, so says V. P. Zinchenko. According to scholars, rightthe left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for feeling oneself, and the left hemisphere is responsible for reflection.

Constituent concepts

The structure of self-consciousness is characterized by several components. First, the individual distinguishes himself from the surrounding world, he is aware of himself as a subject, independent of the environment - both natural and social. Secondly, there is an awareness of one's own activity, that is, self-management. Thirdly, a person can be aware of himself and his qualities through others (if you notice some feature in a friend, then you have it, otherwise you would not have distinguished it from the general background). Fourthly, a person evaluates himself from a moral point of view, it is characterized by reflection, internal experience. Russian self-consciousness has such a structure.

A person feels united due to the continuity of the experience of time: the memory of past events, the experience of the present and hope for a brighter future. Since this phenomenon is continuous, the person integrates himself into a holistic education.

The structure of self-consciousness, namely its dynamic aspect, has been repeatedly analyzed. As a result, two terms appeared: “current I”, denoting certain forms of how a person realizes himself in a given period, “here and now”, and “personal I”, which is characterized by persistence and is the core for all other “current I”. It turns out that any act of self-consciousness is distinguished by both self-knowledge and self-experience.

Another structure

Since many scientists de alt with this problem, most of them singled out andcalled their components of self-consciousness. Here is another example:

• We can be aware of near and distant goals, the motives of our activities, although often they can be hidden and veiled (“I am acting”).
• We are able to understand what qualities we really have, and what we only want to have ("I am real", "I am perfect").
• There is a process of understanding one's cognitive attitudes and ideas about oneself.
• Emotional attitude towards yourself, measured by a self-esteem test.

According to the above information, self-awareness includes self-knowledge (intellectual aspect) and self-attitude (emotional).

Teachings of C. G. Jung

The theory of C. G. Jung, an Austrian psychiatrist, gained great popularity in psychological science, in the doctrine of "Consciousness and Psyche". He argued that the basis of self-consciousness is the opposition of conscious and unconscious activity. According to K. Jung, the psyche has two levels of self-reflection. On the first of them is the self, which takes part in both conscious and unconscious processes, totally penetrating into everything. The second level is how we think about ourselves, for example, "I feel that I miss", "I love myself", and all this is an extension of the self. Subjectivity and objectivity in one bottle.

Views of humanist psychologists

Scientists of the humanistic direction in psychology perceive the self as the purposefulness of the entire human essence, which will help to achieve the maximumpotential opportunities.

The criterion for how an individual treats himself is other personalities. In this case, ethnic self-awareness develops, and social contacts that bring new experience change the idea of who we are and make it more multifaceted. Conscious behavior reveals not so much what a person really is, but the result of stereotypes, introjects about oneself, formed as a result of communication with other people.

It is important for a person to become himself, stay that way and have the ability to support himself in difficult times so that his self-relationship does not change, and the self-esteem test shows stable results.

Levels of self-awareness

Psychologists have identified four levels of self-awareness. The first is directly sensory, which has information about all physiological processes, the desires of the body, and the states of the psyche. This is the level of self-feelings and self-experiences that provide the simplest identification of a person.

The second level is personal, or whole-figurative. The individual becomes aware of being active, and self-actualizing processes appear.

The third level can be called the level of the mind, because here a person comprehends the content of his intellectual forms, reflects, analyzes, observes.

Well, the fourth level is purposeful activity, which is a combination of the three previous ones, thanks to which the personality functions adequately in the world. Self-control, self-education, self-organization, self-criticism,self-esteem, self-knowledge, self-improvement and many more self-all these are the characteristics of the fourth synthesized level.

The structural components of self-awareness differ in information content and are associated with such mechanisms as assimilation, that is, the identification of an individual with an object or subject, and intellectual analysis (we are talking about reflection).

Relationship category

Self-awareness in psychology is a combination of attitudes towards oneself and others and the expectation of how other people will relate to a person (projective mechanisms).

In this regard, relations are divided into types:

1. Egocentric - the individual puts himself in the center and believes that he is the value in itself. If people do what he wants, then they are good.
2. Group-centric are relationships in a reference group. When you are in our team, you are good.
3. Prosocial - in such relationships, respect and acceptance of each other reigns, since any person is considered an intrinsic value. Do what you want in return.
4. Estocholic is the level of spiritual relations, where such noble traits as mercy, honesty, justice, love for God and neighbor are welcomed.

Pathological forms of the phenomenon

In pathological manifestations, self-consciousness is the first to be affected, after which ordinary consciousness comes.

Let's consider what disorders are:

• The process of depersonalization is characterized byloss of one's own "I". In this case, a person perceives external events and what is happening inside as an outside observer, and not an active subject.
• The process of splitting the basis of personality. This is dissociation. The nucleus is divided into two, sometimes three or more beginnings that have alien properties that may conflict with each other. A case known to science when 24 (!) Personalities coexisted in one person, who had their own memories, interests, motives, temperament, values and even a voice. Each of these beginnings claimed to be the true one, and the others simply do not exist.
• There are violations of the identification of one's own body. Its parts can be perceived by people as alien, separate.
• The most pathological form is derealization. A person loses contact with reality, begins to doubt the existence of not only himself, but also the entire external environment. Very severe personality disorder.

Conclusion

The concept described in the article is important for understanding the various processes of human life. Self-consciousness is related to many aspects of the personality, differs in various manifestations, can be both normal and pathological. Different scientists distinguish their components, structure, levels and stages. This phenomenon is a superstructure over the human psyche, consciousness and depends on the people around the individual who influence him. Self-consciousness has its own characteristics of development and formation in ontogenesis. Although this area has already been studied enough, there is still much hidden and awaiting research.