Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Media Psychologist, and Author
Memoir Writing, Blogging, and Ghostwriting​
Weekly Doses of Pop-up Psych
We all make cringey mistakes and deserve to move on, rather than feel confused or regretful after an icky social situation. Each week, I will dissect a murky social, life cycle, or pop culture topic to help you understand, learn, and move on. As a former academic, I am a super-picky consumer of research (and you should be too) as well as the content I create and share, so those new solutions, data and/or additional resources have certainly met my approval.
The Gift of Feedback That Teaches Us What We Didn’t Know About Ourselves
You heard “I always knew you could do it” when you scored that big accomplishment. The journey was bumpy, scary, and at times, you didn’t know if you were going to actually see the finish line. However, when you crossed that finish line with ease, nobody seemed surprised. Like they knew something that you hadn’t yet realized about yourself, uncovering a Blind Spot. How did they know you could do it, when you doubted yourself?
Open Area
Other people would describe how you would describe yourself. Which aspects about you are obvious to everyone?
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Blind Spot
This is what other people know about you, but you have not realized for yourself. What type of feedback do people seem to give you that is surprising? For instance, many years ago I was told that I could be intimidating, which was a shock and uncovered a true blind spot for me.
Hidden Area
You know this part of you, but others do not. Who are you when nobody is watching?
Unknown
These are parts of you that have yet to be discovered, by you and other people. When we evolve, level up, and move into new spaces these parts come out.
Although feedback is a gift, it can be very humbling, even if it’s delivered from a place of love, rather than malice. The goal is to learn about ourselves to be the best we can be, so getting feedback from others to learn what we don’t know about ourselves is valuable. The 360 degree feedback models are beneficial because we get to learn from multiple perspectives. For instance, a teacher would be rated by students, parents, the principal or department head, paraprofessionals, as well as rating themself.
The Johari Window
In my academic days, I loved theoretical models that were simple (minimal psychobabble) and applicable. The Johari Window is a model for feedback created in 1955 by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram for a Group Dynamics course at the University of California. The goal was for students to increase their self-awareness for communicating with others (the precursor to Emotional and Social Intelligence, which I’ll write about in more depth). When I learned about it as a student at Temple University, it really stuck because it was simple and comprehensive. My grad students at Saint Joseph’s University embraced it for the same reason.
Hi Beautiful Readers and thank you for reading this! I'm Dr. Joanne Broder, Media Psychologist, Author, and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Please consider me to help you write your memoir, blogs, speeches, e-books, as well as coach you on your dissertation or thesis. Click here so we can connect!