Understanding the Self

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Looking-Glass Self and the Johari Window

• Prepared by Shayne Klarisse B. Eclarin

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LOOKING-GLASS SELF
JOHARI WINDOW
Social Reference
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The LOOKING-GLASS SELF

• The self is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION, i.e. based
  upon the incorporation of opinions that
  significant others hold about the self.
• SOCIAL REFERENCE takes the form of a somewhat
  definite imagination of how ones self appears in
  a particular mind which we use to perceive
  ourselves, in totality.

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PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS
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MAJOR IMPLICATIONS (Tice, 1992)

• Public events can have more impact in
  self-evaluation and self-regard than private
  events.
• Public behavior implicates the self more than
  private behavior.
• Public behavior needs to be monitored and
  processed more than private behavior.

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Man owes the form of individuality not to his own
creative ego but to the creative collectivity.
The self is the creative act of others.

• The LOOKING-GLASS SELF by Charles Horton Cooley
  (1902)

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known to self
not known to self
known to others
not known to others
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The JOHARI WINDOW

• Proposed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (1955)
• The model is a disclosure/feedback model of
  self-awareness, an information processing tool.
• It represents information (e.g. behavior,
  attitude, knowledge, skills, views, feelings,
  emotions, etc) within or about a person vis-à-vis
  their group, from four perspectives.

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The Four Quadrants

• Quadrant I Open Area
• This is also called the area of free activity,
  wherein behavior and motivation is known to all,
  i.e. to self and to others.
• Quadrant II Blind Area
• This represents what others see in ourselves that
  which we are unaware of.

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your knowledge of yourself is more complete and
reliable than the knowledge others may have. Yet
it is clear that this knowledge must be
inferential and theoretical at least in part. A
second person may be better able than you to
evaluate your present mental state and predict
your behavior.

• -Hebb, 1969

• William James View of Self Two Main Components
• Me I think I am like this.
• I I am like this.

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known to self
not known to self
known to others
not known to others
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The Four Quadrants

• Quadrant III Hidden Area
• This is also called the avoided area. There are
  things that we know but do not reveal it to
  others (e.g. matters which we are sensitive
  about, hidden agenda, etc.)
• Quadrant IV Unknown Area
• This represents motives and behaviors that
  neither the individual nor others are aware of.

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The Four Quadrants

• Assumption for QIV
• Eventually, there are some things that become
  known and make us realize that these influence
  our relationships all along.
• Examples
• an ability that is underestimated or untried due
  to lack of opportunities
• an unknown illness
• repressed or subconscious feelings

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PRINCIPLES OF CHANGE

• A change in any quadrant will affect all other
  quadrants.
• Threat tends to decrease awareness mutual trust
  tends to increase it.
• The smaller the first quadrant, the poorer the
  communication.

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PRINCIPLES OF CHANGE

• There is universal curiosity about the unknown
  area, but this is held in check by custom, social
  training, and diverse fears.
• Sensitivity means appreciating the covert aspects
  of behavior (i.e. quadrants II, III, IV), and
  respecting the desire of others to keep them so.

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A centipede may be perfectly happy without
awareness, but after all, he restricts himself to
crawling under rocks.

• -Luft, 1970