Self-Awareness, Professional Identity, and Critical Reflection Report

This report delves into the crucial role of self-awareness in shaping formal professional identity. It begins with an introduction that defines self-awareness and its importance for personal and career development. Part A presents a literature review, synthesizing various perspectives on self-awareness and its impact on decision-making, confidence, and adaptability to change. Part B outlines the research methodology, including reflexivity and action research, and discusses the application of Gibb's reflective cycle. It also includes data analysis, personal data collection through personality tests, and a critical evaluation of the research design. Part C focuses on critical incident analysis, using Gibbs' model to analyze an incident that enhanced self-awareness. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and emphasizing the significance of self-awareness for individuals seeking to improve their professional identity and overall personal growth.

APPLYING CRITICAL
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Purpose........................................................................................................................................4
PART B............................................................................................................................................5
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................5
Data Analysis..............................................................................................................................6
Critical Evaluation of Research Design......................................................................................6
PART C............................................................................................................................................7
Critical Incident Analysis............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Self-awareness is the ability of person to focus on themselves and how their actions,
thoughts and emotions are do or do not align with their internal standards. If a person is highly
self-aware about themselves, manages their emotions, align their behaviour with their values and
can effectively understand other people’s attitude towards them (Fergusson, Van Der Laan and
Baker, 2019). It is important for the individual because it brings better understanding about
themselves then they enabled to experience themselves unique and empowers them by leading
changes and to build their strengths and enables to identify those areas which requires to
improvement for the future career. In this research will demonstrates the significance of self-
awareness in the context of formal professional identify and the way through which it can
improve. Literature review will be used in this research to critically evaluate different
perspectives of different authors over the proposed research topic. Reflexivity and action
research methods will be applied to portray logical conclusion in this project assignment.
PART A
Aim
“To illustrate an improved self-awareness in the context of formal professional identity”.
Literature Review
According to Taheri, Nejad, Jantsch and Pollreisz, (2016) self-awareness plays
significant role in individuals lives. It supports people in neglecting the unpleasant and negative
experience or any mistake which have been committed in past. The authors have quoted in
Books that the introverts are highly like to sue self-awareness as compared extraverts as they
require to avoid negative experience on their own prominently. It has also identified in the
published articles that the person become more able to take right decision as compared before, by
using self-awareness. It is important for the person to have good decision-making skills then they
always get desirable outcomes.
The above sated fact was influenced by Cherkis and Rosciano, (2018) through their
published research papers that the people who have good self-awareness about themselves, are
more confident and become enable to contribute more efforts at the work. Such people never
suck in dilemma regrading any aspects as they have full control over their decision-making
process and opinions which always stay them confident and attracts others. Self-awareness also

supports in dealing with the change that is one of the most important things. For example,
generally the change is resisted by wide number of people because they do not want to leave
their comfort zone or inefficient coping with change. But with the support of self-awareness,
people can implement changes successfully.
Other Özek and Ferraris, (2018) have quoted in their published books about the self-
awareness that with the support of self-awareness, people can effectively cope up with the stress
such as they have confidence that lead dedication in them towards themselves. It plays vital role
when the people work in a team at the common goal. the self-awareness approach supports the
members to stick with the decision and do not get promoted by others.
On the other hand, Mansour and et.al., (2020) have criticized above sated fact in their published
research articles that to exploring inner behaviour, it is important for the people to equally
understand other behaviours and the reason behind of it. It was observed by authors and
represent through research papers that self-awareness often leads over thinking and over
analysis. In addition, when the people become self-aware then they invest a lot of energy,
resources and time and also there is a change to delay task as well.
Kreibich, Hennecke and Brandstätter, (2020) explained that to develop self-awareness is
not easy task for the everyone because it develops hardship to accept harsh truths which can lead
trauma and past pain. It also creates difficulty to relate one person from others which makes
them isolated and enhance involvement in debates and arguments.
Purpose
The main goal of the research project is to create reflexive consciousness. This research
project has wide scope in presence and future perspective because there are various people who
are still do not have any awareness about themselves so due to this, they often found weaker in
the formal professional identify (Kamangar and et.al., 2019). Still people do not have right
information about professional identity such as they thought that professional identity means
works in the highly valuable MNCs and be punctual at the workplace and maintain professional
decorum with others in the company. But they do not have knowledge that they also require to
have multiple traits which differentiate themselves from others. Traits such as commitment to
profession, perception of profession, critical thinking, reflection and mentoring at the working
environment which makes attractive their CV. This research project will support all those
participants who are still preparing to get good working environment as well as others who are

working in the company. In this research will highlight about personal identity tests and
reflections methods which supports to determine traits of individual through which they can
identify that which strengths can help them for the future growth and which wear areas requires
improvement. In short, this research project has wide scope in present and future prospect.
PART B
Research Methodology
Reflexivity Research Method
It is a one of the most effective self-awareness methods that is proposed for improving
self-awareness in individuals. This research technique is practised to increase share knowledge
over the ethnographic focus of self-inquiry. This method can be used by anyone to provide brief
information about the journey but they cannot express each moment which they have
experienced during the critical incident. It is one of the major drawbacks of the method. This
method is going to use in this research project. I will use this research technique to give brief
information about my journey which I experienced during critical incident.
Action Research
It is another research tool that is used to influence self-practice. This research tool has
different steps i.e. actions, evaluation and critical reflection through which anyone can determine
their weak and good areas effectively. Initially, it influences individuals to lead change and
implements them. It is also known as ‘applied research’ or ‘collaboration’ or ‘intervention’. It is
also famous as participatory action because it evolves with the cycle of critical reflection through
which individuals can share each moment which they have felt while dealing with critical
incident. The main goal of the action research method is to learn through the practical
experiment and implements upon personal and professional development (Cebrián, 2017). There
are different of self-reflection cycle i.e. Gibb’s reflective cycle or JOHARI Window etc projects
by the action research. I will use this research method because it will support to portray self-
reflection with the support of different stages of Gibb’s reflective cycle.
Gibb’s Reflective Cycle
It is a self-reflection model that can be used by anyone to share their own feelings,
motives, desires and characters. This model is projected by Abraham Grams to evaluate role of

self-awareness for the people. It is one of the quit easy method so it is used for this research
assignment.
Data Analysis
Personal Data
There are two resources of self-awareness diagnostic such as social intelligence survey
and personality test. I will use both resources to determine my strengths and weak areas on
which I can work to bring improvement that automatically improves my formal professional
identity. ENTP is a personality test that helps in evaluating different traits of personality such as
extraverted, intuitive, thinking and perceiving. These are the four characters that requires have in
professional identity. This test is developed by Myers Briggs and stated that people with the
ENTP personality are genius, clever, expressive and highly motivated (Badia, 2017). People
with ENTP considers one of the 16 different personality types who are not interested in
collecting data. Thus type personality people believes in developing ideas and theories. This
personality test supports me to determine that I have different type of good personality like I am
good debater, problem-solver, effective communicator, good prospector and innovator which are
highly required in professional identity. Thus, I analysed that I am ENTP person. Another
personality test is Social Intelligence Survey that helps in collecting personal data. It is a type of
online assessment technique that is used to demonstrate certain problematic attitude, toxic
behaviour that shows by a person whom one trying to negotiate. I used this assessment to
determine my social intelligence skills. I have used both personality tests to collect my personal
data which will use for the further research in this assignment.
Critical Evaluation of Research Design
In this research assignment have selected different type of research methods i.e. action
research and reflexivity research method which creates a framework of overall structure. The
research design of the project is quite impressive and easier to understand for everyone because
initially give brief information about research through the introduction section, in which outlined
the framework like what is going to do. Literature review has also used to give critical review
over the proposed research topic with the support of different authors who have expressed their
opinion over the self-awareness in their research papers, articles and books. Then research
methodology has used for the research project in which highlighted two research methods action
research and reflexivity research method (Corlett and Mavin, 2018). Reflexivity research method

is used to give brief information about the journey means it supported in gaining theoretical
aspects. While action research is properly based on practical aspects. This research method is
also used for the research project because it is required for the portray self-reflection which
achieved through critical incident. Thus, overall research design is good in this project but there
is a limitation such as overall resources which have used in this research project are too time-
consuming and completely based on theoretical aspects.
PART C
Critical Incident Analysis
The critical incident analysis is an important part in the working towards improvement of any
individual and understanding that what were those key incidents or instances which created
change or initiated development in the first place. Using Gibbs Model of reflection, I will
analyse a person incident that increased my self- awareness and fostered growth.
 Description: There was one critical incident in my life which holds immense importance
in developing and increasing the self- awareness that I have for myself. I was earlier not
aware exactly that I could research into myself as well and develop myself in a better and
more productive manner. Earlier I was only aware about the dissertation and thesis
research that was performed at an extensive level and could result in excellent and new
findings which contribute in the development of entire society and the education fields
(Adeani and et.al., 2018). However, this module was instrumental in making me
understand that there are individual assessment exercises also where I can research on
myself i.e. how aware and professional I am, or what is my identity level or whether we
can develop CIPD or CMI frameworks in our integrated life and its practices. This was
instrumental in making me understand that in order to improve self-image, learning and
the degree of awareness about the surrounding environment, it is important to regularly
learn new skills, put oneself through a variety of tests and ultimately improve the degree
of knowledge and development that I can integrate in myself. All of these practices, I did
not understand before engaging in this activity of becoming a reflective practitioner and
after this, I was able to gain adequate knowledge and awareness in my own life and
education which have helped me in understanding that self-awareness is of key
importance for any student or individual.

 Feelings: Through the completion of this module, I faced a myriad of feelings and
thoughts which influenced my decision making and understanding of the system.
Initially, I was very nervous and apprehensive about the different methods that I became
familiar with and I was also hesitant in implementing them because I believed that I was
not adequately knowledgeable about their usage. But seeing my classmates and with the
help of my teacher, I understood that I have to acknowledge and understand that how
aware I was and what were the areas in which I could develop myself in the best manner
possible (Sekarwinahyu and et.al., 2019). It was also difficult for me to understand that
how I could develop myself by implementing the principles and situations or models of
CIPD and CMI accordingly which further integrated me in becoming aware that there are
a wide variety of skills that a person could develop themselves with. After engaging in
the module and the activities that we were required to perform, my confidence rose
immensely where I not only completed my part of work but I was also actively
participating in the discussions and voicing my opinions about what I thought related to
the topics covered in the module.
 Evaluation: After successfully completing the module I can satisfactorily say that I
gained a lot and the degree of self- awareness and knowledge that has been integrated in
me by the development of this module is immense and will contribute in my development
in future as well. Overall, I can state that there were many good experiences that I gained
in the completion of this module such as breaking out of the shell in which I lived where I
was taking into consideration only those aspects or those areas which were told to me. I
was not actively engaging in learning and becoming upgraded about the development and
progress in the knowledge areas which was curbing my growth (Li and et.al., 2020). This
module however has clearly indicated to me the importance of regularly evaluating
myself in comparison with the level of skill and knowledge that is possessed by the other
people or my peers exactly who are working in the similar role or context. Additionally,
the quickened pace at which I was learning the concepts being taught in this module and
the zeal with which I was performing in them was instrumental in creating a positive
approach towards learning new things regularly in my life. This was the good thing that
happened to me with the completion of this module together. However, there were some
instances where I performed not very well as well. It was mainly that I was not able to

communicate and work together in a tem wherever the need arose. I was having a lot of
ideas and thoughts about how things could be done in a better manner, but when I put
them forward in the team, they were not very well received. This could have been due to
the fact that I did not explain very well my ideas or even if they were actually not very
good and well formulated. This did make me question my understanding and the art of
speaking before others.
 Analysis: The analysis part can be understood from the fact that I can state in an effective
manner that this situation that arose where I simply learnt about the fact that I could
research about myself as well and develop my self- awareness was a critical incident in
creating a awakening for me. This was the beginning of a positive outcome where I
realised how important it is for me to regularly evaluate myself and take into
consideration the fact that the continuous development and progress is in long run a much
better and better and detailed constituent of my overall development (Markkanen and
et.al., 2020). I think that his particular incident was extremely critical in me
understanding the importance of continuous development and this prompted me to learn
and develop understanding in this particular segment. Therefore, I can adequately say that
this critical incident has proved to be immensely helpful in my better and advanced
growth and development of professionalism in myself.
 Conclusion: The overall analysis of this critical incident of the completion of this module
has been thoroughly indicative of the fact that the understanding of self and being aware
of the situations and circumstances surrounding them has been of critical importance for
their own development. I can also adequately say that because of this incident, I realised
that by limiting myself to one or two areas only of gaining knowledge, I am restricting
my potential field of knowledge and development which I otherwise could have easily
avoided and remained backwards as compared to my peers and colleagues. Ultimately,
this would have affected my growth options but due to the completion of this module, I
was able to bridge up that drawback factor and gain an exorbitant knowledge on the
further development of that particular factor and its advancement. Therefore, I can
conclude that this entire experience has proved to be extremely insightful and well
developed or initiated in my own development and progress.

 Action: Based on the entire analysis above, I have realised which are the areas in which I
need to develop myself further and manage the better practices and rewards accordingly.
In future however, I will try to be regularly aware of the every new idea or advancement
that occurs in whichever field I am operating and I will also try to work more on my
technological advancement and development (Tawanwongsri and Phenwan, 2019).
Further, I plan to improve my communication skills as well because I realised that I am
not very good at wording my ideas and thoughts which has created a negative prospect
for me and therefore, in future, I am going to work that part as well and tis improvement
consequently.
CONCLUSION
From the analysis done in the entire repot above, it can be concluded that the development
as a self- practitioner is a very critical and detailed process requiring integration of too many
aspects. In the first part, a particular aim was developed to improve self- awareness in the
development of professional identity and a literature review highlighting the key findings was
conducted. Then second part included a reflective report on the research methods and data
analysis that could be adopted. Lastly, the report presented a critical incident review towards the
creation of self – awareness and the development that has been created through this
understanding.

REFERENCES
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Reflective Cycle of Adverse Events. American Journal of Nursing, 9(2), pp.74-78.
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school setting. Educational Research, 62(1), pp.46-62.
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medical students’ patient history-taking skills. BMC medical education, 19(1), p.141.
Fergusson, L., Van Der Laan, L. and Baker, S., 2019. Reflective practice and work-based
research: a description of micro-and macro-reflective cycles. Reflective Practice, 20(2),
pp.289-303.
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Mansour, N and et.al., 2020 The Role of Self-Awareness. Augmented Artificial Intelligence and.
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Identification of Goal‐related Obstacles. European Journal of Personality, 34(2),
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Corlett, S. and Mavin, S., 2018. Reflexivity and researcher positionality. The SAGE handbook of
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