Understanding Self and Others

This article explores the importance of understanding self and others in social cognition and discusses different psychological approaches. It also includes reflective journal entries on active listening, teamwork, and leadership skills, and provides a personal development plan to improve these skills.

Understanding Self and Others

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Evaluating the psychological approaches...............................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Reflective Journal Entry 1......................................................................................................4
Reflective Journal Entry 2......................................................................................................6
Reflective Journal Entry 3......................................................................................................7
Personal development plan.....................................................................................................8
..........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
To engage in the social world individual has to understand self and others. Understanding
self and others is a backbone of social cognition which focuses on how people use social
information to encode, store and apply in social situations. Psychology assist in understanding
how different mental functions work and how people behave in different situations. Psychology
is relevant to solve many problems related to teaching and learning, socialization of children at
home and in outside world, motivating self and others and solving emotional problems of self
and others (Bernstein, D., 2018). Thus, psychological approaches play a vital role in
understanding the feeling of self and others. Psychology uses scientific methods and study to
understand mind, brain & human behaviour and contributes to improvement in quality of life of
people. To understand the self ad others we need to remember these things in our mind-
Changes in the individuals can be due to maturation or learning, due to environment situations,
etc. The measurement of personality, interest and attitude is usually based of interrelation of
different factors.
Evaluating the psychological approaches
Biological psychological approach:
Under this approach, human being is considered as a biological structure who has brain and
nervous system internally. Working of nervous system and genetic factors shapes the human
behaviours. This approach considers that behaviour with social world are derived from biological
process. This study represents that drug, electric stimulations, meditation and state of
consciousness affects human behaviour.
Behavioural psychological approach:
This perspective focuses on the role of environment factors in evaluating the way people behave.
This approach states that behaviour of people is a result from the past learning. This approach
doesn't give importance to mental states. In this approach human behaviour and its relationship
with the environmental conditions.
Psychodynamic approach:
This approach focuses on motivational questions about human behaviour and it believes that
each behaviour has its cause and it has to be found in mind. This approach uses the observations
of people suffering from mental disease and considers that early childhood experiences is a

determinant in adult behaviour (Renshaw, Long and Cook, 2015). Approach is based on the view
that human behaviour is driven by aggressive and sexual natural tendency.
Cognitive approach:
In this approach, focus is how people know, think and understand about the world. Human
behaviour involves cognitive process such as remembering, thinking and perceiving. All these
are as important as environmental factors to understand human behaviour. As a active organism,
information is processed and implemented by the people and their cognitions determines the
course of human behaviour. Environment is observed by the people, and they respond on the
basis of its interpretation. Human's thought is both cause and result of the actions performed.
This approach has links with emerging cognitive science and artificial intelligence.
Humanistic approach:
This approach considers human as responsible beings. It states that human behaviour can not
only simply decided by experiences or current conditions. People can make a preference. In this
perspective, spirituality and self realization play an important role and this approach tries to
understand the pattern of life of the people i.e. human experiences in the social world.
Indian perspective:
Indian people always attract towards the objects which creates problems. People ignore their true
nature. And they are not aware of their potentialities. People generally misidentify physical
objects and its remedy is proposed in terms of yoga, bhakti, karma and others.
MAIN BODY
Reflective Journal Entry 1
What is the core skill to develop?
Active listening
Why did I select this skill to reflect on?
Active listening means interpretation of the speaker's message, feelings in a most efficient
way. Active listening is just not hearing but it means fully concentrating on what being said
and responds according. It will help me in my personal life because by actively listening the
family members as well as friends message I can make a good relation with them and this
will improve my personality. And it will help me when I will have a need of them. Active

listening results in understanding the work given by tutor very clearly and this will help me
to execute the information in proper way to complete my work. So I selected active listening
as a skill. The theory or concept behind active listening, also suggest that it is a vital part of
communicating with others and by improving it we can achieve the organizational as well as
personal objectives (Harro-Loit and Ugur, 2018).
Reflect on your current competence regarding this skill.
My tutor believes that I am not a active listener and my colleges and peers believes that I
remains highly concentrated during listening and interpretation of the message effectively.
But I have a strong thought and feeling that I have a skill of active listening. Because I
understand the things well when a particular work is described by the speaker and execute it
in my work to complete desired work objectives.
Can you identify any contradictions from your analysis above?
Yes, there is contradiction in the analysis, because my tutor believes that I forget the
message delivered by him and do not execute it in my work, and I am not a active listener
although my peers or colleges do not think so. But I believe that I listen the things described
my tutor very actively and executes in my work.
How might this skill help me in the future?
Active listening increases the productivity of the person and increase your knowledge to
well each time. It will increase your performance as a employee in any organisation. Active
listening will give you the opportunities to improve your knowledge. You will be benefited
by training and development as much as possible by active listening. Active listening will
help you to make a good relationship with the employees and others. By active listening, you
will communicate easily in you personal as well as professional life (Merritt and Kelley,
2018). The best utilization of the data or information in the message delivered by the speaker
is only possible by actively listening the speaker's message. Active listening develops a open
working relationship in the organisation, motivate team members to execute the task
effectively by gaining more in depth information about the message delivered by the
speaker. Thus, active listening is a very important skill to communicate effectively at your
work station to perform well and there by increasing the chances of growth. Also, increases

the trust of speaker. It is also very important skill to make a good relationship outside your
workplace because, it develops good communication in social life (Harrison, Burnard and
Paul, 2018). Thus, active listening is a very important skill in personal as well as in
professional life.
Reflective Journal Entry 2
What is the core skill to develop?
Teamwork
Why did I select this skill to reflect on?
I select this skill because teamwork help the team to achieve required objectives, because in
a team every member performed in the best possible way to achieve the desired objectives of
the team. To work in a team, not only help in professional life but also helps the family to
achieve desired need and requirements. Bruce Tuckman's theory suggest that forming,
storming, morning and performing are the stages required in team work. The concept behind
choosing the skill is that it increase performance in work production and ensures growth and
promotion at workplace. Team work gives us job satisfaction which will help us to achieve
good personal as well as professional status. By working in team, creativity of the persons
increases which will give benefit to the person while decision-making in each stage of life
whether personal or professional (Fox and et.al., 2018). Teamwork.
Reflect on your current competence regarding this skill.
My tutor strongly believes that I work in coordination with him. My peers and colleges
believes that I do not work in a team to achieve the particular objective in a efficient way.
And I also think that I ask about the work and related problems with my colleges and tutors
to understand the things well and give the result properly.
Can you identify any contradictions from your analysis above?
There are contradictions because my colleges and peers believes that I do not work in a team.
I have strong feeling that I work for a common goal by properly communicating with my

colleges and tutors about the problems (Landon, Slack and Barrett, 2018). Also, work as a
team by dividing the personal objectives with the family members. Thus, we complete the
task in team in personal life as well.
How might this skill help me in the future?
Working in a team will give more resources in problem solving and this will increase my
importance in the team as well as in the organization (Roche, F., 2016). Working in a team
develops creativity and innovation inside you and this will improve your productivity and
increase your promotion and growth chances. By working in a team, you will also improve
your quality of decision-making by working with the personalities who have great decision-
making power. By working with a team, you will be inspired from others because their
productivity and efficiency will attract you to work in the most efficient way.
Reflective Journal Entry 3
What is the core skill to develop?
Leadership Skills
Why did I select this skill to reflect on?
I selected this skill because leadership is a skill required to direct, guide and influence others
towards competing a specific goal or objective in a certain situation. Leadership encourages
and increases the confidence of the subordinates to perform in full capacity. And thus, the
leadership quality will increase productivity and profitability of the organisation. In personal
life also leadership has a great importance because it will create trust among the family
members and friends about you. Thus, credibility and image of the person outside
professional world also increase (Buch, Thompson and Kuvaas, 2016). This will help you to
become more confidant persons while taking the decisions and a good decision will
encourage and motivates your subordinates to follow your guidance, directions in the most
efficient way to achieve desired objective of the work. And the leadership skill will
definitely increases the opportunities to grow. Based on the concept and theory of
“transformational leadership theory 1970”, it is process in which a person interacts with
others and create strong relationship to achieve trust, that will results in increase in
motivation in the leaders and in the subordinates.

Reflect on your current competence regarding this skill.
My tutor and peers do not believe that I have a leadership skill based on their experiences.
But I strongly have a thought and feelings that I can guide, direct, influence and motivate
others. And I believe that I have a leadership skill to encourage others and I have leadership
skill to achieve the full trust of them which will increase the confidence among them to work
in their full capacity
Can you identify any contradictions from your analysis above?
Yes, there is a contradiction lies in the thoughts because I strongly believe that I have a
leadership skill based on my recent project which is allotted to my team and I completed it
by assisting my team members in their work (Martin, J., 2016). Thus, my assistance
increased their confidence and they completed the work in a given time. This ensures that I
have a leadership quality.
How might this skill help me in the future?
Leadership skill will help you to improve your chances of growth. In the global competitive
world, leadership quality is very important because it will increase productivity of the
subordinates, increases ability to work under pressure, increases charisma and seriousness in
business activities. Leadership skill in the person gives increase in the confidence in the
team. Leadership skill increases listening and communication skill of leader as well as its
team members. This will increase the opportunities of development and growth. Leadership
skill will help me to improve organizational effectiveness and this will result in increase in
the profit of the company and thereby increases the chances of your promotion and growth in
the company. Leadership skill also increases the chances to get selected for top most
companies. Thus, leadership skill gives you attainability to get upper management position.
And creates excellence and efficiency in the organization (Glowacki and von Rueden,
2015). Leadership skill gives me a versatility and opportunities to grow and developing the
leadership skills.

Personal development plan
It is really important for a individual to understand itself and other as it can help in
development of a person personally and professionally. From the above three reflective journals I
have identified that I need to improve my all the three skills chosen as there are certain
contradictions between the feedback from my peers, tutors and me too. So, I have decided to
develop all the skills and develop a proper plan for it. This can be done by using a personal
development plan which is mentioned below:
Areas of
improvements
Action to be
taken
Resources
required
Criteria for
measuring
success
Target date
Active Listening There are various
actions which I
need to take in
order to improve
this skill. One of
the best way for
improving this
skill is enter into
conversations and
debates. This can
help me in
becoming a good
listener as during
the conversations,
I need to focus on
their words and
meaning and the
context of
sentences.
Another action
which can be
There are various
resources that are
required for
improving this
skill. Resource
like, feedback,
internet, etc.
Success of this
skill can be
measured if I am
able to understand
all the means with
the same sense ng
that a sender
wants me to
understand.
In order to
develop this skill
it will take
approximately 8
months.

taken is to get
instant feedback
after
conversations are
over, this can help
me in improving
this skill.
Finding the
meaning of the
words which I
don't understand.
Leadership
Skills
This is also one of
the important skill
which I need to
develop. In order
to develop this
skill I need to
take actions like, I
need to increase
my knowledge of
different
leadership styles
which can be
adopted. I also
need to improve
my leadership
techniques which
can help me in
improving this
skill. One of
action which I
Developing
various types of
leadership skills
is not an easy task
to do. For this I
need the
resources like
guidance from
tutors, I need
books on
leadership. Watch
online videos on
leadership. I may
also requires the
resources like
Coaches, peers
and my
experiences.
Success of this
skill can be
measured if in the
future I will be
able lead a team
in an effective
manner with no
resistance from
other.
This is very
difficult task as I
have to learn all
the style of
leadership it may
2 years to develop
this skill.

need to take is to
develop a
situational
awareness. As
there would be
various types of
situations which I
need to face in the
future.
Team working
Skills
In order to
improve this skill,
the actions taken
are like taking up
the group tasks
which will
provide me an
opportunity
develop my team
working skills.
The resources
which can be
used are working
in diverse
environment by
attending
workshops.
Books on
effective team
working skills.
This skill can be
measured if I am
able to work
effective in a
team by setting a
proper
collaboration with
my teammates
particularly in
diverse
organisation.
This skill will 1.5
years of time.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bernstein, D., 2018. Essentials of psychology. Cengage Learning.
Buch, R., Thompson, G. and Kuvaas, B., 2016. Transactional leader–member exchange
relationships and followers’ work performance: The moderating role of leaders’
political skill. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. 23(4). pp.456-466.
Fox and et.al., 2018. Teaching interprofessional teamwork skills to health professional students:
A scoping review. Journal of interprofessional care. 32(2). pp.127-135.
Glowacki, L. and von Rueden, C., 2015. Leadership solves collective action problems in small-
scale societies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
370(1683). p.20150010.
Harrison, C., Burnard, K. and Paul, S., 2018. Entrepreneurial leadership in a developing
economy: a skill-based analysis. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise
Development. 25(3). pp.521-548.
Harro-Loit, H. and Ugur, K., 2018. Training Methods of Listening-Based Journalistic
Questioning. Journalism Practice. 12(7). pp.918-934.
Landon, L. B., Slack, K. J. and Barrett, J. D., 2018. Teamwork and collaboration in long-
duration space missions: Going to extremes. American Psychologist. 73(4). p.563.
Martin, J., 2016. Perceptions of transformational leadership in academic libraries. Journal of
Library Administration. 56(3). pp.266-284.
Merritt, C.C. and Kelley, D.C., 2018. What individual and organizational competencies facilitate
effective collaboration? Findings from a collaborative governance simulation. Journal
of Public Affairs Education. 24(1). pp.97-121.
Renshaw, T. L., Long, A. C. and Cook, C. R., 2015. Assessing adolescents’ positive
psychological functioning at school: Development and validation of the Student
Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire. School psychology quarterly. 30(4). p.534.
Roche, F., 2016. Human factors and non-technical skills: teamwork. Journal of perioperative
practice. 26(12). pp.285-288.