write a reflection essay on self as a cognitive construct

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Chapter 3. The Self

3.1 The Cognitive Self: The Self-Concept

Learning Objectives

• Define and describe the self-concept, its influence on information processing, and its diversity across social groups.
• Describe the concepts of self-complexity and self-concept clarity, and explain how they influence social cognition and behavior.
• Differentiate the various types of self-awareness and self-consciousness.
• Describe self-awareness, self-discrepancy, and self-affirmation theories, and their interrelationships.
• Explore how we sometimes overestimate the accuracy with which other people view us.

Some nonhuman animals, including chimpanzees, orangutans, and perhaps dolphins, have at least a primitive sense of self (Boysen & Himes, 1999). We know this because of some interesting experiments that have been done with animals. In one study (Gallup, 1970), researchers painted a red dot on the forehead of anesthetized chimpanzees and then placed the animals in a cage with a mirror. When the chimps woke up and looked in the mirror, they touched the dot on their faces, not the dot on the faces in the mirror. This action suggests that the chimps understood that they were looking at themselves and not at other animals, and thus we can assume that they are able to realize that they exist as individuals. Most other animals, including dogs, cats, and monkeys, never realize that it is themselves they see in a mirror.

Infants who have similar red dots painted on their foreheads recognize themselves in a mirror in the same way that chimps do, and they do this by about 18 months of age (Asendorpf, Warkentin, & Baudonnière, 1996; Povinelli, Landau, & Perilloux, 1996). The child’s knowledge about the self continues to develop as the child grows. By two years of age, the infant becomes aware of his or her gender as a boy or a girl. At age four, the child’s self-descriptions are likely to be based on physical features, such as hair color, and by about age six, the child is able to understand basic emotions and the concepts of traits, being able to make statements such as “I am a nice person” (Harter, 1998).

By the time children are in grade school, they have learned that they are unique individuals, and they can think about and analyze their own behavior. They also begin to show awareness of the social situation—they understand that other people are looking at and judging them the same way that they are looking at and judging others (Doherty, 2009).

Development and Characteristics of the Self-Concept

Part of what is developing in children as they grow is the fundamental cognitive part of the self, known as the self-concept. The self-concept is a knowledge representation that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals . Throughout childhood and adolescence, the self-concept becomes more abstract and complex and is organized into a variety of different cognitive aspects of the self , known as self-schemas. Children have self-schemas about their progress in school, their appearance, their skills at sports and other activities, and many other aspects. In turn, these self-schemas direct and inform their processing of self-relevant information (Harter, 1999), much as we saw schemas in general affecting our social cognition.

These self-schemas can be studied using the methods that we would use to study any other schema. One approach is to use neuroimaging to directly study the self in the brain. As you can see in Figure 3.3, neuroimaging studies have shown that information about the self is stored in the prefrontal cortex, the same place that other information about people is stored (Barrios et al., 2008).

Another approach to studying the self is to investigate how we attend to and remember things that relate to the self. Indeed, because the self-concept is the most important of all our schemas, it has an extraordinary degree of influence on our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Have you ever been at a party where there was a lot of noise and bustle, and yet you were surprised to discover that you could easily hear your own name being mentioned in the background? Because our own name is such an important part of our self-concept, and because we value it highly, it is highly accessible. We are very alert for, and react quickly to, the mention of our own name.

Other research has found that information related to the self-schema is better remembered than information that is unrelated to it, and that information related to the self can also be processed very quickly (Lieberman, Jarcho, & Satpute, 2004). In one classic study that demonstrated the importance of the self-schema, Rogers, Kuiper, and Kirker (1977) conducted an experiment to assess how college students recalled information that they had learned under different processing conditions. All the participants were presented with the same list of 40 adjectives to process, but through the use of random assignment, the participants were given one of four different sets of instructions about how to process the adjectives.

Participants assigned to the  structural task condition  were asked to judge whether the word was printed in uppercase or lowercase letters. Participants in the  phonemic task condition  were asked whether the word rhymed with another given word. In the  semantic task condition , the participants were asked if the word was a synonym of another word. And in the  self-reference task condition , participants indicated whether the given adjective was or was not true of themselves. After completing the specified task, each participant was asked to recall as many adjectives as he or she could remember. Rogers and his colleagues hypothesized that different types of processing would have different effects on memory. As you can see in Figure 3.4, “The Self-Reference Effect,” the students in the self-reference task condition recalled significantly more adjectives than did students in any other condition.

The chart shows the proportion of adjectives that students were able to recall under each of four learning conditions. The same words were recalled significantly better when they were processed in relation to the self than when they were processed in other ways. Data from Rogers et al. (1977).

The finding that  information that is processed in relationship to the self is particularly well remembered , known as the self-reference effect , is powerful evidence that the self-concept helps us organize and remember information. The next time you are studying, you might try relating the material to your own experiences—the self-reference effect suggests that doing so will help you better remember the information.

The specific content of our self-concept powerfully affects the way that we process information relating to ourselves. But how can we measure that specific content? One way is by using self-report tests. One of these is a deceptively simple fill-in-the-blank measure that has been widely used by many scientists to get a picture of the self-concept (Rees & Nicholson, 1994). All of the 20 items in the measure are exactly the same, but the person is asked to fill in a different response for each statement. This self-report measure, known as the Twenty Statements Test (TST), can reveal a lot about a person because it is designed to measure the most accessible—and thus the most important—parts of a person’s self-concept. Try it for yourself, at least five times:

• I am (please fill in the blank)                                                                      
• I am (please fill in the blank)                                                                     

Although each person has a unique self-concept, we can identify some characteristics that are common across the responses given by different people on the measure. Physical characteristics are an important component of the self-concept, and they are mentioned by many people when they describe themselves. If you’ve been concerned lately that you’ve been gaining weight, you might write, “I am overweight. ” If you think you’re particularly good looking (“I am attractive ”), or if you think you’re too short (“I am too short ”), those things might have been reflected in your responses. Our physical characteristics are important to our self-concept because we realize that other people use them to judge us. People often list the physical characteristics that make them different from others in either positive or negative ways (“I am blond ,” “I am short ”), in part because they understand that these characteristics are salient and thus likely to be used by others when judging them (McGuire, McGuire, Child, & Fujioka, 1978).

A second aspect of the self-concept relating to personal characteristics is made up of  personality traits — the specific and stable personality characteristics that describe an individual (“I am  friendly, ” “I am  shy, ” “I am  persistent ”). These individual differences are important determinants of behavior, and this aspect of the self-concept varies among people.

The remainder of the self-concept reflects its more external, social components; for example, memberships in the social groups that we belong to and care about. Common responses for this component may include “I am an artist ,” “I am Jewish ,” and “I am a mother, sister, daughter. ” As we will see later in this chapter, group memberships form an important part of the self-concept because they provide us with our social identity — the sense of our self that involves our memberships in social groups .

Although we all define ourselves in relation to these three broad categories of characteristics—physical, personality, and social – some interesting cultural differences in the relative importance of these categories have been shown in people’s responses to the TST. For example, Ip and Bond (1995) found that the responses from Asian participants included significantly more references to themselves as occupants of social roles (e.g., “I am Joyce’s friend”) or social groups (e.g., “I am a member of the Cheng family”) than those of American participants. Similarly, Markus and Kitayama (1991) reported that Asian participants were more than twice as likely to include references to other people in their self-concept than did their Western counterparts. This greater emphasis on either external and social aspects of the self-concept reflects the relative importance that collectivistic and individualistic cultures place on an interdependence versus independence (Nisbett, 2003).

Interestingly, bicultural individuals who report acculturation to both collectivist and individualist cultures show shifts in their self-concept depending on which culture they are primed to think about when completing the TST. For example, Ross, Xun, & Wilson (2002) found that students born in China but living in Canada reported more interdependent aspects of themselves on the TST when asked to write their responses in Chinese, as opposed to English. These culturally different responses to the TST are also related to a broader distinction in self-concept, with people from individualistic cultures often describing themselves using internal characteristics that emphasize their uniqueness, compared with those from collectivistic backgrounds who tend to stress shared social group memberships and roles. In turn, this distinction can lead to important differences in social behavior.

One simple yet powerful demonstration of cultural differences in self-concept affecting social behavior is shown in a study that was conducted by Kim and Markus (1999). In this study, participants were contacted in the waiting area of the San Francisco airport and asked to fill out a short questionnaire for the researcher. The participants were selected according to their cultural background: about one-half of them indicated they were European Americans whose parents were born in the United States, and the other half indicated they were Asian Americans whose parents were born in China and who spoke Chinese at home. After completing the questionnaires (which were not used in the data analysis except to determine the cultural backgrounds), participants were asked if they would like to take a pen with them as a token of appreciation. The experimenter extended his or her hand, which contained five pens. The pens offered to the participants were either three or four of one color and one or two of another color (the ink in the pens was always black). As shown in Figure 3.5, “Cultural Differences in Desire for Uniqueness,” and consistent with the hypothesized preference for uniqueness in Western, but not Eastern, cultures, the European Americans preferred to take a pen with the more unusual color, whereas the Asian American participants preferred one with the more common color.

In this study, participants from European American and East Asian cultures were asked to choose a pen as a token of appreciation for completing a questionnaire. There were either four pens of one color and one of another color, or three pens of one color and two of another. European Americans were significantly more likely to choose the more uncommon pen color in both cases. Data are from Kim and Markus (1999, Experiment 3).

Cultural differences in self-concept have even been found in people’s self-descriptions on social networking sites. DeAndrea, Shaw, and Levine (2010) examined individuals’ free-text self-descriptions in the About Me section in their Facebook profiles. Consistent with the researchers’ hypotheses, and with previous research using the TST, African American participants had the most the most independently (internally) described self-concepts, and Asian Americans had the most interdependent (external) self-descriptions, with European Americans in the middle.

As well as indications of cultural diversity in the content of the self-concept, there is also evidence of parallel gender diversity between males and females from various cultures, with females, on average, giving more external and social responses to the TST than males (Kashima et al., 1995). Interestingly, these gender differences have been found to be more apparent in individualistic nations than in collectivistic nations (Watkins et al., 1998).

Self-Complexity and Self-Concept Clarity

As we have seen, the self-concept is a rich and complex social representation of who we are, encompassing both our internal characteristics and our social roles. In addition to our thoughts about who we are right now, the self-concept also includes thoughts about our past self—our experiences, accomplishments, and failures—and about our future self—our hopes, plans, goals, and possibilities (Oyserman, Bybee, Terry, & Hart-Johnson, 2004). The multidimensional nature of our self-concept means that we need to consider not just each component in isolation, but also their interactions with each other and their overall structure. Two particularly important structural aspects of our self-concept are complexity and clarity.

Although every human being has a complex self-concept, there are nevertheless individual differences in self-complexity, the extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves (Linville, 1987; Roccas & Brewer, 2002). Some selves are more complex than others, and these individual differences can be important in determining psychological outcomes. Having a complex self means that we have a lot of different ways of thinking about ourselves. For example, imagine a woman whose self-concept contains the social identities of student, girlfriend, daughter, psychology student , and tennis player and who has encountered a wide variety of life experiences. Social psychologists would say that she has high self-complexity. On the other hand, a man who perceives himself primarily as either a student or as a member of the soccer team and who has had a relatively narrow range of life experiences would be said to have low self-complexity. For those with high self-complexity, the various aspects of the self are separate, as the positive and negative thoughts about a particular self-aspect do not spill over into thoughts about other aspects.

Research has found that compared with people low in self-complexity, those higher in self-complexity tend to experience more positive outcomes, including  higher levels of self-esteem (Rafaeli-Mor & Steinberg, 2002), lower levels of stress and illness (Kalthoff & Neimeyer, 1993), and a greater tolerance for frustration (Gramzow, Sedikides, Panter, & Insko, 2000).

The benefits of self-complexity occur because the various domains of the self help to buffer us against negative events and enjoy the positive events that we experience. For people low in self-complexity, negative outcomes in relation to one aspect of the self tend to have a big impact on their self-esteem. For example, if the only thing that Maria cares about is getting into medical school, she may be devastated if she fails to make it. On the other hand, Marty, who is also passionate about medical school but who has a more complex self-concept, may be better able to adjust to such a blow by turning to other interests.

Although having high self-complexity seems useful overall, it does not seem to help everyone equally in their response to all events (Rafaeli-Mor & Steinberg, 2002). People with high self-complexity seem to react more positively to the good things that happen to them but not necessarily less negatively to the bad things. And the positive effects of self-complexity are stronger for people who have other positive aspects of the self as well. This buffering effect is stronger for people with high self-esteem, whose self-complexity involves positive rather than negative characteristics (Koch & Shepperd, 2004), and for people who feel that they have control over their outcomes (McConnell et al., 2005).

Just as we may differ in the complexity of our self-concept, so we may also differ in its clarity.  Self-concept clarity is the extent to which one’s self-concept is clearly and consistently defined (Campbell, 1990). Theoretically, the concepts of complexity and clarity are independent of each other—a person could have either a more or less complex self-concept that is either well defined and consistent, or ill defined and inconsistent. However, in reality, they each have similar relationships to many indices of well-being.

For example, as has been found with self-complexity, higher self-concept clarity is positively related to self-esteem (Campbell et al., 1996). Why might this be? Perhaps people with higher self-esteem tend to have a more well-defined and stable view of their positive qualities, whereas those with lower self-esteem show more inconsistency and instability in their self-concept, which is then more vulnerable to being negatively affected by challenging situations. Consistent with this assertion, self-concept clarity appears to mediate the relationship between stress and well-being (Ritchie et al., 2011).

Also, having a clear and stable view of ourselves can help us in our relationships. Lewandowski, Nardine, and Raines (2010) found a positive correlation between clarity and relationship satisfaction, as well as a significant increase in reported satisfaction following an experimental manipulation of participants’ self-concept clarity. Greater clarity may promote relationship satisfaction in a number of ways. As Lewandowski and colleagues (2010) argue, when we have a clear self-concept, we may be better able to consistently communicate who we are and what we want to our partner, which will promote greater understanding and satisfaction. Also, perhaps when we feel clearer about who we are, then we feel less of a threat to our self-concept and autonomy when we find ourselves having to make compromises in our close relationships.

Thinking back to the cultural differences we discussed earlier in this section in the context of people’s self-concepts, it could be that self-concept clarity is generally higher in individuals from individualistic cultures, as their self-concept is based more on internal characteristics that are held to be stable across situations, than on external social facets of the self that may be more changeable. This is indeed what the research suggests. Not only do members of more collectivistic cultures tend to have lower self-concept clarity, that clarity is also less strongly related to their self-esteem compared with those from more individualistic cultures (Campbell et al., 1996). As we shall see when our attention turns to perceiving others in Chapter 5, our cultural background not only affects the clarity and consistency of how we see ourselves, but also how consistently we view other people and their behavior.

Self-Awareness

Like any other schema, the self-concept can vary in its current cognitive accessibility. Self-awareness refers to the extent to which we are currently fixing our attention on our own self-concept . When our self-concept becomes highly accessible because of our concerns about being observed and potentially judged by others, we experience the publicly induced self-awareness known as self-consciousness (Duval & Wicklund, 1972; Rochat, 2009).

Perhaps you can remember times when your self-awareness was increased and you became self-conscious—for instance, when you were giving a presentation and you were perhaps painfully aware that everyone was looking at you, or when you did something in public that embarrassed you. Emotions such as anxiety and embarrassment occur in large part because the self-concept becomes highly accessible, and they serve as a signal to monitor and perhaps change our behavior.

Not all aspects of our self-concept are equally accessible at all times, and these long-term differences in the accessibility of the different self-schemas help create individual differences in terms of, for instance, our current concerns and interests. You may know some people for whom the physical appearance component of the self-concept is highly accessible. They check their hair every time they see a mirror, worry whether their clothes are making them look good, and do a lot of shopping—for themselves, of course. Other people are more focused on their social group memberships—they tend to think about things in terms of their role as Muslims or Christians, for example, or as members of the local tennis or soccer team.

In addition to variation in long-term accessibility, the self and its various components may also be made temporarily more accessible through priming. We become more self-aware when we are in front of a mirror, when a TV camera is focused on us, when we are speaking in front of an audience, or when we are listening to our own tape-recorded voice (Kernis & Grannemann, 1988). When the knowledge contained in the self-schema becomes more accessible, it also becomes more likely to be used in information processing and to influence our behavior.

Beaman, Klentz, Diener, and Svanum (1979) conducted a field experiment to see if self-awareness would influence children’s honesty. The researchers expected that most children viewed stealing as wrong but that they would be more likely to act on this belief when they were more self-aware. They conducted this experiment on Halloween in homes within the city of Seattle, Washington. At particular houses, children who were trick-or-treating were greeted by one of the experimenters, shown a large bowl of candy, and were told to take only one piece each. The researchers unobtrusively watched each child to see how many pieces he or she actually took. In some of the houses there was a large mirror behind the candy bowl; in other houses, there was no mirror. Out of the 363 children who were observed in the study, 19% disobeyed instructions and took more than one piece of candy. However, the children who were in front of a mirror were significantly less likely to steal (14.4%) than were those who did not see a mirror (28.5%).

These results suggest that the mirror activated the children’s self-awareness, which reminded them of their belief about the importance of being honest. Other research has shown that being self-aware has a powerful influence on other behaviors as well. For instance, people are more likely to stay on a diet, eat better food, and act more morally overall when they are self-aware (Baumeister, Zell, & Tice, 2007; Heatherton, Polivy, Herman, & Baumeister, 1993). What this means is that when you are trying to stick to a diet, study harder, or engage in other difficult behaviors, you should try to focus on yourself and the importance of the goals you have set.

Social psychologists are interested in studying self-awareness because it has such an important influence on behavior. People become more likely to violate acceptable, mainstream social norms when, for example, they put on a Halloween mask or engage in other behaviors that hide their identities. For example, the members of the militant White supremacist organization the Ku Klux Klan wear white robes and hats when they meet and when they engage in their racist behavior. And when people are in large crowds, such as in a mass demonstration or a riot, they may become so much a part of the group that they experience deindividuation — the loss of individual self-awareness and individual accountability in groups (Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952; Zimbardo, 1969) and become more attuned to themselves as group members and to the specific social norms of the particular situation (Reicher & Stott, 2011).

Social Psychology in the Public Interest

Deindividuation and rioting.

Rioting occurs when civilians engage in violent public disturbances. The targets of these disturbances can be people in authority, other civilians, or property. The triggers for riots are varied, including everything from the aftermath of sporting events, to the killing of a civilian by law enforcement officers, to commodity shortages, to political oppression. Both civilians and law enforcement personnel are frequently seriously injured or killed during riots, and the damage to public property can be considerable.

Social psychologists, like many other academics, have long been interested in the forces that shape rioting behavior. One of the earliest and most influential perspectives on rioting was offered by French sociologist, Gustav Le Bon (1841–1931). In his book The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, Le Bon (1895) described the transformation of the individual in the crowd. According to Le Bon, the forces of anonymity, suggestibility, and contagion combine to change a collection of individuals into a “psychological crowd.” Under this view, the individuals then become submerged in the crowd, lose self-control, and engage in antisocial behaviors.

Some of the early social psychological accounts of rioting focused in particular on the concept of deindividuation as a way of trying to account for the forces that Le Bon described. Festinger et al. (1952), for instance, argued that members of large groups do not pay attention to other people as individuals and do not feel that their own behavior is being scrutinized. Under this view, being unidentified and thereby unaccountable has the psychological consequence of reducing inner restraints and increasing behavior that is usually repressed, such as that often seen in riots.

Extending these ideas, Zimbardo (1969) argued that deindividuation involved feelings of reduced self-observation, which then bring about antinormative and disinhibited behavior. In support of this position, he found that participants engaged in more antisocial behavior when their identity was made anonymous by wearing Ku Klux Klan uniforms. However, in the context of rioting, these perspectives, which focus on behaviors that are antinormative (e.g., aggressive behavior is typically antinormative), neglect the possibility that they might actually be normative in the particular situation. For example, during some riots, antisocial behavior can be viewed as a normative response to injustice or oppression. Consistent with this assertion, Johnson and Downing (1979) found that when participants were able to mask their identities by wearing nurses uniforms, their deindividuated state actually led them to show more prosocial behavior than when their identities were visible to others. In other words, if the group situation is associated with more prosocial norms, deindividuation can actually increase these behaviors, and therefore does not inevitably lead to antisocial conduct.

Building on these findings, researchers have developed more contemporary accounts of deindividuation and rioting. One particularly important approach has been the social identity model of deindividuation effects (or SIDE model), developed by Reicher, Spears, and Postmes (1995). This perspective argues that being in a deindividuated state can actually reinforce group salience and conformity to specific group norms in the current situation. According to this model, deindividuation does not, then, lead to a loss of identity per se . Instead, people take on a more collective identity. Seen in this way, rioting behavior is more about the conscious adoption of behaviors reflecting collective identity than the abdication of personal identity and responsibility outlined in the earlier perspectives on deindividuation.

In support of the SIDE model, although crowd behavior during riots might seem mindless, antinormative, and disinhibited to the outside observer, to those taking part it is often perceived as rational, normative, and subject to well-defined limits (Reicher, 1987). For instance, when law enforcement officers are the target of rioters, then any targeting of other civilians by rioters is often condemned and policed by the group members themselves (Reicher & Stott, 2011). Indeed, as Fogelson (1971) concluded in his analysis of rioting in the United States in the 1960s, restraint and selectivity, as opposed to mindless and indiscriminate violence, were among the most crucial features of the riots.

Seeing rioting in this way, as a rational, normative response, Reicher and Stott (2011) describe it as being caused by a number of interlocking factors, including a sense of illegitimacy or grievance, a lack of alternatives to confrontation, the formation of a shared identity, and a sense of confidence in collective power. Viewing deindividuation as a force that causes people to increase their sense of collective identity and then to express that identity in meaningful ways leads to some important recommendations for controlling rioting more effectively, including that:

• Labeling rioters as “mindless,” “thugs,” and so on will not address the underlying causes of riots.
• Indiscriminate or disproportionate use of force by police will often lead to an escalation of rioting behavior.
• Law enforcement personnel should allow legitimate and legal protest behaviors to occur during riots, and only illegal and inappropriate behaviors should be targeted.
• Police officers should communicate their intentions to crowds before using force.

Two aspects of individual differences in self-awareness have been found to be important, and they relate to self-concern and other-concern, respectively (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975; Lalwani, Shrum, & Chiu, 2009).   Private self-consciousness refers to the tendency to introspect about our inner thoughts and feelings . People who are high in private self-consciousness tend to think about themselves a lot and agree with statements such as “I’m always trying to figure myself out” and “I am generally attentive to my inner feelings.” People who are high on private self-consciousness are likely to base their behavior on their own inner beliefs and values—they let their inner thoughts and feelings guide their actions—and they may be particularly likely to strive to succeed on dimensions that allow them to demonstrate their own personal accomplishments (Lalwani et al., 2009).

Public self-consciousness, in contrast, refers to the tendency to focus on our outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which we are meeting the standards set by others . Those high in public self-consciousness agree with statements such as “I’m concerned about what other people think of me,” “Before I leave my house, I check how I look,” and “I care a lot about how I present myself to others.” These are the people who check their hair in a mirror they pass and spend a lot of time getting ready in the morning; they are more likely to let the opinions of others (rather than their own opinions) guide their behaviors and are particularly concerned with making good impressions on others.

Research has found cultural differences in public self-consciousness, with people from East Asian, collectivistic cultures having higher public self-consciousness than people from Western, individualistic cultures. Steve Heine and colleagues (2008) found that when college students from Canada (a Western culture) completed questionnaires in front of a large mirror, they subsequently became more self-critical and were less likely to cheat (much like the trick-or-treaters discussed earlier) than were Canadian students who were not in front of a mirror. However, the presence of the mirror had no effect on college students from Japan. This person-situation interaction is consistent with the idea that people from East Asian cultures are normally already high in public self-consciousness compared with people from Western cultures, and thus manipulations designed to increase public self-consciousness influence them less.

So we see that there are clearly individual and cultural differences in the degree to and manner in which we tend to be aware of ourselves. In general, though, we all experience heightened moments of self-awareness from time to time. According to self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund, 1972), when we focus our attention on ourselves, we tend to compare our current behavior against our internal standards . Sometimes when we make these comparisons, we realize that we are not currently measuring up. In these cases,  self-discrepancy theory  states that when we   perceive a discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves, this is distressing to us  (Higgins, Klein, & Strauman, 1987). In contrast, on the occasions when self-awareness leads us to comparisons where we feel that we  are  being congruent with our standards, then self-awareness can produce positive affect (Greenberg & Musham, 1981). Tying these ideas from the two theories together, Philips and Silvia (2005) found that people felt significantly more distressed when exposed to self-discrepancies while sitting in front of a mirror. In contrast, those not sitting in front of a mirror, and presumably experiencing lower self-awareness, were not significantly emotionally affected by perceived self-discrepancies. Simply put, the more self-aware we are in a given situation, the more pain we feel when we are not living up to our ideals.

In part, the stress arising from perceived self-discrepancy relates to a sense of  cognitive dissonance,  which is the discomfort that occurs when we respond in ways that we see as inconsistent . In these cases, we may realign our current state to be closer to our ideals, or shift our ideals to be closer to our current state, both of which will help reduce our sense of dissonance. Another potential response to feelings of self-discrepancy is to try to reduce the state of self-awareness that gave rise to these feelings by focusing on other things. For example, Moskalenko and Heine (2002) found that people who are given false negative feedback about their performance on an intelligence test, which presumably lead them to feel discrepant from their internal performance standards about such tasks, subsequently focused significantly more on a video playing in a room than those given positive feedback.

There are certain situations, however, where these common dissonance-reduction strategies may not be realistic options to pursue. For example, if someone who has generally negative attitudes toward drug use nevertheless becomes addicted to a particular substance, it will often not be easy to quit the habit, to reframe the evidence regarding the drug’s negative effects, or to reduce self-awareness. In such cases,  self-affirmation theory suggests that people will try to reduce the threat to their self-concept posed by feelings of self-discrepancy by focusing on and affirming their worth in another domain, unrelated to the issue at hand . For instance, the person who has become addicted to an illegal substance may choose to focus on healthy eating and exercise regimes instead as a way of reducing the dissonance created by the drug use.

Although self-affirmation can often help people feel more comfortable by reducing their sense of dissonance, it can also have have some negative effects. For example, Munro and Stansbury (2009) tested people’s social cognitive responses to hypotheses that were either threatening or non-threatening to their self-concepts, following exposure to either a self-affirming or non-affirming activity. The key findings were that those who had engaged in the self-affirmation condition and were then exposed to a threatening hypothesis showed greater tendencies than those in the non-affirming group to seek out evidence confirming their own views, and to detect illusory correlations in support of these positions. One possible interpretation of these results is that self-affirmation elevates people’s mood and they then become more likely to engage in heuristic processing, as discussed in Chapter 2.

Still another option to pursue when we feel that our current self is not matching up to our ideal self is to seek out opportunities to get closer to our ideal selves. One method of doing this can be in online environments. Massively multiplayer online (MMO) gaming, for instance, offers people the chance to interact with others in a virtual world, using graphical alter egos, or avatars, to represent themselves. The role of the self-concept in influencing people’s choice of avatars is only just beginning to be researched, but some evidence suggests that gamers design avatars that are closer to their ideal than their actual selves. For example, a study of avatars used in one popular MMO role-play game indicated that players rated their avatars as having more favorable attributes than their own self-ratings, particularly if they had lower self-esteem (Bessiere, Seay, & Keisler, 2007). They also rated their avatars as more similar to their ideal selves than they themselves were. The authors of this study concluded that these online environments allow players to explore their ideal selves, freed from the constraints of the physical world.

There are also emerging findings exploring the role of self-awareness and self-affirmation in relation to behaviors on social networking sites. Gonzales and Hancock (2011) conducted an experiment showing that individuals became more self-aware after viewing and updating their Facebook profiles, and in turn reported higher self-esteem than participants assigned to an offline, control condition. The increased self-awareness that can come from Facebook activity may not always have beneficial effects, however. Chiou and Lee (2013) conducted two experiments indicating that when individuals put personal photos and wall postings onto their Facebook accounts, they show increased self-awareness, but subsequently decreased ability to take other people’s perspectives. Perhaps sometimes we can have too much self-awareness and focus to the detriment of our abilities to understand others. Toma and Hancock (2013) investigated the role of self-affirmation in Facebook usage and found that users viewed their profiles in self-affirming ways, which enhanced their self-worth. They were also more likely to look at their Facebook profiles after receiving threats to their self-concept, doing so in an attempt to use self-affirmation to restore their self-esteem. It seems, then, that the dynamics of self-awareness and affirmation are quite similar in our online and offline behaviors.

Having reviewed some important theories and findings in relation to self-discrepancy and affirmation, we should now turn our attention to diversity. Once again, as with many other aspects of the self-concept, we find that there are important cultural differences. For instance, Heine and Lehman (1997) tested participants from a more individualistic nation (Canada) and a more collectivistic one (Japan) in a situation where they took a personality test and then received bogus positive or negative feedback. They were then asked to rate the desirability of 10 music CDs. Subsequently, they were offered the choice of taking home either their fifth- or sixth-ranked CD, and then required to re-rate the 10 CDs. The critical finding was that the Canadians overall rated their chosen CD higher and their unchosen one lower the second time around, mirroring classic findings on dissonance reduction, whereas the Japanese participants did not. Crucially, though, the Canadian participants who had been given positive feedback about their personalities (in other words, had been given self-affirming evidence in an unrelated domain) did not feel the need to pursue this dissonance reduction strategy. In contrast, the Japanese did not significantly adjust their ratings in response to either positive or negative feedback from the personality test.

Once more, these findings make sense if we consider that the pressure to avoid self-discrepant feelings will tend to be higher in individualistic cultures, where people are expected to be more cross-situationally consistent in their behaviors. Those from collectivistic cultures, however, are more accustomed to shifting their behaviors to fit the needs of the ingroup and the situation, and so are less troubled by such seeming inconsistencies.

Overestimating How Closely and Accurately Others View Us

Although the self-concept is the most important of all our schemas, and although people (particularly those high in self-consciousness) are aware of their self and how they are seen by others, this does not mean that people are always thinking about themselves. In fact, people do not generally focus on their self-concept any more than they focus on the other things and other people in their environments (Csikszentmihalyi & Figurski, 1982).

On the other hand, self-awareness is more powerful for the person experiencing it than it is for others who are looking on, and the fact that self-concept is so highly accessible frequently leads people to overestimate the extent to which other people are focusing on them (Gilovich & Savitsky, 1999). Although you may be highly self-conscious about something you’ve done in a particular situation, that does not mean that others are necessarily paying all that much attention to you. Research by Thomas Gilovich and colleagues (Gilovich, Medvec, & Savitsky, 2000) found that people who were interacting with others thought that other people were paying much more attention to them than those other people reported actually doing. This may be welcome news, for example, when we find ourselves wincing over an embarrassing comment we made during a group conversation. It may well be that no one else paid nearly as much attention to it as we did!

There is also some diversity in relation to age. Teenagers are particularly likely to be highly self-conscious, often believing that others are watching them (Goossens, Beyers, Emmen, & van Aken, 2002). Because teens think so much about themselves, they are particularly likely to believe that others must be thinking about them, too (Rycek, Stuhr, McDermott, Benker, & Swartz, 1998). Viewed in this light, it is perhaps not surprising that teens can become embarrassed so easily by their parents’ behaviour in public, or by their own physical appearance, for example.

People also often mistakenly believe that their internal states show to others more than they really do. Gilovich, Savitsky, and Medvec (1998) asked groups of five students to work together on a “lie detection” task. One at a time, each student stood up in front of the others and answered a question that the researcher had written on a card (e.g., “I have met David Letterman”). On each round, one person’s card indicated that they were to give a false answer, whereas the other four were told to tell the truth.

After each round, the students who had not been asked to lie indicated which of the students they thought had actually lied in that round, and the liar was asked to estimate the number of other students who would correctly guess who had been the liar. As you can see in Figure 3.7, “The Illusion of Transparency,” the liars overestimated the detectability of their lies: on average, they predicted that over 44% of their fellow players had known that they were the liar, but in fact only about 25% were able to accurately identify them. Gilovich and colleagues called this effect the “illusion of transparency.” This illusion brings home an important final learning point about our self-concepts: although we may feel that our view of ourselves is obvious to others, it may not always be!

Key Takeaways

• The self-concept is a schema that contains knowledge about us. It is primarily made up of physical characteristics, group memberships, and traits.
• Because the self-concept is so complex, it has extraordinary influence on our thoughts, feelings, and behavior, and we can remember information that is related to it well.
• Self-complexity, the extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves, helps people respond more positively to events that they experience.
• Self-concept clarity, the extent to which individuals have self-concepts that are clearly defined and stable over time, can also help people to respond more positively to challenging situations.
• Self-awareness refers to the extent to which we are currently fixing our attention on our own self-concept. Differences in the accessibility of different self-schemas help create individual differences: for instance, in terms of our current concerns and interests.
• People who are experiencing high self-awareness may notice self-discrepancies between their actual and ideal selves. This can, in turn, lead them to engage in self-affirmation as a way of resolving these discrepancies.
• When people lose their self-awareness, they experience deindividuation.
• Private self-consciousness refers to the tendency to introspect about our inner thoughts and feelings; public self-consciousness refers to the tendency to focus on our outer public image and the standards set by others.
• There are cultural differences in self-consciousness: public self-consciousness may be higher in Eastern than in Western cultures.
• People frequently overestimate the extent to which others are paying attention to them and accurately understand their true intentions in public situations.

Exercises and Critical Thinking

• What are the most important aspects of your self-concept, and how do they influence your self-esteem and social behavior?
• Consider people you know who vary in terms of their self-complexity and self-concept clarity. What effects do these differences seem to have on their self-esteem and behavior?
• Describe a situation where you experienced a feeling of self-discrepancy between your actual and ideal selves. How well does self-affirmation theory help to explain how you responded to these feelings of discrepancy?
• Try to identify some situations where you have been influenced by your private and public self-consciousness. What did this lead you to do? What have you learned about yourself from these experiences?
• Describe some situations where you overestimated the extent to which people were paying attention to you in public. Why do you think that you did this and what were the consequences?

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A knowledge representation that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals.

A variety of different cognitive aspects of the self.

Information that is processed in relationship to the self is particularly well remembered.

The specific and stable personality characteristics that describe an individual (“I am friendly,” “I am shy,” “I am persistent”).

The sense of our self that involves our memberships in social groups.

The extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves.

The extent to which one's self-concept is clearly and consistently defined.

The extent to which we are currently fixing our attention on our own self-concept.

When our self-concept becomes highly accessible because of our concerns about being observed and potentially judged by others.

The loss of individual self-awareness and individual accountability in groups.

The tendency to introspect about our inner thoughts and feelings.

The tendency to focus on our outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which we are meeting the standards set by others.

When we focus our attention on ourselves, we tend to compare our current behavior against our internal standards.

When we perceive a discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves, this is distressing to us.

The discomfort that occurs when we respond in ways that we see as inconsistent.

People will try to reduce the threat to their self-concept posed by feelings of self-discrepancy by focusing on and affirming their worth in another domain, unrelated to the issue at hand.

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Bristol CBT

Cognitive behaviour therapy (cbt), supervision and training.

On reflection: part 1 – reflective practice in CBT

Reflective practice in the training and continuing professional development of cbt practitioners.

The High Intensity Training Handbook (Clinical Education Development and Research [CEDAR], 2020a) states that:

“Reflective practice has long been recognised as a key component in skills development in professional training. Trainees will complete and submit a number of assessed pieces of reflective writing based on the application of CBT techniques to both clients in the workplace and to their own lives” (para. 1).

These submissions include reflective summaries and self-ratings to accompany formative and summative submissions of video recordings of clinical practice, case reports and an assessment and formulation case presentation, and self-practice/self-reflection (SP/SR) exercises that culminate in an assessed summary of learning from SP/SR.

The author has found it helpful to frame teaching for CBT trainees using the following general definitions of reflective practice:

“A dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skilful” (Schön, 1987, p.31)

The “mindful consideration one’s actions, specifically one’s professional actions” and a “challenging, focused and critical assessment of one’s own behaviour as a means towards developing one’s own craftsmanship” (Osterman, 1990, p. 134)

Reflective practice, which is based on the various educational, developmental and experiential learning theories of Dewey, Lewin, Piaget, Borton and Kolb, seeks to integrate experience with reflection and theory with practice in order to lead to:

“greater self-awareness, to the development of new knowledge about professional practice, and to a broader understanding of the problems which confront practitioners” (Osterman, 1990, p. 134)

For many practitioners, becoming a CBT psychotherapist has the feel of a personal vocation as much as a job, but that doesn’t stop aspects of it being routine. As Peters (1991) puts it:

“Work is not always challenging. It can be downright boring at times, even for professionals…Since humans have a need for meaning in their lives, routine work can actually be harmful to one’s health and well-being. Short of changing one’s job, an antidote is to become a reflective practitioner” (p. 89)

Reflective practice is now articulated in a wide variety of theories and models from outside CBT, including those by Gibbs (1988), Rolfe et al. (2001), Driscoll (2007) and Johns (2009). It is both a commonly employed pedagogical method in diverse training across healthcare professions and beyond, and a method of maintaining and developing professional expertise across the professional lifespan of practitioners. At its most straightforward, reflective practice is the application of a three-phase cycle of experiential learning to professional development. The three phases are: experience, reflection and action, in which reflection on experience guides the choice of subsequent actions that in turn form the basis of new experience (Jasper, 2013: Figure 2).

Figure 2: The ERA model (Jasper, 2013).

These phases can be conceptualised in terms of 1) experiential and academic inputs, such as academic teaching, clinical work, and self-experiential or personal practice activities, 2) cognitive-affective reflective processes, such as general reflection and self-reflection in addition to critical and creative thinking, and 3) professional competence outputs as assessed in terms of demonstrable proficiency in the approach being studied. Proficiency might be measured in a number of ways, such as meeting course criteria in order to complete training and gain accreditation, increased self-reflective awareness, or the metacompetence of using reflection to deal with diverse, sometimes poorly defined, problems in professional practice.

It is the author’s experience that initially many trainees either are not convinced of the usefulness of reflection or lack confidence in their ability to reflect and thus to develop a reflective practice. The author has found it helpful when presenting a rationale for reflective practice, to invite trainees to consider the alternative of a non-reflective practitioner, in other words, to consider what it would mean not to reflect and simply to approach psychotherapy as a technical-rational process of applying general and specific practice rules to clearly identified problems. Haarhoff & Thwaites (2015a) provide an illustrative example in the form of an anecdote in which a CBT colleague asked one of the two authors “ Why should therapists reflect? Plumbers don’t need to reflect ” (p. 1, italics in original). As Haarhoff and Thwaites point out, in fact plumbers do need to reflect in order to learn from experience and solve problems they encounter in practice. They might also benefit from sober self-reflection if a lack of awareness about the impact of their interpersonal behaviours leads to repeated problems with their customers.

We might ask whether the use of a plumber is an appropriate metaphor for a psychotherapeutic approach such as CBT given that it supposes that psychotherapy is essentially a mechanistic, rational process of “re-plumbing” the dysfunctional cognitive “pipes” of the mind to make sure that rational thoughts flow down the correct conduits.  Along with the relevant technical and conceptual knowledge that a plumber has, their tools are found in a literal toolbox. A psychotherapist, even in CBT, might have a metaphorical toolbox of techniques, or clinical interventions, but in practice relies on interpersonal understanding and influence through the intentional use of self in relationship to help facilitate cognitive, affective, behavioural and situational change. In fact, on reflection, the unreflective nature of a statement such as “ Why should therapists reflect? Plumbers don’t need to reflect ” almost makes the case for reflective practice by itself.

Mezirow (1997) frames the choice between a reflective and a non-reflective approach to what is being learned in terms of moral responsibility, that is as one of choosing between, on the one hand, acting uncritically on the received ideas and judgments of authority figures or, on the other hand, learning to “become a socially responsible autonomous thinker” (p. 8) i.e., someone who is capable of using their own insight and judgement in situations of uncertainty. This is perhaps stating the choice more dichotomously than is necessary. As Schön (1983) points out, much of the time we can apply standard practice rules without too much difficulty. On the other hand, it is also undeniably the case that people frequently fail to monitor, and thus pick up, characteristic errors in judgement. In fact, as Stanovich and West (2000) summarise it:

“people assess probabilities incorrectly, they display confirmation bias, they test hypotheses inefficiently, they violate the axioms of utility theory, they do not properly calibrate degrees of belief, they overproject their own opinions on others, they allow prior knowledge to become implicated in deductive reasoning, and they display numerous other information processing biases” (p. 645).

Perhaps it would be more useful to frame the distinction between reflective and non-reflective approaches in terms of cognitive processing styles. Errors in judgement based on, for example, the application of standard practice rules in a non-reflective manner, reflect the use of intuition or heuristics that have been labelled System 1 cognitive processes. System 1 processes are fast, automatic, perceived as effortless, work by association, and are often emotionally charged. They tend to be governed by habit and can therefore be difficult to control or modify. What we think of as reasoning, or System 2 cognitive processes, on the other hand, is a slower, more effortful, deliberately controlled, serial process (i.e. processing one idea at a time) that is relatively flexible and potentially rule-governed. An important corollary to this distinction is that System 2 monitors System 1 (Kahneman, 2003), helping us to understand why the perceptions, behaviour, cognitions and affects that constitute experience form the raw material that the slower, more effortful process of deliberate reflection operates on in order to make meaning from experience and correct initial impressions or unhelpful responses.

There is also a reflexive element (in the sense of turning back on itself) to reflective practice that acknowledges that our development as professionals might in some senses mirror the psychotherapeutic process as it is understood in CBT. The idea of teaching the client to become their own therapist is foundational in CBT theory and practice (Beck, 2011). If reflective practice can be seen as a form of experiential learning with the goal of becoming more skilful, then CBT itself has been formulated as experiential learning (Milne et al., 2001) Drawing explicitly on Kolb’s (1984) development of the Lewin experiential learning model, Milne et al. state that:

“in effective therapy patients will tend to reflect on their situation, engage in new experiences (including behaving in alternative ways), engage in problem solving and coping strategies, and finally develop alternative theories and concepts of their world…true accommodation will occur when the information processed leads to a new construction of the world” (p. 23).

If, as Milne et al. (2001) propose, CBT is a form of psychotherapy that is in key aspects analogous to experiential learning, then a reflexive personal appreciation of the process of experiential learning becomes a potentially important therapeutic capacity.  By reflexive appreciation, the author means that practitioners are able to make links between their own experiences of learning and those that their clients may be experiencing. Training in psychotherapy can be both professionally and personally transformative, and an ongoing reflective practice might help to integrate learning that is taking place at a number of different personal and professional levels of lived experience. Self-reflection on these transformative personal experiences might alert practitioners to salient aspects of the client’s experience, in order to deliver therapeutic interventions sensitively and effectively.

Reflective practice is highly valued in the High Intensity CBT training at the University of Exeter, in line with other similar training courses. CBT trainees are exposed to a wide range of teaching inputs, including lectures, clinical skills tutorials, supervised clinical practice, clinical supervision and SP/SR activities. They are required to demonstrate their developing competence academically, in terms of practice skills, and in terms of reflective practice through writing essays and case reports, participation in supervision, submission of recordings of clinical practice, and writing reflective summaries of both clinical recordings and of SP/SR activities. At the conclusion of their training, it is hoped and intended that they will display competences aligned to the core curriculum of the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Psychotherapy (BABCP) (Hool, 2010), the Roth and Pilling (2007) CBT competence framework, and the IAPT High Intensity Curriculum (Liness & Muston, 2019). The BABCP core curriculum summarises the required learning outcomes of training as:

• “A critical understanding of the scientific and theoretical underpinnings of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies for common mental health disorders across the specialisms
• The core clinical competences required to practise CBT with common mental health disorders across the specialisms” (Hool, 2010, p. 5).

Roth & Pilling (2007) distinguish five areas of clinical competence in the practice of CBT:

• Generic competences – as used in all psychological therapies
• Basic cognitive and behavioural therapy competences – as used in both low- and high-intensity interventions
• Specific cognitive and behavioural therapy techniques – the core technical interventions employed in most forms of CBT
• Problem-specific competences – the packages of CBT interventions for specific low and high-intensity interventions
• Metacompetences – overarching, higher-order competences which practitioners need to use to guide the implementation of any intervention

The specific programme aims of the University of Exeter PG Dip in High Intensity Psychological Therapy (CEDAR, 2020b: Box 1) seeks to provide trainees with “all the necessary academic and training requirements to meet BABCP accreditation as a cognitive behavioural therapist” (para. 1) including the ability to “engage in career-long reflective practice for the ongoing development of clinical skills” (para. 2).

Box 1: Specific programme aims for the University of Exeter’s PG Dip in High Intensity Psychological Therapy (CEDAR, 2020b).

The need for reflective practice does not end at completion of formal training, which is more a rite of passage and validation of one’s baseline competence than the completion of a longer professional journey towards proficiency. As we have seen, the goal of the training is, in part, to inculcate a career-long engagement with reflective practice because professional skill development is a lifelong process (Osterman, 1990). The need to update one’s knowledge and skills in order to develop professionally are part of the rationale for undertaking continuing professional development (CPD) activities, whatever one’s level of experience or qualifications in CBT. The British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP, 2020) requires accredited practitioners to engage in “a minimum of five CBT CPD activities per year…This must include at least six hours of CBT skills workshop(s) each year” (para. 1).

As well as keeping a record of CPD, practitioners are required to complete a reflective statement for each activity, where practitioners demonstrate that they have reflected on how the activity was relevant to their clinical practice, what they learned, and how it will impact on their practice. There is evidence that when participants were asked to complete a reflection worksheet at the end of each day of a 2-day skills workshop, and again following an email reminder at 1, 4, and 8 weeks after the training, that this led to a greater awareness and use of skills than those in a control group who did not complete these reflective writing tasks (Bennett-Levy & Padesky, 2014).

Reflective practice also appears to be a key component in developing and maintaining professional expertise among therapists drawn from a diverse range of therapeutic modalities. For example, Jennings and Skovholt (1999) reported that a selection of peer-nominated “master therapists” displayed the following characteristics that are either by their nature reflective or plausible consequences of reflective practice. Master therapists:

“(a) are voracious learners; (b) draw heavily on accumulated experiences; (c) value cognitive complexity and ambiguity; (d) are emotionally receptive; (e) are mentally healthy and mature and attend to their own emotional well-being; (f) are aware of how their emotional health impacts their work; (g) possess strong relationship skills; (h) believe in the working alliance; and (i) are experts at using their exceptional relational skills in therapy” (p. 3)

In a later review of the literature on the development of expertise in therapists, Jennings et al. (2003) attempted to differentiate between experienced therapists and those that demonstrate expertise, whatever their level of experience, given that experience alone is not an adequate explanation for differences between therapists in their clinical outcomes with clients. Where experience did contribute to expertise it was in the ability to conceptualise clients at a broader, more abstract and inclusive level in order to make more sophisticated critical judgements. Expert therapists had a range of personal characteristics including a number that appeared paradoxical, such as both a drive to mastery and a sense of never having fully arrived. Words that were used to describe these expert therapists included: congruent, intense, open, curious, reflective, self-aware, generous, analytic, fun, inspiring, and passionate. Some of the identifying characteristics included: self-acceptance, the use of complex metaphorical descriptions of human life, and having internalised thousands of hours of practice. Other characteristics included: embracing ambiguity, humility and a will to grow, boundaried generosity, and a welcome openness to feedback from life. Again, these appear to be attributes that one would naturally associate with highly reflective practitioners and have been summarised by Haarhoff & Thwaites (2015b) in their chapter on reflection in CBT (Table 1), where they also include the importance of cultural competence.

Table 1: characteristics of master therapists, Jennings et al., 2003, adapted by Haarhoff & Thwaites, 2015b)

In a similar vein, Wampold and Carlson (2011) identified comparable qualities and actions of effective therapists that again appeared conceptually related to the capacity and willingness to engage in reflective practice. Effective therapists were seen to:

• Have sophisticated interpersonal skills
• Provide an acceptable and adaptive explanation for the client’s distress (i.e., a credible formulation)
• Provide a treatment plan that is consistent with the explanation provided to the client
• Be influential, persuasive, and convincing to promote in the client hope in the treatment’s effectiveness and expectations of progress
• Continually monitor client progress in an authentic way (I.e. communicate that they genuinely want to know how well the client is doing)
• Be flexible and will adjust therapy if resistance to the treatment is apparent or the client is not making adequate progress
• Not avoid difficult material in therapy and use such difficulties therapeutically
• Communicate hope and optimism, and is able to help clients mobilise their resources
• Be aware of the client’s characteristics (class, ethnicity, sexual orientation etc.) and context (for example, level of support at home) and how the therapist’s characteristics interact with the client’s
• Be aware of their own psychological process and do not inject their own material into the therapy process (for example, countertransference) unless such actions are deliberate and therapeutic
• Be aware of the best research evidence related to the particular client, in terms of treatment, problems, social context, and so forth
• Seek continually to improve their skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience

Dlugos & Friedlander (2001) used a qualitative methodology to identify the qualities and activities of experienced therapists that maintained a “passionate commitment” to their work and were able to avoid burnout. These therapists were found to:

• Be effective in creating boundaries between their professional and nonprofessional life,
• able to use leisure activities to provide relief from stress,
• see professional obstacles as challenges to be overcome,
• have a range of diverse activities that provided freshness and energy,
• frequently seek feedback and supervision,
• take on social responsibilities, and
• experience a strong sense of spirituality.

These qualities seem related to, if not contingent on, lifelong engagement with reflective practice; at the very least, reflective practice seems implicit in these descriptions.

There is a potentially beneficial reciprocal relationship between the engagement with one’s professional activities as opportunities for learning, as in reflective practice, and the capacity for learning that Dweck (2013) describes as a growth mindset. A growth mindset is the belief that intellectual abilities and other personal characteristics can be developed. It tends towards a greater focus on developing one’s ability and the use of a questioning strategy, or efforts to correct and learn, after failure. A fixed mindset holds that one’s personal characteristics are immutable. As a consequence, a fixed mindset tends towards a greater focus on validating one’s ability and towards drawing negative conclusions about one’s ability after struggle or failure (Yeager & Dweck, 2020). There is evidence that a growth mindset in professional helpers is beneficial in a number of ways. If one thinks of clients as having the capacity to learn and develop, it predicts that the practitioner will have greater work engagement (characterised by vigour, dedication and absorption). If one has a growth mindset towards oneself as a professional, that predicts both work engagement and self-rated performance (Visser, 2013). In so far as a willingness to reflect (and self-reflect) and a growth mindset are mutually reinforcing, this suggests that purposeful and intentional reflective practice is a key pathway to maintaining professional and personal satisfaction. Making time to think about what makes a good therapist, what we do well, why this work is meaningful to us, and where we can develop our knowledge and skills, can be useful questions to help us track our current state of wellbeing and fitness to practice as well as our professional progress. Encouraging a growth mindset in trainees so that they are able to move from fixed self-theories about their strengths and weaknesses to developing mastery in the face of challenges, might help empower trainees who are not yet confident in their ability to engage with reflective practice (Osman et al., 2020).

Methods of reflective practice across different professional training may be diverse. Kottkamp (1990) describes the following “catalogue of means” of reflective practice (p. 184):

• reflective writing,
• reflective journals,
• writing case records,
• contrived situations (e.g. role play, case studies and simulations),
• instrument feedback (e.g. from questionnaires),
• electronic feedback (e.g. video and audio recordings of clinical practice),
• metaphor (as a method for clarifying personal understanding),
• constructing a (metaphorical) platform (a personal statement of one’s espoused theory in order to detect discrepancies with one’s theory-in action), and,
• shadowing and reflective interviewing.

In psychotherapy generally, personal therapy is often undertaken and even mandated as a reflective exercise to increase self-awareness, although generally not in training in CBT in English-speaking countries (Haarhoff and Thwaites, 2015). In increasing numbers of training courses, as at the University of Exeter, the structured practice of CBT skills and techniques on oneself using Self-practice/Self-reflection (SP/SR) is now being used to enhance therapist skills and understanding. Therapy-specific methods of reflection as part of reflective practice will be discussed in more detail in the section on self-reflective awareness.

In summary, reflective practice involves the process of reflection, that is mindful consideration of one’s actions; it is an active process, involving a dialogue between thinking and doing; it is purposeful as it is intended to help us become more skilful; it is cyclical in that the more experience we have, the more there is to reflect on and learn from and the more skilful our actions become;  and it is lifelong in so far as we will always seek to improve our knowledge, skills, professional understanding and personal self-awareness.

Part 2: Models of experiential, transformative, and emancipatory learning

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

Cognitive Development Essay

Cognitive development is concerned with how thinking processes flow from childhood through adolescence to adulthood by involving mental processes such as remembrance, problem solving, and decision-making. It therefore focuses on how people perceive, think, and evaluate their world by invoking the integration of genetic and learned factors.

Hence, cognitive development mainly concentrates on “areas of information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, and memory” (Kendler, 1995, p.164). In essence, cognitive development theory reveals how people think and how thinking changes over time.

The basic premises of cognitive development theory

The premises of cognitive development theory largely allow future investigation to amplify, specify, and modify them according to data trends. These premises frame the theory in a way that it addresses the structure, working, and progress of the system that governs discrimination learning.

Primarily, the theory is based on observable behaviors and indirectly defined theoretical constructs. These constructs assume that psychological and neurological theorizing about cognitive development will gradually coalesce (Kendler, 1995). The premises take form of two different approaches that have been developed over the years.

The first approach postulates that thinking is a universal sequence of stages, while the second approach postulates that people process information in a similar manner computers do (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008, p.13). One of the best-known examples of the first approach is Piaget’s theory of development that explains how children construct their knowledge, and how the format of their knowledge changes over time.

The second approach is exemplified by Information processing theory that focuses on how computers work to explain thinking and its development through childhood and adolescence.

The cognitive development theory has application in various areas such as works of Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), both being very popular quick assessments of an individual’s functioning (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008).

Discussion of Piaget Theory and Vygotsky Theory on Intelligence Development

The next part of this paper will be a discussion of the works of Piaget and Vygotsky, including comparison and contrast of their views on various aspects of cognitive development theory.

Jean Piaget was one of the most influential developmental psychologists of the 20 th century, who believed that children naturally make sense of their world.

Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, was one of the first theorists to emphasize that children’s thinking develops through influence of the socio-cultural context in which children grow up rather than developing in a void. Piaget observed children’s past and potential interaction with their environment as being determined by their schemas, which are modified by the processes of assimilation and accommodation.

According to Kail & Cavanaugh (2008), assimilation may be described as a process that allows a child to add “new information by incorporating it into an existing schema.” For Piaget, enhancing a balance or truce between assimilation and accommodation in the schemas definitely leads to cognitive development.

This unlike Vygotsky, whose view is that cognitive growth occurs in a socio-cultural context that influences the form it takes, for instance, a child’s most remarkable cognitive skills are shaped by social interactions with parents, teachers, and other competent partners (Shaffer & Kipp, 2009).

Thus, cognitive development is more of an apprenticeship in which children develop through working with skilled adult assistants. Both Piaget and Vygotsky held the view that children’s thinking becomes more complex as they develop, highlighting that this change is influenced by the more complex knowledge that children construct from the more complex thinking.

Stages of development in both theories

Both theorists explain cognitive development in four distinct stages, but each of them explains these stages in different aspects and perspectives. According to Piaget, cognitive development takes place in “four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly sophisticated and abstract levels of thought” (Kendler, 1995).

These stages include sensorimotor stage (infancy) that begins from birth to 2 years and is characterized infant’s knowledge being demonstrated in six sub-stages through sensory and motor skills. The second stage is pre-operational stage (2 to 6 years) during which a child learns how to use symbols such as words and numbers to represent various aspects of the world but relates to the world only through his or her perspective.

Additionally, “concrete operational stage is characterized by seven types of conservation,” with “intelligence being demonstrated through logical and systematical manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008).

In this third stage, operational thinking develops while the egocentric thinking diminishes. Lastly, formal operational stage, which occurs in late stages of human development or old age, involves “logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts” signifying a more complex and mature way of thinking (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008).

A departure from Piaget, Vygotsky proposed that we should evaluate development from perspective of four interrelated levels in interaction with children’s environment. These stages include ontogenetic development, which refers to development of the individual over his or her lifetime.

Secondly, Microgenetic development refers to changes that occur over brief periods such as minutes, a few days, or seconds. In addition, Phylogenetic development refers to changes over evolutionally time. Lastly, sociohistorical development refers to changes that have occurred in one’s culture and the values, norms, and technology, such as a history has generated (Shaffer & Kipp, 2009).

Classroom Application of Both Theorists’ Views

Both theorists’ views can find classroom application in trying to explain educational process. For Piaget, children learn because naturally, all children want to understand their world. According to Piaget, early children’s life up to adolescence stage presents them with an urge to explore and try to “understand the workings of both the physical and the social world” (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2008).

Whereas, Vygotsky would explain education as being shaped by cultural transmission, since the fundamental aim of all societies is to impart on their children, the basic cultural values, and skills. For example, most parents in western nations want their children to do well in their studies and obtain a college degree, as this may lead to a good job.

However, parents in African countries such as Mali want their children to learn activities such as farming, herding animals, hunting, and gathering of food, as these skills may enhance their survival in their environment. Thus, each culture provides its children with tools of intellectual adaptation that permit them to use their basic mental functions more adaptively (Shaffer & Kipp, 2009).

Piaget theory would be limited in explaining academic excellence, since it views education as a natural process, while Vygotsky would explains that as a product of cultural environment that influences a student to excel. Educationally, Piaget provided an accurate overview of how children of different ages think and asked crucial questions that drew literally, thousands of scholars to the study of cognitive development.

According to Vygotsky, children are active participants in their education, with teachers in Vygotsky’s classroom favoring a guided participation, in which they structure learning activity, as well as guiding, monitoring, and promoting cooperative learning process.

Piaget’s theory would be limited in explaining academic excellence, since it views education as a natural process, while Vygotsky would explain that as a product of cultural environment that influences a student to excel.

Educationally, Piaget provided an accurate overview of how children of different ages think, and asked crucial questions that drew literally, thousands of scholars to the study of cognitive development. In essence, these theories laid grounds for other developmental theorists to further their views or critique them, leading to other cognitive development theories.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 29). Cognitive Development. https://ivypanda.com/essays/cognitive-development-essay/

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• Synthesizing and Comparing Vygotsky's and Piaget’s Theories
• Piaget and Vygotsky's Theories
• Developmental Psychology Theories of Piaget and Vygotsky
• Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky: Theories Comparison
• Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky
• Jean Piaget’ and Lev Vygotsky’ Views on the Learning Process
• Vygotsky and Piaget: Scientific Concepts
• Comparison of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s Theories
• Lev Vygotsky Views on Constructivism
• Developmental Psychology: Cognitive Theories
• The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy With Adolescent Substance Abusers
• Cognitive Psychology on Driving and Phone Usage
• Intelligence Definition and Measurement
• Response Paper: "Do I Have a Good Dream?"
• Humanist Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Positive Psychology

Love and Selfhood pp 47–70 Cite as

Cognitive Neuroscience of Self-Reflection

• Annemarie van Stee 3  
• First Online: 28 July 2022

234 Accesses

Part of the book series: New Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science ((NDPCS))

This chapter contains a conceptual review of cognitive neuroscience (CNS) of self-reflection. Like the previous chapter, this chapter shows why critical reflection on methodological choices is necessary for a proper communication of CNS results; for the weeding out of invalid methodological choices; and, most importantly for progress in CNS, for ensuring the quality of meta-analyses, especially in their automated versions. Such meta-analyses are generally built up according to how researchers label their studies. In CNS of self-reflection, however, at least ten different labels are used to refer to two types of tasks and the same label gets used to refer to either type of task.

CNS of self-reflection offers insight into the neural enabling conditions of self-reflection. This is relevant in some circumstances, but not for someone like Clemens. People are often not looking for insight into the enabling conditions of their experiences and self-understanding, but for insight in those experiences themselves, such that they may improve their understanding of who they are and what is important to them. In this chapter we see an example of a behavioral task administered prior to imaging that yields potentially relevant results in this respect.

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An additional search in January 2022 resulted in several studies that fit squarely in the analysis presented in this chapter, plus two sets of studies that complement it. In the first set, neural correlates of self-reflection are compared to neural correlates of mind-wandering. Second, a new type of research question has arisen as some studies try to influence neural activity, e.g. through administering anti-depressants, oxytocin or transcranial stimulation. Beyond complementing the analysis presented here, none of the studies challenge or change this chapter’s analysis. Nevertheless, appendix B contains information on them for completion’s sake.

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The Cognitive Construction of the Self in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Patrick S. Bernard , Franklin and Marshall College Follow

In his article, "The Cognitive Construction of the Self in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God," Patrick S. explores the conception and representation of the self as a cognitive construct in Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. By this approach, Bernard proposes that cognitive paradigms, such as knowing, seeing, thinking, and speaking, for example, and their capacities to engender knowledge and perception, identity and consciousness, memory and narrative, language and speech, are central to the novel's exploration of the self as an epistemological and ideological product. Using tools of interpretation adapted from cognitive psychology and radical constructivism, Bernard proposes in his analysis of Their Eyes Were Watching God that the claim of the self as a cognitive-derived, constructed agent is central to the novel's discourse on self-formation and the constructivist philosophy that underlies it. In cognitive psychology the self is understood as contextual, or ecological, intertwining cognitive capacities with social experiences and Bernard's analysis affirms the novel's narrative where the self develops through cognitive and cultural interconnections.

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Bernard, Patrick S. "The Cognitive Construction of the Self in Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 9.2 (2007): < https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1221 > This text has been double-blind peer reviewed by 2+1 experts in the field.

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The Importance of Self-Reflection: How Looking Inward Can Improve Your Mental Health

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor at Yeshiva University’s clinical psychology doctoral program.

Sunwoo Jung / Getty Images

Why Is Self-Reflection So Important?

When self-reflection becomes unhealthy, how to practice self-reflection, what to do if self-reflection makes you uncomfortable, incorporating self-reflection into your routine.

How well do you know yourself? Do you think about why you do the things you do? Self-reflection is a skill that can help you understand yourself better.

Self-reflection involves being present with yourself and intentionally focusing your attention inward to examine your thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations, says Angeleena Francis , LMHC, executive director for AMFM Healthcare.

Active self-reflection can help grow your understanding of who you are , what values you believe in, and why you think and act the way you do, says Kristin Wilson , MA, LPC, CCTP, RYT, chief experience officer for Newport Healthcare.

This article explores the benefits and importance of self-reflection, as well as some strategies to help you practice it and incorporate it into your daily life. We also discuss when self-reflection can become unhealthy and suggest some coping strategies.

Self-reflection is important because it helps you form a self-concept and contributes toward self-development.

Builds Your Self-Concept

Self-reflection is critical because it contributes to your self-concept, which is an important part of your identity.

Your self-concept includes your thoughts about your traits, abilities, beliefs, values, roles, and relationships. It plays an influential role in your mood, judgment, and behavioral patterns.

Reflecting inward allows you to know yourself and continue to get to know yourself as you change and develop as a person, says Francis. It helps you understand and strengthen your self-concept as you evolve with time.

Enables Self-Development

Self-reflection also plays a key role in self-development. “It is a required skill for personal growth ,” says Wilson.

Being able to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, or what you did right or wrong, can help you identify areas for growth and improvement, so you can work on them.

For instance, say you gave a presentation at school or work that didn’t go well, despite putting in a lot of work on the project. Spending a little time on self-reflection can help you understand that even though you spent a lot of time working on the project and creating the presentation materials, you didn’t practice giving the presentation. Realizing the problem can help you correct it. So, the next time you have to give a presentation, you can practice it on your colleagues or loved ones first.

Or, say you’ve just broken up with your partner. While it’s easy to blame them for everything that went wrong, self-reflection can help you understand what behaviors of yours contributed to the split. Being mindful of these behaviors can be helpful in other relationships.

Without self-reflection, you would continue to do what you’ve always done and as a result, you may continue to face the same problems you’ve always faced.

Benefits of Self-Reflection

These are some of the benefits of self-reflection, according to the experts:

• Increased self-awareness: Spending time in self-reflection can help build greater self-awareness , says Wilson. Self-awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence. It helps you recognize and understand your own emotions, as well as the impact of your emotions on your thoughts and behaviors.
• Greater sense of control: Self-reflection involves practicing mindfulness and being present with yourself at the moment. This can help you feel more grounded and in control of yourself, says Francis.
• Improved communication skills: Self-reflection can help you improve your communication skills, which can benefit your relationships. Understanding what you’re feeling can help you express yourself clearly, honestly, and empathetically.
• Deeper alignment with core values: Self-reflection can help you understand what you believe in and why. This can help ensure that your words and actions are more aligned with your core values, Wilson explains. It can also help reduce cognitive dissonance , which is the discomfort you may experience when your behavior doesn’t align with your values, says Francis.
• Better decision-making skills: Self-reflection can help you make better decisions for yourself, says Wilson. Understanding yourself better can help you evaluate all your options and how they will impact you with more clarity. This can help you make sound decisions that you’re more comfortable with, says Francis.
• Greater accountability: Self-reflection can help you hold yourself accountable to yourself, says Francis. It can help you evaluate your actions and recognize personal responsibility. It can also help you hold yourself accountable for the goals you’re working toward.

Self-reflection is a healthy practice that is important for mental well-being. However, it can become harmful if it turns into rumination, self-criticism, self-judgment, negative self-talk , and comparison to others, says Wilson.

Here’s what that could look like:

• Rumination: Experiencing excessive and repetitive stressful or negative thoughts. Rumination is often obsessive and interferes with other types of mental activity.
• Self-judgment: Constantly judging yourself and often finding yourself lacking. 
• Negative self-talk: Allowing the voice inside your head to discourage you from doing things you want to do. Negative self-talk is often self-defeating.
• Self-criticism: Constantly criticizing your actions and decisions.
• Comparison: Endlessly comparing yourself to others and feeling inferior.

Kristin Wilson, LPC, CCTP

Looking inward may activate your inner critic, but true self-reflection comes from a place of neutrality and non-judgment.

When anxious thoughts and feelings come up in self-reflection, Wilson says it’s important to practice self-compassion and redirect your focus to actionable insights that can propel your life forward. “We all have faults and room for improvement. Reflect on the behaviors or actions you want to change and take steps to do so.”

It can help to think of what you would say to a friend in a similar situation. For instance, if your friend said they were worried about the status of their job after they gave a presentation that didn’t go well, you would probably be kind to them, tell them not to worry, and to focus on improving their presentation skills in the future. Apply the same compassion to yourself and focus on what you can control.

If you are unable to calm your mind of racing or negative thoughts, Francis recommends seeking support from a trusted person in your life or a mental health professional. “Patterns of negative self-talk, self-doubt , or criticism should be addressed through professional support, as negative cognitions of oneself can lead to symptoms of depression if not resolved.”

Wilson suggests some strategies that can help you practice self-reflection:

• Ask yourself open-ended questions: Start off by asking yourself open-ended questions that will prompt self-reflection, such as: “Am I doing what makes me happy?” “Are there things I’d like to improve about myself?” or “What could I have done differently today?” “Am I taking anything or anyone for granted?” Notice what thoughts and feelings arise within you for each question and then begin to think about why. Be curious about yourself and be open to whatever comes up.
• Keep a journal: Journaling your thoughts and responses to these questions is an excellent vehicle for self-expression. It can be helpful to look back at your responses, read how you handled things in the past, assess the outcome, and look for where you might make changes in the future.
• Try meditation: Meditation can also be a powerful tool for self-reflection and personal growth. Even if it’s only for five minutes, practice sitting in silence and paying attention to what comes up for you. Notice which thoughts are fleeting and which come up more often.
• Process major events and emotions: When something happens in your life that makes you feel especially good or bad, take the time to reflect on what occurred, how it made you feel, and either how you can get to that feeling again or what you might do differently the next time. Writing down your thoughts in a journal can help.
• Make a self-reflection board: Create a self-reflection board of positive attributes that you add to regularly. Celebrate your authentic self and the ways you stay true to who you are. Having a visual representation of self-reflection can be motivating.

You may avoid self-reflection if it brings up difficult emotions and makes you feel uncomfortable, says Francis. She recommends preparing yourself to get comfortable with the uncomfortable before you start.

Think of your time in self-reflection as a safe space within yourself. “Avoid judging yourself while you explore your inner thoughts, feelings, and motives of behavior,” says Francis. Simply notice what comes up and accept it. Instead of focusing on fears, worries, or regrets, try to look for areas of growth and improvement.

“Practice neutrality and self-compassion so that self-reflection is a positive experience that you will want to do regularly,” says Wilson.

Francis suggests some strategies that can help you incorporate self-reflection into your daily routine:

• Dedicate time to it: it’s important to dedicate time to self-reflection and build it into your routine. Find a slot that works for your schedule—it could be five minutes each morning while drinking coffee or 30 minutes sitting outside in nature once per week.
• Pick a quiet spot: It can be hard to focus inward if your environment is busy or chaotic. Choose a calm and quiet space that is free of distractions so you can hear your own thoughts.
• Pay attention to your senses: Pay attention to your senses. Sensory input is an important component of self-awareness.

Nowak A, Vallacher RR, Bartkowski W, Olson L. Integration and expression: The complementary functions of self-reflection . J Pers . 2022;10.1111/jopy.12730. doi:10.1111/jopy.12730

American Psychological Association. Self-concept .

Dishon N, Oldmeadow JA, Critchley C, Kaufman J. The effect of trait self-awareness, self-reflection, and perceptions of choice meaningfulness on indicators of social identity within a decision-making context . Front Psychol . 2017;8:2034. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02034

Drigas AS, Papoutsi C. A new layered model on emotional intelligence . Behav Sci (Basel) . 2018;8(5):45. doi:10.3390/bs8050045

American Psychological Association. Rumination .

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

How to Write a Reflective Essay: Easy Guide with Pro Tips

Defining What is a Reflective Essay: Purpose + Importance

Being present is a cornerstone of mindfulness and meditation. You must have often heard that staying in the moment helps you appreciate your surroundings, connects you with people and nature, and allows you to feel whatever emotions you must feel without anxiety. While this is helpful advice as you become more focused and avoid getting lost in thought, how can you truly appreciate the present without reflecting on your past experiences that have led you to the current moment?

We don't say that you should dwell on the past and get carried away with a constant thought process, but hey, hear us out - practice reflective thinking! Think back on your previous life events, paint a true picture of history, and make connections to your present self. This requires you to get a bit analytical and creative. So you might as well document your critical reflection on a piece of paper and give direction to your personal observations. That's when the need for reflective essays steps in!

In a reflective essay, you open up about your thoughts and emotions to uncover your mindset, personality, traits of character, and background. Your reflective essay should include a description of the experience/literature piece as well as explanations of your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. In this article, our essay writer service will share our ultimate guide on how to write a reflective essay with a clear format and reflective essay examples that will inspire you.

How to Write a Reflective Essay with a Proper Reflective Essay Outline

To give you a clear idea of structuring a reflective essay template, we broke down the essential steps below. Primarily, the organization of a reflective essay is very similar to other types of papers. However, our custom writers got more specific with the reflective essay outline to ease your writing process.

Reflective Essay Introduction

When wondering how to start a reflective essay, it is no surprise that you should begin writing your paper with an introductory paragraph. So, what's new and different with the reflection essay introduction? Let's dissect:

• Open your intro with an attention-seizing hook that engages your audience into reflective thinking with you. It can be something like: 'As I was sitting on my bed with my notebook placed on my shaky lap waiting for the letter of acceptance, I could not help but reflect, was enrolling in college the path I wanted to take in the future?'
• Provide context with a quick overview of the reflective essay topic. Don't reveal too much information at the start to prevent your audience from becoming discouraged to continue reading.
• Make a claim with a strong reflective essay thesis statement. It should be a simple explanation of the essay's main point, in this example, a specific event that had a big impact on you.

Reflective Essay Body Paragraphs

The next step is to develop the body of your essay. This section of the paper may be the most challenging because it's simple to ramble and replicate yourself both in the outline and the actual writing. Planning the body properly requires a lot of time and work, and the following advice can assist you in doing this effectively:

• Consider using a sequential strategy. This entails reviewing everything you wish to discuss in the order it occurred. This method ensures that your work is structured and cohesive.
• Make sure the body paragraph is well-rounded and employs the right amount of analysis. The body should go into the effects of the event on your life and the insights you've gained as a consequence.
• Prioritize reflecting rather than summarizing your points. In addition to giving readers insight into your personal experience, a reflective stance will also show off your personality and demonstrate your ability to handle certain challenges.

Reflective Essay Conclusion

The goal of your reflective essay conclusion should be to tie everything together by summarizing the key ideas raised throughout, as well as the lessons you were able to take away from experience.

• Don't forget to include the reasons for and the methods used to improve your beliefs and actions. Think about how your personality and skills have changed as well.
• What conclusions can you draw about your behavior in particular circumstances? What could you do differently if the conditions were the same in the future?

Remember that your instructor will be searching for clear signs of reflection.

Understanding a Reflection Paper Format

The format of reflective essay greatly differs from an argumentative or research paper. A reflective essay is more of a well-structured story or a diary entry rife with insight and reflection. You might be required to arrange your essay using the APA style or the MLA format.

And the typical reflection paper length varies between 300 and 700 words, but ask your instructor about the word length if it was assigned to you. Even though this essay is about you, try to avoid too much informal language.

If your instructor asks you to use an APA or MLA style format for reflective essay, here are a few shortcuts:

Reflective Essay in MLA Format

• Times New Roman 12pt font double spaced;
• 1" margins;
• The top right includes the last name and page number on every page;
• Titles are centered;
• The header should include your name, your professor's name, course number, and the date (dd/mm/yy);
• The last page includes a Works Cited.

Reflective Essay in APA Style

• Include a page header on the top of every page;
• Insert page number on the right;
• Your reflective essay should be divided into four parts: Title Page, Abstract, Main Body, and References.

Reflective Essay Writing Tips

You may think we've armed you with enough tips and pointers for reflective writing, but it doesn't stop here. Below we gathered some expert-approved tips for constructing uncontested reflection papers.

• Be as detailed as possible while writing. To make your reflective essay writing come to life, you should employ several tactics such as symbolism, sentence patterns, etc.
• Keep your audience in mind. The reader will become frustrated if you continue writing in the first person without taking a moment to convey something more important, even though you will likely speak about something from your own perspective.
• Put forth the effort to allow the reader to feel the situation or emotion you are attempting to explain.
• Don't preach; demonstrate. Instead of just reporting what happened, use description appropriately to paint a clear picture of the event or sensation.
• Plan the wording and structure of your reflective essay around a central emotion or subject, such as joy, pleasure, fear, or grief.
• Avoid adding dull elements that can lessen the effect of your work. Why include it if it won't enhance the emotion or understanding you wish to convey?
• There must be a constant sense of progression. Consider whether the event has transformed you or others around you.
• Remember to double-check your grammar, syntax, and spelling.

Ready to Shine a Light on Your Innermost Thoughts?

Order your reflection essays now and let a wider audience hear your unique story

Reflective Essay Topic Ideas

As a reflective essay should be about your own views and experiences, you generally can't use someone else's ideas. But to help you get started, here are some suggestions for writing topics:

• An experience you will never forget.
• The moment you overcame a fear.
• The most difficult choice you had to make.
• A time your beliefs were challenged.
• A time something changed your life.
• The happiest or most frightening moment of your life so far.
• Ways you think you or people can make the world a better place.
• A time you felt lost.
• An introspective look at your choices or a time you made the wrong choice.
• A moment in your life you would like to relive.

You may find it convenient to create a chart or table to keep track of your ideas. Split your chart into three parts:

• In the first column, write key experiences or your main points. You can arrange them from most important to least important.
• In the second column, list your response to the points you stated in the first column.
• In the third column, write what, from your response, you would like to share in the essay.

Meanwhile, if you're about to enroll in your dream university and your mind is constantly occupied with - 'how to write my college admissions essay?', order an academic essay on our platform to free you of unnecessary anxiety.

Reflective Essay Sample

Referring to reflective essay examples can help you a lot. A reflective essay sample can provide you with useful insight into how your essay should look like. You can also buy an essay online if you need one customized to your specific requirements.

How to Conclude a Reflective Essay

As we come to an end, it's only logical to reflect on the main points discussed above in the article. By now, you should clearly understand what is a reflective essay and that the key to writing a reflective essay is demonstrating what lessons you have taken away from your experiences and why and how these lessons have shaped you. It should also have a clear reflective essay format, with an opening, development of ideas, and resolution.

Now that you have the tools to create a thorough and accurate reflective paper, you might want to hand over other tasks like writing definition essay examples to our experienced writers. In this case, feel free to buy an essay online on our platform and reflect on your past events without worrying about future assignments!

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A person’s self that is different from the rest. On occasions it is considered as an object of a person’s view.

Defining Self Reflection

A self reflection is often described as taking a step back to reflect on your life. To take a break and observe how far you have become, the obstacles you have gone through and how they have affected your life, behavior and belief.

Defining Self Reflection Essay

A self- reflection essay is a type of essay that makes you express the experiences you have gone through in life based on a topic you have chosen to write about. It is a personal type of essay that you write about.  It makes you reflect on your life and journey to who you are today. The struggles, the fears, the triumphs and the actions you have taken to arrive at your current situation.

Tips on Writing a Self Reflection Essay

When writing a self reflection essay, there are some guidelines and formats to follow. But I am here to give you some tips to write a very good self reflection essay. These tips are easy to follow and they are not as complicated as some might believe them to be. Let’s begin. To write a good self reflection essay, one must first do:

• Think : Think about what you want to write. This is true for the title of your essay as well. Thinking about what to write first can save you a lot of time. After this tip, we move on to the next one which is:
• Drafting : As much as it sounds like a waste of time and effort, drafting what you are preparing to write is helpful. Just like in the first tip, drafting is a good way of writing down what you want and to add or take out what you will be writing later.
• State the purpose : Why are you writing this essay? State the purpose of the essay . As this is a self reflective essay, your purpose is to reflect on your life, the actions you did to reach this point of your life. The things you did to achieve it as well.
• Know your audience : Your self reflection essay may also depend on your audience. If you are planning on reading out loud your essay, your essay should fit your audience. If your audience is your team members, use the correct wording.
• Share your tips: This essay gives you the opportunity to share how you have achieved in life. Write down some tips for those who want to be able to achieve the same opportunity you are in right now.

How long or short can my self reflection essay be?

This depends on you. You may write a short self reflection essay, and you may also write a long one. The important thing there is stating the purpose of you writing your essay.

Writing a self reflection essay, am I allowed to write everything about my life?

The purpose of the self reflection essay is to reflect on a topic you choose and to talk about it.

Is there a limit of words to write this type of essay?

Yes, as much as possible stick to 300-700 words. But even if it may be this short, don’t forget to get creative and true in your essay.

A self reflective essay is a type of essay that people write to reflect on their lives. To reflect on a certain topic of their life and talk about it. Most of the time, this type of essay is short because this is merely to take a step back and watch your life throughout the beginning till the present time. Writing this type of essay may be a bit difficult for some as you have to dive deep into your life and remember the triumphs and the loss. The beauty of this essay though is the fact that you are able to see how far you have reached, how far you have overcome.

Self Reflection Essay Generator

Text prompt

• Instructive
• Professional

Write a Self Reflection Essay on a time you overcame a personal obstacle.

Reflect on your personal growth over the last year in your Self Reflection Essay.