Exploring Self-Awareness: Tools, Importance, and Conflict Resolution

This essay delves into the multifaceted concept of self-awareness, defining it as the ability to understand one's personality, emotions, strengths, weaknesses, beliefs, and thoughts. It emphasizes the crucial role of self-awareness in developing social skills, boosting self-esteem, enhancing productivity, fostering better leadership, and improving emotional intelligence. The essay discusses various tools used to develop self-awareness, including the Johari window, Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT), and DISC, providing practical examples of how these tools can be applied to resolve conflicts and improve interpersonal relationships. The author shares personal experiences of using these tools to address conflicts with classmates, highlighting the positive impact of self-reflection and self-improvement. The essay concludes by reinforcing the significance of self-awareness in leading a fulfilling life and avoiding adverse situations. References from various academic sources are included to support the arguments presented.

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INTRODUCTION
Self-awareness has been defined in different ways .However; all these definitions emphasize on
the same aspect Self-awareness therefore can be defined as the ability of one to have a clear
understanding and perception of his or her personality in terms of emotions, motivation,
strengths and weaknesses as well as beliefs and thoughts (Morin, 2011). Self-awareness is an
aspect helps one to recognize oneself as a separate individual from other people and the
environment (Silvia and Phillips, 2013).
Importance of self-awareness
There are different ways through which one can improve his self or herself. Self-awareness plays
a role in this area. The following is a discussion on the importance of self-awareness.
a) Develop social abilities
Since human beings are the most social beings among all species, they rely on relationships
among themselves. An individual who has self-awareness will be able to successfully create
good relationships .This is because they are aware of their strengths and weakness and be able to
utilize and adjust them respectively. Therefore, such people have a stable emotional intelligence
which helps them understand other people’s feelings and emotional status and patterns (Smythe,
2016).
b) Improves self-awareness and boosts veracity

Self-awareness affects an individual’s ability in dealing with very crucial matters. This helps one
to have a clear vision and focus when handling issues. It also enables one to be in a position of
taking and accepting opinions, critics and reactions from others without developing a negative
attitude towards them hence find solutions to problems.
c) Productivity
Research has found that people who are aware of themselves think and act quickly. They handle
every challenge that comes their ways with an immediate effect. Therefore, these people are
productive in terms of saving of time and resources. Swift decision making is also productive in
handling day to day issues.
D) Better leadership skills.
Quick and swift decision making is a good attribute in a leader. Self-awareness in a leader helps
in quick decision making which is impartial and is done with much confidence.
e) Boosts objectivity.
Self-awareness boosts confidence which eventually helps one in making good decisions which
are not biased or poor.
D) Emotional intelligence and self-acceptance

Self-awareness is an aspect that plays a key role in an individual’s emotional intelligence Daniel
Goleman. It gives individuals the ability to monitor his or her emotion and thoughts in every
day’s life situations .This gives a better understanding of oneself and gives one peace by
accepting whom he or she is hence be able to manage and control thoughts ,behaviors and
emotions. Secondly, self-awareness gives us better understanding of ourselves therefore, it helps
us to have a unique experience as an individual who are separate from the rest. This experience
empowers an individual to in making changes and developing ones strengths and make
adjustments and improvements on ones weaknesses (Engagement Relation with Self-Awareness
and Cognitive Assimilation Efficiency of Students, 2017)
Tools used in developing self-awareness
There are different tools that have been proposed and used for a long time in developing self-
awareness and solving self-awareness-related problem .Below is a discussion that describes these
tools and my personal experience on how I used my knowledge on these tools to handle conflict
that I had with my classmates.
A) Johari window
This is a tool that helps people in understanding their relationship with others and themselves.
The use of this technique involves two steps. First, one puts down something about his or her self
in terms of strengths and weaknesses then in the second step, he or she asks others of what they
think he or she is (Shamoa-Nir, 2017).
Application; I used this tool to understand my own weaknesses that might have led to conflict,
asked others whom they think I am then took time to adjust and improve on my weaknesses
hence avoid conflicting with others.

B) Metallization Based Treatment (MBT)
This is a form of psychotherapy that integrates aspects of cognitive behavioral, ecological and
psychodynamic approaches. The main aim of the technique is to help an individual achieve;
effect regulation, intimate and gratified relationships ,improved control of behavior and finally
help one work for life goals.
Application; I was able to manage the conflict because this model helped me understand how to
regulate my negative behavior that could be the source of this .I also remembered that my goals
in life were to study and not fight with others in the class (Rossouw, 2015).
C) DISC
This is a personal tool that is used in assessment .It helps in the improvement of cooperation and
teamwork therefore boosts productivity. This tool also helps in reducing conflict among
members and boosts the morale of employees.
Application; I used my knowledge from the, model to improve cooperation amongst us as a class
and improve teamwork hence there was no room created for conflict. We worked together and
harmoniously coexisted.
The most important tool that helped me know more about myself that is both negative and
positive attributes that I have is Johari window .At first, I never understood myself until the

conflict arose. That is when after reading about the Johari window, I sat down silently ,wrote
what likes and dislikes .After asking others to tell me whom they think I am, most of what I was
matched with what I had discovered of myself. I realized that my great weakness was over
reactions to miner issues which made me conflict most of the time with others. After rectifying
on this, I found a great improvement in terms of the relationship that existed between me and
others (Baum and King, 2006).
Conclusion
Self-awareness is an important aspect that dictates the whole life of an individual. Lack of self-
awareness leads to adverse life situations for instance bad relationships between an individual
and others, poor decision making and poor leadership. Therefore, humanity must embrace self-
awareness in life so as to live a purposeful and a fulfilled life (Kopf, 2015)

References
Baum, A. and King, M. (2006). Creating a Climate of Self-Awareness in Early
Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs. Early Childhood Education Journal,
33(4), pp.217-222.
Engagement Relation with Self-Awareness and Cognitive Assimilation Efficiency of
Students. (2017).International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), 6(1),
pp.1951-1955.
Kopf, G. (2015). Peace through Self-Awareness: A Model of Peace Education Based
on Buddhist Principles. Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 50(1), pp.47-56.
Morin, A. (2011). Self-Awareness Part 1: Definition, Measures, Effects, Functions,
and Antecedents.Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 5(10), pp.807-823.
Rossouw, T. (2015). The Use of Mentalization-Based Treatment for Adolescents
(MBT-A) With a Young Woman With Mixed Personality Disorder and
Tendencies to Self-Harm. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 71(2), pp.178-187.
Shamoa-Nir, L. (2017). The window becomes a mirror: the use of the Johari Window
model to evaluate stereotypes in intergroup dialogue in Israel. Israel Affairs,
23(4), pp.727-746.

Silvia, P. and Phillips, A. (2013). Self-awareness Without Awareness? Implicit Self-
focused Attention and Behavioral Self-regulation. Self and Identity, 12(2),
pp.114-127.
Smythe, T. (2016). The Self and Self-Awareness. OALib, 03(07), pp.1-5.