Reflection and self-reflection are often perceived as synonymous words, which is actually not entirely true. There is a fine line between them. Reflection is a reflection of the surrounding reality in the human mind. What a person sees and perceives is not objective reality, but only its reflection. Through all sensory systems you read the world around you, but no one can fully comprehend it. And what objective reality is is also unattainable for human perception.
Self-reflection is a person’s ability to analyze what is reflected inside him. Any events or external stimuli give rise to a response from the human brain. These are thoughts, feelings and sensations. Careful observation of your internal processes, their analysis, behavior change - this is self-reflection.
In this article:
What is this ability? Does everyone have this ability? Self-reflection training
Definition of the concepts of reflection and self-reflection
Self-reflection is often used as a synonym for reflection. However, do not be confused. Reflection is a broader concept.
What is meant by reflection?
Reflection in psychology implies not only personal reflection, but also a reflection of the situation in which the individual finds himself, the people around him, and circumstances. This is a human skill that manifests itself in self-analysis and self-awareness of personal life, behavior, and actions, which a person analyzes and evaluates in the process of reflection.
Self-reflection in philosophy is a type of mental activity of an individual, focused on understanding one’s actions, human culture as a whole, and its basic principles.
Simply put, by reflecting, a person looks inside his soul and glimpses his individual characteristics and behavior in various everyday situations and surroundings. Comprehends all the positive and negative aspects of committed actions. Reflection is labor-intensive; it is interconnected with several areas at the same time:
- intellectual;
- spiritual;
- emotional;
- evaluative.
However, do not be confused. This concept is not associated with reflexes, a person’s reaction to external stimuli. It is identical to the concept of self-criticism. A person carefully studies, comprehends, and evaluates his actions. The process is not pleasant. But without it, the personality will not be able to fully develop.
In psychology, reflection is divided into two levels:
- Cognitive. It implies the study of the inner world, its correlation with norms, standards, requirements accepted in society.
- Emotional. It is expressed in worries about the attitude of people around you. A person is concerned with his consciousness and behavior.
The presence of an emotional level is a significant difference between reflection and consistent introspection. Many people consciously and deliberately do not want to engage in reflection. This has nothing to do with laziness. The process of reflection does not always evoke positive emotions and a desire to praise oneself. Sometimes it is associated with disappointment, feelings of inferiority, shame, and remorse.
Too much reflection also does not lead to anything good. Its consequences are self-flagellation and soul-searching. They provoke stress, neuroses and even depression. To avoid such consequences, you need to maintain a balance between the cognitive and emotional parts of reflection.
Concept of self-reflection
Self-reflection is a person’s reflection of himself in various situations through his consciousness. In the process of self-reflection, a person seems to look into a mirror and describe everything that he sees in it. This is a technique for evaluating yourself, your working methods and learning processes. In simple terms, “reflection” means to think about something.
Reflection and formation of the context of self-reflective writing becomes important in any form of comprehension or self-development.
Man, as a rational being, has the ability to both reflect certain events and “reflect his own reflection.” There are four key situations in which a person comprehending may find himself:
- knowledge about knowledge (for example, a person knows the multiplication table and is aware of this fact);
- ignorance about knowledge (for example, an individual knows many foreign words heard or read in different places, but is not aware of this knowledge);
- knowledge of ignorance (for example, a person does not know where Mount Everest is located and is aware of his ignorance);
- ignorance about ignorance (for example, a person does not know what paintings Raphael Santi painted, and at the same time does not even suspect the very fact of ignorance, due to the fact that he has never heard of Santi).
Give yourself time, but know when to stop.
As mentioned above, self-reflection can compromise the state of rumination or overthinking.
When we allow a thought to cycle through our minds over and over again with no apparent way to resolve it, we lose all the benefits of internal reflection and can end up harming our mental well-being.
Therefore, it is important to set a limit for how long you sit in quiet contemplation. You may want to set aside a specific amount of time or simply say it's time to stop when you're stuck in a chain of thoughts.
And when it's time to stop, the best thing to do is move somewhere else. This is why it is generally not recommended to ruminate about yourself before going to bed. Do this well before the end of the day or at any other time, but not before bed.
To separate yourself from internal rumination, try going inward and focusing on something other than what you were ruminating about. Anything that can take your mind away from what you were thinking about.
Why does a person need self-reflection and what does it give?
Self-reflection is necessary for the following reasons:
- Provides the basis for self-learning. In the absence of the ability to reflect, personality does not develop. In some cases, this may indicate psychopathology.
- Gives you the opportunity to reevaluate your point of view; it is the basis of socialization. Allows you to assimilate the norms and values of society.
What opportunities does self-reflection open up:
- Teaches you to understand people. By reflecting, a person understands himself more clearly. He reflects himself by comparing him with others. It is important that this does not develop into a banal comparison. With the right approach, it becomes possible to better understand others, their goals, behavior, and actions.
- Provides an opportunity to analyze personal experience. Both successful and negative. It should not be forgotten that adverse experiences also have value. Sometimes more than positive.
- Helps identify individual strengths and weaknesses.
- Teaches you to develop your thinking.
- Allows you to reassess personal values and judgments. An individual's personality is not static. She is changeable. Primary goals may lose their relevance. Sometimes this is not clear at first glance. Self-reflection provides an opportunity to rethink your position in relation to certain events, change tasks and goals. This is a chance to improve yourself.
- Improves intuition. A person learns to practically use intuition.
- Allows you to get rid of bad habits. For example, in the process of self-reflection, you may realize that unhealthy eating has a detrimental effect on your health, or that reading in poor lighting has a negative impact on your eyesight.
- Eliminates unnecessary obstacles that prevent the disclosure of internal potential. These obstacles are a consequence of excessive shyness and self-consciousness, and communication difficulties.
- Develops the ability to make thoughtful and rational decisions.
By implementing just one of the listed points and achieving at least one specific life goal, you can feel more confident. This will lead to increased self-esteem.
How to get out of endless soul-searching and wash productively
In psychology, self-reflection is an excellent method of personal development, self-improvement, change, and improvement of the world around us through one’s activities. This is a powerful way to develop as a person, make yourself better, and achieve significant success in life.
However, despite such rosy prospects, people experience many psychological difficulties. What is the reason? The answer is that self-reflection is often mistaken for “soul-searching.” This is the main problem.
What leads to the fact that a person begins to feel sorry for himself or replaces productive activity with self-flagellation? There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon and methods to combat them.
Lack of attention and care in childhood
In most cases, in the absence of proper love and affection, the child feels unwanted, abandoned, and lonely. The feeling of inferiority, a kind of defectiveness, haunts a person throughout his entire life, depriving him of the possibility of an objective assessment of himself. Although objectivity is the foundation of self-reflection. Distortions affect everything from skills to personal resources. It is natural that an individual with low self-esteem is deprived of productive thinking.
In this situation, the solution to the problem is a combination of two methods:
- Self-hypnosis. Every day you should speak only positively about yourself, find personal qualities worthy of praise.
- Determining life goals and achieving them.
Psychological abuse in childhood
Leads to the same consequences as in the previous case, often even in a more severe form. This is due to the fact that a child in such a situation is forced to realize that he is insignificant. Sometimes this is more dangerous than physical violence.
With an unstable mental state, a similar picture can be observed in adulthood. A despotic and jealous husband, a hysterical and quarrelsome wife, relatives who “suffocate” with their care.
The methods for dealing with the problem are the same as described above. However, the main condition is to get rid of the “oppressive” environment. And only after this can we talk about effective self-reflection.
Inability to self-organize
Typical for people with certain personality characteristics. These are schizoids, hysterioids and others. In such a situation, self-reflection is pathological, incoherent, and confused. This type of people randomly switches from one thought to another, which leads to a lack of elaboration and awareness of any quality or habit.
In such a situation, feelings of inferiority may appear. However, less often than in the previously cited cases.
Here, effective reflection requires targeted personal organization. You should set aside 15 minutes every day for an orderly systematization and analysis of the events that occurred during the current day. The main thing is not to overdo it. Otherwise, the process will develop into banal “soul-searching.”
Communication problems, deep introversion
The inability to establish social relations is formed as a secondary process. Introverts don't feel the need for them.
They often cope with self-reflection easily. However, it is negative. They tend to look for flaws in themselves. Although they try to adequately weigh and systematize the situation:
- Am I having difficulty communicating? It's OK.
- You should not abuse alcohol. But many drink and nothing happens to them.
- I have problems with diction. But I’m not sociable, I don’t need it at all.
Negative self-reflection does not produce positive results.
It is possible to overcome this situation. It is only necessary to systematize the processes of comprehension. It is necessary to ask the right questions. The key is to structure your actions.
You should ask yourself only 4 questions a day. My opinion about the current day? My positive and negative actions over the past day? What shortcomings were there in my actions during the day? My next steps for tomorrow?
Over time, the list of questions can be expanded. In comprehension it is necessary to involve habits, feelings, thoughts, actions.
Predisposition to perfectionism
The ability to reflect does not play into the hands of perfectionists. Such individuals react painfully to the ability to easily criticize themselves. They immediately delve into soul-searching and find flaws in themselves.
Such aspiration towards a false ideal deprives one of the opportunity to act. And this is the main problem.
Today I won't be able to learn to skate. And that means I will never learn. Accordingly, there is no point in even continuing your studies.
In this situation, it is necessary to learn one axiom. The ideal that perfectionists strive for does not exist! Mistakes are a hallmark of practice. They are a natural and integral part of the educational process. These are the ones that should be analyzed and worked through in order to prevent such flaws.
Perfectionism is a distinctive character trait. And it is impossible to fully cope with it on your own. In such a situation, it is necessary to resort to qualified help from a psychologist.
Personality characteristics. Narcissistic warehouse
Self-pity rather than “soul-searching” is appropriate here. The desire for self-affirmation and self-reflection in narcissists is higher than in people with a different personality type. Feeling a constant need for recognition, they often behave illogically. And this entails a number of mistakes. Which, in turn, is ideal ground for self-flagellation. This is what narcissists resort to, while at the same time showing self-pity.
With a strong emphasis on attention, the process develops into a kind of theatrical performance, in which the narcissist’s thoughts are demonstrated to those around him. To correct such a problem, it is necessary to competently organize the process of self-reflection. It won't be difficult. You should ask yourself the same questions at the end of the day. The list should be supplemented as necessary.
A psychologist will help you get rid of the most “rooted” narcissistic qualities. Not everyone is prone to self-control, especially overly emotional individuals such as hysterics and narcissists.
All of the above reasons can be corrected. It depends on determination and desire to work on yourself.
Write down your thoughts
Some people may find it helpful to write down their thoughts as they self-reflect.
Journaling is a popular way of self-reflection as it keeps everything in one place and allows you to look back on what you were previously thinking to keep you on track.
This can also be helpful if you are having trouble letting go of a particular thought. Once a thought is written down and safely stored, you may find that the mind can let it go more easily without fear of forgetting.
What to do if self-reflection is absent
The process of self-reflection is common to everyone, but to varying degrees. It depends on the psychotype, personality traits, various life priorities, and the general level of mental and intellectual development.
People with a high intellectual level are often more prone to self-reflection.
However, there are cases when self-reflection is absent. What is the reason for this phenomenon and what to do in this case?
- Lack of education. The child does not receive the necessary information about what is good and what is bad. In the worst case, the child is shown virtually no generally accepted behavior patterns. The child is not interested. In this case, you cannot do without qualified psychological help. It is necessary to systematically allocate 15 minutes to analyze the events that occurred during the current day.
- Overprotectiveness. The child is literally smothered with care and love. In this case, there is no need to be aware of your behavior. The child does not comprehend the skills and abilities to change his line of behavior, which haunts him in adulthood. The method of dealing with this problem is similar to the previous one. The work should also be carried out with the help of a qualified psychologist.
- Pedagogical neglect. In this case, no one is involved in raising the child. This is the highest point of defective education. This problem must be dealt with through psychological counseling. Moreover, it must be eliminated in childhood. As an adult, this is quite difficult.
- Extraversion. Excessive sociability, often turning into intrusiveness and talkativeness. In this case, it is necessary to focus a person’s attention on the benefits of self-reflection: prospects for productive communication, establishing social connections.
Greater clarity of thought
Introspection makes it possible to think about something in isolation from the thing itself.
Instead of your mind being clouded by the emotions you feel when interacting with the thing in question, you can view it in a more rational sense.
You can see it with more clarity and think about it in a rounded way with pros, cons and other important details that will help you make an informed decision about how you want to change about it (or if you don't actually want to change at all).
For example, choosing your job. If you don't enjoy the long commute in your current role, you won't be able to see the benefits it brings during the commute itself.
But when you take a step back and think about it over the weekend, you might realize that while not everything you enjoy, the perks of the job you're passionate about or the salary you earn make the trip worth the work.
It might even change the way you feel about your commute or how you choose to spend your time.
The relationship between self-knowledge and self-reflection
Self-knowledge is an individual’s knowledge and analysis of personal mental and physical aspects, the study of himself. Self-knowledge begins in infancy and develops throughout life. It is improved step by step according to the reflection of the surrounding world and self-knowledge.
The main stages of the process are:
- Analysis of personal activities and behavior based on comparison with others.
- Empiricism. It is divided into external (carried out through audio and video recordings) and internal (introspection of thoughts, feelings, reactions to various situations and events).
- Self-report (internal personal report).
The development of self-knowledge is in close connection with the individual’s self-reflection, which contributes to the improvement of personal self-awareness and the formation of social-perceptual intelligence.
Improved Decision Making
We make hundreds of choices every day, but most of them are minor and can be left to our unconscious mind.
But when it comes to the bigger decisions in life, a little personal reflection is invaluable.
It comes back to clarity of thought and awareness of your true values.
By using these two things, you can make decisions that put you on the optimal path to greater well-being.
This means fewer regrets or missed opportunities and more peace of mind knowing you made the right choice.
Self-reflection in various professional fields
Self-reflection is of great importance in the formation and development of professional communicative competence of specialists in various fields of activity.
Self-reflection in psychology
In social psychology, when studying and analyzing communication problems and problems of interpersonal perception, the concept of “self-reflection” is very common. It is also involved in interpersonal communication and perception.
Social psychology defines self-reflection as a person’s understanding of how he is perceived by his interlocutor. This is no longer just a perception of a partner, but knowledge of how the other person feels about his opponent. A kind of phenomenon of mirror mutual reflection of each other. Systematic representation, the essence of which is to symbolize the inner world of the interlocutor. It is worth noting that the essence of the first is equally imprinted in this inner world.
The use of self-reflection in medicine
Self-reflection contributes to the development of therapeutic or advisory competence of doctors. It includes the following positive qualities:
- Allows you to more accurately feel and control your thinking. This confirms the fact of the relationship between self-reflection and self-regulation.
- Allows one to judge the objectivity of judgments, their logical systematicity, validity and regularity.
- Allows you to get the correct answer to most questions that arise during practice. Especially those associated with difficulties in interacting with patients. Without the use of self-reflection, they would remain uncertain and unresolved.
When treated thoughtfully and judiciously, self-reflection acts not only as a tool to facilitate the patient's perception within the framework of mutual interaction or a clinical approach to solving his problems. It becomes a practice of “supervision” in understanding and solving a number of difficulties in interacting with patients in the process of their consultation.
Self-reflection in pedagogy
While working with a child, the teacher analyzes his actions at the planning stage of the process in the person of one of the parties to this interaction. During pedagogical self-reflection, the teacher observes what is happening from the perspective of fellow teachers and the student. He also studies personal activity in the light of certain pedagogical situations and technologies, and identifies himself with the essence of pedagogical interaction.
Self-reflection in economics
Self-reflection provides an opportunity for an individual to explore and analyze his inner world, reveal hidden potential and identify personal psychological skills. The uniqueness of this phenomenon lies in the fact that through self-reflection a person can accept or not accept personal psychological characteristics and properties.
Self-reflection in economics is interpreted as an individual’s reflection of himself with a system of certain mathematical knowledge with the help of self-awareness and self-knowledge.
