Self-Awareness and Self-Disclosure
Showing people who you are requires self-awareness and self-disclosure. How to assess your own self-awareness and self-disclosure? An instrument known as Johari Window is available to help you making that assessment.
The Johari window is a technique that helps people better understand their relationship with themselves and others. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995) in 1955, and is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise . Luft and Ingham called their Johari Window model 'Johari' after combining their first names, Joe and Harrington.
This instrument uses 56 adjectives as possible descriptions as their perceptions of themselves and that of their peers.
These adjectives include : unable; accepting; adaptable; bold; brave; calm; caring; cheerful;
clever; complex; confident; dependable; dignified; empathetic; energetic; extroverted;
friendly; giving; happy; helpful; idealistic; independent; ingenious; intelligent; introverted;
kind; knowledgeable; logical; loving; mature; modest; nervous, observant; organized; patient;
powerful; proud; quiet; reflective; relaxed. religious; responsive; searching; self-assertive;
self-conscious; sensible; sentimental; shy; sillyescription.
The Johari Window is effectively a lens on your own self-awareness as well as a lens on self-disclosure. You can think of your self-awareness and self-disclosure as slider bars and the Johari Window can help you figure out where your slider bars are at.
Key Scenarios for the Johari Window
You can use the Johari Window to help you with the following scenarios:
Understanding how you communicate with yourself and others.
Understanding how you present yourself to yourself and others.
Understanding how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you.
Understanding actions vs. motivations.
In the exercise, subjects pick a number of adjectives from a list, choosing ones they feel describe their own personality. The subject's peers then get the same list, and each picks an equal number of adjectives that describe the subject. These adjectives are then inserted into a two-by-two grid of four cells.
The philosopher Charles Handy calls this concept the Johari House with four rooms. Room one is the part of ourselves that we and others see. Room two contains aspects that others see but we are unaware of. Room three is the private space we know but hide from others. Room four is the unconscious part of us that neither ourselves nor others see.
The four quadrants
#1 Open, or Arena
Adjectives that both the subject and peers select go in this cell (or quadrant) of the grid. These are traits that subject and peers perceive.
#2 Hidden, or Façade
Adjectives selected by the subject, but not by any of their peers, go in this quadrant. These are things the peers are either unaware of, or that are untrue but for the subject's claim.
#3 Blind Spot
Adjectives not selected by subjects, but only by their peers go here. These represent what others perceive but the subject does not.
#4 Unknown
Adjectives that neither subject nor peers selected go here. They represent subject's behaviors or motives that no one participating recognizes—either because they do not apply or because of collective ignorance of these traits.
spontaneous
sympathetic
tense
trustworthy
warm
wise
witty
Motivational equivalent
The concept of meta-emotions categorized by basic emotions offers the possibility of a meta-emotional window as a motivational counterpart to the meta-cognitive Johari window.
Therapy
One therapeutic target may be the expansion of the Open (Arena) square at the expense of both the Unknown square and the Blind Spot square, resulting in greater knowledge of oneself.
Understanding the Johari Window model
Posted on 10 November 2013 in Goggle
A Johari window is a psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955. It’s a simple and useful tool for understanding and training:
#1 self-awareness
#2 personal development
#3 improving communications
#4 interpersonal relationships
#5 group dynamics
#6 team development; and
#7 inter group relationships
It is one of the few tools out there that has an emphasis on “soft skills” such as behaviour, empathy, co-operation, inter group development and interpersonal development. It’s a great model to use because of its simplicity and also because it can be applied in a variety of situations and environments. lf, while voluntary disclosure of Private square may result in greater interpersonal intimacy and friendship.
Two important factors emerge. The first factor is what you know about yourself. The second factor relates to what other people know about you.
The model works using four area quadrants. Anything you know about yourself and are willing to share is part of your open area. Individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information to others and learning about others from the information they in turn disclose about themselves.
From a practical point of view in implementing the Johari window you need to look at two steps.
Step one:
The place to start in the Johari window is in the open area. Make some notes about yourself. Complete the Self Awareness Diagnostic. What are your strengths and your weaknesses? What are you comfortable with and willing to share with others? Try and be honest and clear about what you know about yourself already.
Step two:
Involve other people and ask for feedback about yourself. Be prepared to seriously consider it. That doesn’t mean that you have to do everything that’s suggested, but you should at least listen and think about it. Then give the person who provided the feedback some acknowledgement or thanks for making the effort. Depending on how confident you are you might prefer to do this as either a group exercise or on a one to one basis. Remember that giving effective feedback is a skill and some people may be better at it than others. When receiving feedback, be respectful, listen and reflect on what has been said. It may be on receiving feedback you may want to explore it further that can lead to discovery about yourself.
Any aspect that you do not know about yourself, but others within the group have become aware of, is in your blind area. With the help of feedback from others you can become aware of some of your positive and negative traits as perceived by others and overcome some of the personal issues that may be inhibiting your personal or group dynamics within the team.
There are also aspects about yourself that you are aware of but might not want others to know, this quadrant is known as your hidden area. This leaves just one area and is the area that is unknown to you or anyone else – the unknown area.