Self-Awareness

“Self Awareness” by Instant Vantage is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Self-awareness is the conscious recognition and understanding of one’s own thoughts, emotions, behaviours, and their underlying patterns, often serving as the foundation for personal growth and therapeutic interventions like Awareness Integration Theory. awarenessintegration

Psychological Foundations

In psychology, self-awareness arises from metacognition, which is the process of thinking about one’s thinking. A process helps us think about and in so doing, integrate sensory, emotional, and cognitive inputs to form a coherent self-concept. Theories like Duval and Wicklund’s objective self-awareness model describe it as a state triggered by self-focused attention, leading to discrepancy detection between actual and ideal selves. Within Awareness Integration Theory, it involves linking past traumas to current perceptions, enabling neutral or positive mindset shifts. sciencedirect

Self-Awareness is developed through a number of related self-processes, such as self-exploration, self-introspection, mindfulness and empathic thinking. Information gathered by using these processes is used to increase and enhance our understanding of ourselves, others and the wider environment. These processes can be regarded as circular, cyclical and regularly retrospective, as fresh understandings inform past decisions through a process often termed self-reflection.

Psychologists tend to agree, that the more an individual if self-aware, the more confident they will be, in negotiating life’s hurdles and challenges. This is because the self-knowledge that they possess, provides them with built-in reasons for self-esteem, which provides them with resilient ways of coping adaptively to those challenges, allowing for less rigid, less incongruent, life-rules and self-understandings. Psychologists also agree that self-awareness is a driver of authenticity, wholeness and self-actualisation

Key Components

Internal awareness: Monitoring inner states, such as bodily sensations and emotions, to identify habitual reactions. sciencedirect

External awareness: Perceiving how one’s actions impact social contexts and relationships. journals.plos

Temporal awareness: Connecting present behaviours to past events and future goals for integrated change. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih

Internal awareness

Internal awareness, within Awareness Integration Theory (AIT) and broader psychology, refers to the conscious monitoring of internal states, including bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, and physiological responses in order to uncover habitual patterns rooted in past experiences. awarenessintegration

Key Elements

Somatic tracking: Noticing physical signals like tension or heart rate changes linked to emotional triggers, drawing from interoceptive awareness models. sciencedirect

Emotional identification: Labelling feelings without judgment to trace them to core beliefs, such as “I am unworthy,” formed in childhood.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih+1

Cognitive reflection: Observing recurring thought loops and their behavioural outcomes, fostering metacognitive shifts for integration. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih+1

Development Techniques

AIT builds internal awareness through Phase 1 exercises, like guided questioning (“What sensation arises when recalling this event?”), to neutralize trauma-stored patterns in the body-mind. Practices from mindfulness-based therapies, such as body scans, enhance this by increasing neural connectivity between the insula and prefrontal cortex. Regular journaling of internal cues promotes resilience, reducing anxiety by integrating fragmented self-parts. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

The Conscious and Unconscious Layers

Internal awareness in Awareness Integration Theory (AIT) encompasses both conscious and unconscious layers, where conscious monitoring reveals surface-level thoughts and emotions, while unconscious elements, which are stored as implicit body-mind patterns from traumas can emerge through targeted integration to achieve wholeness. awarenessintegration

Conscious Awareness

Conscious internal awareness involves deliberate attention to immediate sensations, emotions, and thoughts, this has a parallel to metacognition in Duval and Wicklund’s model, allowing real-time pattern recognition and discrepancy correction between ideal and actual selves.

In AIT’s Phase 1, for example, probing questions are used to bring these patterns to the surface, for verbal acknowledgment and perceptual understandings to be applied. This builds ownership and regulation that can overcome compulsive and impulsive reactive habits of thinking and behaving. This loss of rigidity, allows the individual to better live in-the-moment, and follow their own flow. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

Unconscious Awareness

Unconscious internal awareness targets non-verbal, somatic imprints (e.g., fight-flight residues) inaccessible to everyday consciousness, drawing from Jungian integration of shadow elements and Freudian repressed drives processed via body-oriented techniques. AIT neutralizes these in Phases 3-4 by linking core beliefs to originating events, transforming survival patterns into adaptive responses without verbal rumination. sciencedirect

The Subconscious Layer

The subconscious layer is often viewed as an intermediary between conscious accessibility and deep unconscious repression and undiscovered aspects of ones self.

Awareness Integration Theory (AIT) sees this as part of unconscious internal awareness, where implicit habits, emotions, and somatic imprints operate below full volition (visibility to the awareness), but serve to influence behaviour through repeated neural patterns and symbols. sciencedirect

The Phenomenological View

In phenomenology, particularly Husserl’s genetic phenomenology and Merleau-Ponty’s embodied extensions, the subconscious layer aligns with pre-reflective, pre-objective dimensions of consciousness rather than a central “point” for self-exploration, emphasizing instead the body’s syncretic, pre-noetic synthesis of sensory-motor patterns that implicitly reveal innate dispositions. plato.stanford

Diagram showing phenomenological aspects of the mind mapped to the three layer model on consciousness.

Adding the sub-conscious “container” Phenomenology

A problem with the phenomenal understanding of the mind, is that, for some reason, the role of those processes that are bridging between the rational, conscious layer and the mainly symbolic unconscious layer, are not identified clearly, as bridging, subconscious processes, and the conceptual understanding has been bogged down in debate as to exactly where those processes reside.

Simplification Mechanism

Without adding this extra layer, as a holding container for all of these processes that link our conscious layer rational of logical thinking to our unconscious layer of abstract and symbolic, imaginative unconscious layer, the process of thinking and interacting between those areas becomes complex and tedious. It requires conscious tracking of fragmented elements in an attempt to marry these two desperate layers together.

The need to focus on differing aspects of the collection; brain-centric active memory, body-wide visceral engrams, long-term primal impressions, etc., becomes confusing, overcomplicating the process of accessing those function without exhaustive focal attention on each (e.g., separately visualizing HR cues, proprioception, protention). The subconscious aggregates these as list-server mediation: symbolic dialogue (your interface) queries the whole body schema holistically, loading relevant caches on-demand through pre-reflective horizons, mirroring HRV biofeedback efficiency.

HR refers to heart rate (beats per minute), with HRV (heart rate variability) measuring beat-to-beat fluctuations, these are key metrics in biofeedback for subconscious autonomic control.

Proprioception is the pre-reflective sense of body position/movement via muscle spindles, joint receptors, these are integrated in Merleau-Ponty’s body schema as kinaesthetic horizon enabling “I can” grip without focal awareness.

Protention (Husserl) is anticipatory awareness projecting future within the living present this is a subconscious forward-cache pulling from retention (past) and primal impression (now), synthesizing temporal flow for proactive interfacing.

Phenomenal Field Benefits

This container aligns Rogers’ phenomenal field with phenomenology: subconscious is seen as a dynamic overlap which streamlines self-exploration, reducing cognitive load from “part-by-part” (via many calculations), to “gestalt grip” (the body’s optimal, pre-reflective attunement to its environment); therapists visualize one layer for interventions, allowing for the reclamation of unconscious shadow potentials via a unified symbolic interface, for access, rather than a dissected reconstruction.

Phenomenological View of Subconscious

Traditional phenomenologists like Husserl distinguish passive hyletic layers (pre-reflective sensations and drives) from active egoic constitution (learnt behaviours, usually help in the conscious awareness), where subconscious processes operate as non-representational “fungierende Intentionalität” in Merleau-Ponty; motor-intentional habits blending into a tacit bodily schema without explicit symbolization (conscious command or act). Self-exploration is said to unfold, unfold through epoché (genetic-based authenticity), and phenomenological reduction: bracketing naturalistic assumptions to uncover these layers’ natural temporal flow, not as a discrete subconscious “point” but as horizon of lived experience (Lebenswelt). frontiersin

Genetic Traits and Syncretic Patterns

Genetic traits or abilities may appear symbolized via syncretic pattern recognition in the phenomenal field. This has been linked to a phenomena Jung called synchronicity. This was described by Merleau-Ponty as perceptual synthesis, which fuses kinesthetic anticipations with environmental affordances. This also echo’s Heidegger’s “ready-to-hand” (Zuhandenheit) understanding, where innate potentials emerge in pre-reflective coping (reflexes, and learnt coping behaviours, and habits).

However, phenomenology resists causal genetic determinism; the idea that our inherited genetic responses always takes priority, and instead places priority on first-person experienced based decisions, rather than purely biology, they argue that exploration develops through eidetic variation Intuitive symbol and resonance matching with the child’s perceived environment), revealing essences of self-concept linking to, without reducing to innate traits. This contrasts psychoanalytic subconscious reification, by focusing on development and growth as an ongoing internal dialogue, largely unexpressed to the conscious mind, yet still, guided by that mind by its responses and self-judgements. studia.reviste.ubbcluj

pre-reflective coping encompasses both deep genetic-based reflexes (visceral/passive syntheses) and automated egoic thought patterns (habitual body schema), occurring as originary, pre-decisional enactments within the subconscious horizon before thematic deliberation.

External awareness

External self-awareness in established psychology refers to understanding how one’s behaviours, emotions, and presence impact others and are perceived by them; “seeing oneself through others’ eyes” to calibrate social impact, distinct from internal self-awareness (personal emotions/values). Tasha Eurich’s research (2018) defines it as a core self-awareness dimension enabling empathy, relationship quality, and leadership via external feedback integration. jodymichael

Key Psychological Frameworks

Eurich’s Dual Self-Awareness Model: Internal (self-knowledge) + external (others’ view); high external awareness correlates with better team dynamics; low performers overestimate self-view without feedback. Measured via 360° assessments showing leaders with external insight adjust communication effectively. ahead-app

Developmental Psychology (Theory of Mind/Inter-subjectivity): Emerges ~9-12 months via joint attention/social referencing—infants track caregiver gaze/reactions, building awareness of others’ mental states/perspectives. Trevarthen’s primary intersubjectivity (neonatal mimicry) bootstraps external calibration before language. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih

Social Psychology (Objective Self-Awareness Theory, Duval & Wicklund 1972): External stimuli (mirrors, audiences) shift focus from private subjectivity to public evaluation, prompting discrepancy reduction against social standards—e.g., performance anxiety drives conformity. journals.sagepub

Social sensory inputs

External self-awareness draws primarily from social sensory inputs, these include visual cues (facial expressions, gaze direction), auditory feedback (tone, verbal responses), and multimodal social signals (body language, proximity). This enables perspective-taking via observable relational data rather than introspection. jodymichael

Sensory Channels in Established Models

Eurich’s Framework: External awareness calibrates via 360° feedback (others’ verbal/nonverbal reactions), prioritizing observable impact metrics—visual/auditory cues from interactions score “how I’m seen” (e.g., leader notes team disengagement via slumped postures). insideoutmastery

Developmental/Inter-subjectivity: Infants leverage sensory triad:

Visual: Cues from optical inputs
Auditory: Inputs that are heard.
Tactile/Proximal: Physical attunement (Body language, rocking sync, touch responses). thechildpsychologyservice

Distributed Processing Hubs

External self-awareness sensory inputs follow established bottom-up perceptual pathways of the raw sensory data being combined an interpreted, then sent to conscious and unconscious processes for action. These hubs use top-down social modulation, environmental and current, in-context understandings in order to best determine how to integrate the data and highlight patterns.

The awareness, therefore, can be seen as sitting in the middle in the middle, with psychical senses providing bottom-up, “raw” data inputs, and the metacognition providing higher level, informed viewpoints, that allow patterns from the senses to be matched with appropriate responses and perceptions which best match the context of the moment.

Distributed model

Thus we can see that these hubs each have access to, and are part of the pool of features in our master container for those mental structures; Conscious mind, Subconscious mind, and the unconscious mind.

These hubs are intelligent, and are also be informed by those higher processes, in order to be able to choose what information to filter, or highlight for matching. This that they are also able to “flag”, matched patterns back to it, outside and inside our conscious awareness. The awareness might see a pattern to think about, the body may see a pattern to do something about, reflexively, and independent of conscious control.

Distributed Symbolic Interface with Overlays

Our concept of the Human Symbolic Interface agrees with this concept of distributed processing, and identifies these hubs as the location where patterns and symbols are matched locally, and visual, auditory, and other sensory overlays can be placed into the stream of information that is flowing into that conscious awareness. pinpointing these as locations for hallucinatory inputs as part of the symbolic interface.

Subconscious in AIT Framework

In AIT, the subconscious manifests as semi-automatic responses tied to early core beliefs (e.g., survival-driven thought loops), elevated to conscious scrutiny via Phase initial questioning to dismantle them without rumination. It bridges conscious reflection and unconscious trauma storage, enabling integration by processing body-emotion cues that habitual actions reveal, aligning with broader psychology’s view of the subconscious as a repository for accessible memories and intuitions. frontiersin

Visibility and Access

This layer becomes “seen” through somatic tracking and introspection, as AIT techniques bring subconscious patterns (e.g., anxiety triggers) into awareness for neutralization, fostering self-efficacy. Unlike fully unconscious drives, subconscious elements respond to deliberate practices like mindfulness, mirroring Rogers’ organismic valuing where semi-conscious potentials reconnect for congruence. Empirical support shows such integration reduces depression by accessing these layers. journals.plos

Metacognitive Integration Process

Bridging both the conscious and unconscious is performed via a process of metacognitive integration. Mindfulness allows conscious tracking to uncover pre-thought based cues, revealing unconscious blockages or incongruences for reframing and release. This fosters a unified self-awareness that aligns with humanistic self-actualization. This mirrors Rogers’ congruence, where organismic flow reconnects fragmented unconscious potentials. journals.plos

Self-Awareness

Published by Barra on 30 November 2025

Self-Awareness

Psychological Foundations

Key Components

Internal awareness

Key Elements

Development Techniques

The Conscious and Unconscious Layers

Conscious Awareness

Unconscious Awareness

The Subconscious Layer

The Phenomenological View

Adding the sub-conscious “container” Phenomenology

Simplification Mechanism

Phenomenal Field Benefits

Phenomenological View of Subconscious

Genetic Traits and Syncretic Patterns

External awareness

Key Psychological Frameworks

Social sensory inputs

Sensory Channels in Established Models

Distributed Processing Hubs

Distributed model

Distributed Symbolic Interface with Overlays

Subconscious in AIT Framework

Visibility and Access

Metacognitive Integration Process

Further Reading

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Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Phenomenological Theory of Personality and Behaviour

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Self-Awareness

Published by Barra on 30 November 2025

Self-Awareness

Psychological Foundations

Key Components

Internal awareness

Key Elements

Development Techniques

The Conscious and Unconscious Layers

Conscious Awareness

Unconscious Awareness

​The Subconscious Layer

The Phenomenological View

Adding the sub-conscious “container” Phenomenology

Simplification Mechanism

Phenomenal Field Benefits

Phenomenological View of Subconscious

Genetic Traits and Syncretic Patterns

External awareness

Key Psychological Frameworks

Social sensory inputs

Sensory Channels in Established Models

Distributed Processing Hubs

Distributed model

Distributed Symbolic Interface with Overlays

​Subconscious in AIT Framework

Visibility and Access

Metacognitive Integration Process

Further Reading

0 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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