SELF-REFLECTION

Self-reflection is the intellectual mechanism that allows the individual to become self-aware in order to be able to take care of his own needs.

Self-awareness on the other hand is the end product of self-reflection and is the ability to think of own needs, emotions, thoughts, behaviours, social interactions, and values.

The trait of human nature that psychology explores is called “Propensity to self-reflection”, and is a long-term tendency of a person to self-reflect on a regular basis.

How does it all actually work?

To fully understand self-reflection we need to trace what happens with the human mind during the process of self-reflection through the 6 basic cognitive processes:

• Attention – We focus our attention inwards – on our emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, interpersonal states, behaviors and values;

• Awareness – We experience clarity (or confusion in the absence of awareness) about what our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations mean, why we experience them, and what they push us to do. Furthermore, we experience clarity (or confusion) about what are the different ways our behaviors influence others;

• Memory – We remember the ways different things influenced us in the past;

• Logic – We analyze cause-and-effect relations about the events and phenomena that have led us to those feelings, thoughts, sensations, and behaviors;

• Creativity – Our imagination comes up with potential ways of how would we feel in possible imaginary situations;

• Anticipation – We try to predict the potential outcomes of our behaviors;

Depending on the degree to which a person engages in the cognitive processes described above, we can observe different behavioral manifestations.

What are the manifestations of the propensity for self-reflection as a trait of human nature and what are the consequences for people’s lives, depending on where on the scale of propensity for self-reflection they are:

Low Scorers:

* Pros: People with lower levels of self-reflection are often described as people who are able to see the world and gain a “fresh perspective” instead of becoming absorbed in themselves and their thoughts and “ways”. In other words – are seen by others as less egocentric. They don’t worry excessively about how imperfect they are.

* Cons: Described as lacking objective self-assessment. Often suffer a lack of clear understanding of their own needs. Often miss many of the cause-and-effect connections concerning them personally. Lack the ability to objectively assess the impressions they make in other’s eyes and cannot therefore objectively assess their own public image and reputation.

High Scorers

* Pros: People with higher levels of self-reflection often understand well how the world affects them, which brings them benefits both in taking care of their own needs and in future interactions with others. They have a good sense of how their thoughts and emotions affect their behavior. Self-reflection could enhance emotional stability and significantly help the ability to realize their own emotions (although it is not enough in itself). People with high scores on that trait are more adequate in decision-making and have more sober judgments of what is within their power and what is not.

* Cons: Tend to focus too much on the self, which makes them look self-absorbed in the eyes of others (or in other words – egocentric). Excessive introspection “anchors” them in the past and makes them “blind” to their potential, hindering change (depriving them of the fresh “external perspective”). Moreover, this could create strong negative tendencies in them (especially if high on other traits such as “Anxiety” and/or “Regrets”). Since we are all presumably imperfect and weak, excessive self-knowledge can lead to “stumbling” due to awareness of our own imperfection and weakness and therefore influence our confidence negatively.

Desired scores (for optimal functioning in the nowadays social world) – between the 25^th and 50^th percentile. If the person shows different results (after psychological profiling) there is potential for a developmental process.

Please note, that the mentioned optimal results (25%-50%) are in cases of normal everyday functioning with good overall levels of life satisfaction.

If this is not the case (meaning the person is not able to satisfy his or her needs regularly and is demonstrating higher levels of irritability and emotional reactivity), that person will be better suited with levels of self-reflection between 50% and 75%. Again – that is a potential for a developmental process,

OK, Now what?

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