Self-awareness has always been an old hot topic in psychology research. The fundamental question of psychology is “what is a person”. In ancient times, philosophers could not distinguish between the human “self” and conscious activities. For example, Plato believed that the “soul” not only controls the physical activities of human beings, is the consciousness of humans, but also controls the soul itself, which is the self of humans. The study of self-concept in the true psychological sense began with William James, who distinguished the “self” from conscious activities and introduced the concept into psychology.
Since James introduced self-concept into psychology in 1890, the study of self-concept in psychology has risen and fallen several times. Before the emergence of behaviourism, psychology was interested in the study of self-concept, but with the rise of behaviourism, the study of self-concept was gradually ignored. Later humanism appeared, especially Rogers, who conducted in-depth research on self-concept. After the 1980s, the cognitive school also attached great importance to the study of self-concept. Self-concept has received widespread attention, and its research and application have been popularised. When studying self-concept, psychologists of different schools have different understandings due to differences in knowledge, methods, views of human nature, and research orientation.
Self-awareness is the individual’s knowledge of oneself. Specifically, self-consciousness is the individual’s knowledge of oneself and the relationship between the world around oneself, and the awareness of one’s own existence. Knowing everything about yourself roughly includes the following three aspects: One is the individual’s knowledge and evaluation of one’s own physiological state. It mainly includes knowledge of body image and gender such as one’s own weight, height, figure, appearance, as well as feelings of pain, hunger, and tiredness of the body. The second is the understanding and evaluation of one’s own mental state. It mainly includes the understanding and evaluation of one’s own abilities, knowledge, emotions, temperament, character, ideals, beliefs, interests, hobbies, etc. The third is the understanding and evaluation of the relationship between oneself and the surroundings. It mainly includes the recognition and evaluation of one’s own status and role in a certain social relationship, as well as the relationship between oneself and others.
The emergence of self-consciousness is not a simple transfer of consciousness objects or consciousness content, but a brand new stage of human psychological development. It is the result of individual socialization and is one of the unique forms of high-level psychological activities of human beings. It not only enables people to understand and transform the objective world but also to understand and transform the subjective world. Therefore, the psychology circle classifies self-consciousness into the individual adjustment system, as a component of the personality structure, and becomes the psychological basis for individual self-improvement.
The individual’s self-awareness is closely related to the individual’s growth and development. Self-awareness has the functions of orientation, motivation, self-control, introspection and adjustment in individual growth and development. Psychological research shows that self-awareness generally needs more than 20 years of development, and a relatively stable and mature self-awareness can only be formed in the middle and late stages of youth. Although this self-awareness may change due to the success or failure of the individual’s practice and the changes in the evaluation of others, after adolescence, the individual will maintain the same basic knowledge and attitudes of his own. It is precisely because of the identity of self-consciousness that the individual shows a consistent psychological outlook, which distinguishes himself from other people’s personalities.
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