The Significance Of Personality Self-awareness

Everyone was born with different personalities that make each one of us different. Some might be more talkative, while the other remains shy and quiet; then there are people who like to use their heart over their head, and many more. Self-awareness is important to know the self worth and then introspect. The purpose of this essay is to examine the personalities and communication styles together with self-awareness. The first thing to do is to take the personality test. Then, set up strategies that is needed in term to improve the author’s communication skills and last but not least is to discuss and conclude.

Discussion

There are 4 tests that can be used to know more about self-personality and communication styles, which are: The big 5, Emotional Intelligence, Social Style, Myers Briggs Personality Inventory. Now let us take a look further for each one of the tests.

The concept of Big Five locator began as a linguistic way to arrest about people’s approaches to portray themselves and others (John & Srivastava, 1999). Analysts debate that Big Five attributes are genetic character, which are steady after some time (McCrae & Costa, 2003). The Big Five involves a far-reaching higher request nature characteristic such as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The score will be breakdown into 3; between 0 - 2.2 (weak), 2.3 - 2.7 (moderate), and 2.8 – 5 (strong).

MBTI is defined as a theory that claims there is not a chance in the variation of human behavior yet it is the logical result from observable preferences (Myers & McCaulley, 1985, p.11). The concept was developed by Jungian (1971) and then modified by Myers in 1980. In this test, it will show 4 dimensions whether a person is Extraversion or Introversion (E-I), Sensing or Intuition (S-N), Thinking or Feeling (T-F), and Judgment or Perception (J-P) (Saunders, 1958). Introverts usually need time to be alone to formulate ideas before presenting them whereas the extroverts need positive reinforcement from their surroundings. Sensing types need here-and-now and more explanation of what they are going to do; on the other hand, Intuiting types need big picture and most likely to be creative. Business nowadays use this as a reference to comprehend what jobs fit you best, and have the option to contract individuals who appropriately fit the position.

Then, there is Emotional intelligence or known as EQ. It allows people to response emotionally towards the situation. According to Goleman, D. (1995), he noticed that emotional intelligence (EI) is more important than the intelligence quotient (IQ) in predicting important life outcomes. EI deals with self-awareness to manage emotions, self-motivate, empathy, and other social skill. Individuals that work ineffectively on assignments that uses cognitive resource might also perform more poorly in recognizing others’ emotional expressions (Bryson, Bell, & Lysaker, 1997). There are 3 principles to takes into account: dual processes that characterize psychological phenomena, motivation, and interactionist principles that govern human behavior is critical to refining this construct in ways that may yet allow the “big idea” behind EI to come to fruition (Ybarra, Kross and Sanchez-Burks, 2014)

The last one is social style, which based on two-dimensional construct; assertiveness and responsiveness. It is developed by 1950s by Dr Merril (Tracom, 1991) which allows people to know their social style by answering some questions. Confirming to Schlee, R. (2005), that a person assertiveness and responsiveness rating are dictated by including individual scores in pair of descriptive words speaking to bipolar inverse. There are 4 quadrants in social styles, which are Amiable, Expressive, Analytical and Driver (Merrill & Reid, 1981).

Amiable are those who are friendly and warm; they are more of a listener than a talker whose Expressive people find them useful. Analytical people can appear unsociable, especially to amiable and expressive. Analytical tend to be very detailed and ask more. The drivers might look like aggressive and uncaring, especially by amiable because drivers like to take risks. Differently from analytical, drivers like to look at the big picture and like to work efficiently.

Result and reflection

It appears that the results are quite similar in certain areas. The result of MBTI claims a fun and outgoing personality, which match to the social style result, that signifies an extrovert and enthusiasm personality. Now take a look at the result shown for MBTI test.

The result shows that the author receives ESFP; extroverts like to be around people as it is their source of energy, sensing means they use their five senses to get information, feelers tend to make conclusion based on personal values and perceivers are those who are more spontaneous and flexible (Gordon,H. 2000). According to Keirsey, D., & Bates, M. (1984), ESFP are people who are tactful, flexible and friendly as it willing to help people in a tangible way. Also, they tend to receive at it is and not a kind of judgmental people, additionally they trust the facts and emphasizes on their and the others feeling.

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A person who has expressive social style likes to express their-self. In addition, they are positive, spontaneous and 'interesting' people to have around. Nonetheless when facing a conflict, they become emotional, prone to exaggeration and unpredictable.

It seems that both of the test are true as the result indicates an extrovert personality. The results show that the person is most likely to be bold, sociable person and enthusiastic. The finding is true, as the author likes to be around new people and environment; the author likes to join as much as possible social activities, other people see the author as a cheerful, energetic, and talkative individual. The author joined a lot of different activities during school time such as; event coordinator, graduation committee, scouts, flag hoisting troop, and modern dance. Also, the author was one of the church retreat committee for couple of years; volunteer to plant mangrove trees and many others. Last year, she was one of the student ambassador for Jakarta International College. Recently, the author just joined a few of Monash University’s club such as the MMSS and BCSS.

According to the research done by Keirsey and Bates, people with SP and SJ are more to be temperaments (approximately 38%) of all the population. It links with Knapp (1978) that stated a downside which is being too aggressive and amiable especially when the person did not receive enough attention; the best way to deal with this is to give some space and let them cool down.

Strengths and weaknesses

Johari Window technique is a tool to help people have a better understanding the relationship. There are two factors; the first is what you know about yourself then the second factor relates to what other people know about you. It allows people to not only to develop their ‘soft skills’ and working style preferences but also how people like to learn (self awareness, 2013). There are four quadrants in Johari Window model (Chapman, 2003).

Free area is where the author knows her value, what she likes and doesn’t like where The author likes to think how people would think about her as she knows that not all people will accept her as who she is, and that is the blind area. Then, the author has insecurities that she wouldn’t tell anyone which include in the hidden area. These four segments will help the author to determine what is/are her strength(s) and weakness(es).

By looking further, the four areas really help the author to have a better understanding about her. She is aware by looking at those area could help her to determine her strengths and weaknesses. As an extrovert, she is more practical as she likes to experience new things in her life. Other than that, the author finds it easy to communicate with new people because the author never run out of topic and is talkative. Spending time with others will make the author has more network. Moreover, having open minded and sense of confidence supports the author. However, the author’s weaknesses include being sensitive and unfocused. As mentioned before, the author’s social style is expressive; being sensitive can mean that the author will be more vulnerable to criticism and ignore it. In the context of unfocused, it means that the author doesn’t like anything that requires a long-term dedication; the author would prefer new challenges and more dynamic things rather than boring usual things.

Plans to improve

After looking at the weaknesses, there are several things that the author might do to overcome it. First, being less sensitive, it can be done by being more open towards other’s people opinion. Accept and do what the author might be good for herself and ignore any negativity given. Once the skill has improved, the mind would set up that there must be hidden positivity in every situation. Another thing that can be improved is to focus more; it can be done by taking breaks. For example; after a 2 hours of studying, get a 15-minute break. Take some snacks or watch videos and other things that will help to relax. Don’t get distracted easily; set goals for everything, don’t ever think that everything can be easily done.

How communication style affect in daily life

Based on the findings, it appears that the communication style that the author has will most likely to influence her in daily life. The author doesn’t like to be alone, therefore she usually like to make an approach. Sometimes, it is not easy to start new conversation with unknown people, they might be passive and the author is the one who needs to think of a topic. The author also likes to do projects in any platform; she is willing to give her best effort and ready to help others anytime, but the downside is that some people would use me for their personal purposes. The author almost say yes to anyone who ask her to go out whenever the author has free time. Another thing is she is doesn’t like being alone; she feels like people would look at her and thinks she doesn’t have any friends.

Implication in the workplace

Being an extrovert is such an advantage because it can help the author to easily socialize in the workplace. It can help the author to work in team, as the author likes to spend time with new people. The author feels confident that she can work well for the company as she has the skills needed, also she can act as a leader for her friends. The author will also cheer them up as she gives positive energy wherever she is and is ready to encourage people to do so. As according to Cohen,Y., Ornoy,J. and Keren, B. (2013), although the SF combination is rare, people with SF have the highest success rates. Furthermore, the author knows that not only she can improvise easily but also she is not afraid to take risk to make new changes for the good of the workplace.

Conclusion

To sum up, knowing about your own personality is important. From the findings, the personalities that the author has are talkative, fun, and have a positive energy for the surroundings. In addition, the author likes to join new activities and make new friends as she found it interesting and gives her more energy. Furthermore, the author can recognize and improve the strength and weaknesses by learning and applying the suggestion. As Marilyn Monroe quoted “ I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, the you surely don’t deserve me at my best.” So, self-awareness is imperative to think about the character that will help to introspect then increase self-acceptance