Wednesday, 23 July 2014

THE 'SELF' IN HUMAN COMMUNICATION

The self-concept and how it develops self-awareness,

self-esteem and ways to enhance self-disclosure, 



1.SELF-CONCEPT

Your self-concept is your image of who you are. It’s how you perceive yourself: your feelings and thoughts about your strengths and weaknesses, your abilities and limitations. Self-concept develops from the images that others have of you, comparisons between yourself and others, your cultural experiences, and your evaluation of your own thoughts and behaviors

  

1.Others’ Images of You

If you want to see how your hair looks, you probably look in a mirror. But you wanted to see how friendly or how assertive you are? you’d look at the image of yourself that others reveal to you through the way they communicate The self is perhaps the most important element in any form of communication of who you are.

 

2.Comparisons with Others

Another way you develop self-concept is by comparing yourself with others, most often with your peers

For example, after an exam, you probably want to know how you performed relative to the other students in your class. This gives you a clearer idea of how effectively you performed.

 

3.Cultural Teachings

In Our culture instills in us a variety of beliefs, values, and attitudes about such things as success religion, race, or nationality; and the ethical principles you should follow in your personal life. These teachings provide yardsticks against which you can measure yourself.

 

4. Self-Interpretations and Self-Evaluations

you believe that lying is wrong. If you then lie and you view it as a lie  you will probably evaluate this behavior in terms of your internalized beliefs about lying (lying is On the other hand, let’s say that you pull someone out of a burning building at great personal risk. You will probably evaluate this behavior positively; you’ll feel good about this behavior and, as a result, about yourself.

 

 

2.    SELF-AWARENESS

Self-awareness—your knowledge of who you are; of your behaviors, your strengths and limitations, your emotions and behaviors, your individuality—is basic to all communication. One tool that is commonly used for this examination of self-awareness is called the Johari window. 

 


Johari Window: A diagram called the Johari Window (above) provides a useful way to graphically visualize the process of self-disclosure. The four quadrants of panes represent the different ways information can be seen and observed, both by oneself and by others. The open pane includes what everyone can see: your physical looks, occupation, economic and social situation, as well as what you say and write. The hidden pane includes information about yourself that you have not revealed to others: secrets, hopes, fantasies. The blind pane is what others see in you that you cannot see: shortcoming, talents, faults. Finally, the unknown pane includes information that nobody yet knows: untapped potential, undiscovered interests. 


Four Selves

The Johari window shows different aspects or versions of the self. The four aspects are the open self, blind self, hidden self, and unknown self.

 


Open self. This self represents all the information, behaviors, attitudes, and feelings about yourself

that you know and that others also know. Such knowledge could include everything from your name, skin color, sex, and age to your religion and political beliefs.

 

Blind self.

 This self represents knowledge about you that others have but you don’t.  Blind self

might include your habit of finishing other people’s sentences or your way of rubbing your nose when

you become anxious. A large blind self indicates low self-awareness.

 

Unknown self.

The unknown self represents those parts of yourself that neither you nor others know. This is information that is buried in your subconscious. for example, learn of your obsession with money, your fear of criticism

.

Hidden self. This self represents all the knowledge

you have of yourself but keep secret from

others.

for example, your fantasies, embarrassing experiences, and any attitudes

or beliefs of which you may be ashamed.

 

Growing in Self-Awareness

 

SELF-AWARENESS is so important in communication, try to increase awareness of your own needs, desires, habits, beliefs, and attitudes. We can do this in various ways.

Listen to others. Others are constantly giving you the very feedback you need to increase self-awareness.  

Increase your open self. Revealing yourself to others will help increase your self-awareness.

Seek information about yourself. Encourage people to reveal what they know about you.

Dialogue with yourself. No one knows you better than you know yourself. Ask yourself self awareness questions: What are my short-term and long-term goals? What are my strengths and weaknesses?

 

3. SELF-ESTEEM

Self-esteem is a measure of how valuable you think you are; people with high self-esteem think very highly of themselves, whereas people with low self-esteem view themselves negatively.  Here are five suggestions for increasing self-esteem.

 


1.Attack Self-Destructive Beliefs: Challenge beliefs you have about yourself that are unproductive or that make it more difficult for you to achieve your goals.

2.Self-destructive beliefs set unrealistically high standards and therefore almost always lead to failure.

3.Seek Out Nourishing People: Most important, nourishing people reward us, they stroke us, they make us feel good about ourselves.

4. Work on Projects That Will Result in Success: Select projects that will result in success. Each success will help build self-esteem.

5.Remind Yourself of Your Successes: Some people have a tendency to focus, sometimes too much, on their failures, their missed opportunities, their social mistakes. Recall these successes both intellectually and emotionally

6.Secure Affirmation: The word affirmation is used to refer to positive statements about you, statements asserting that something good or positive is true of you.

 

4.SELF-DISCLOSURE

 Self-disclosure is a type of communication in which you take information from your hidden self and move it to the open self.

 


Factors Influencing Self-Disclosure

 Among the most important factors are who you are, your culture,

your gender, your listeners, and your topic and channel. Self-Disclosure Dangers

Among the dangers of self-disclosure are:



Personal risks.

Relationship risks.

Professional risks.

 

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