Recently the study on self-reflection has been activated greatly, which can be justified by the humans’ need to determine their place in this rapidly changing world, which is impossible without understanding oneself. Starting from the “early adolescence” people keep self-reflecting for their entire life (Honess, 1987, p. 150), which helps them to make decisions and live through significant changes in their life.
The essence of self-reflection is the ability of “the direct consideration of the self as an object” (Honess, 1987, p. 150). So we put oneself on the pedestal and consider oneself from different angles; we contemplate about our thoughts, deeds, emotions, feelings, etc. It is significant that, as Wilson et al. suggest, self-reflection can make people imply a different attitude than they previously held” (1990, p.45). This peculiarity makes self-reflection very demonstrative and, thus effective, since we clearly understand the reasons of our actions or emotions and can control them next time on similar occasion, for instance, we may try to avoid expressing some feeling, if we regard it as inappropriate; and, which is even more important, we find the real background of our feelings, thus, we are able to analyze it. All this helps people to be a part of society, without hurting someone and being heart as well. I can confirm that by thousands of my personal experiences and experiences of people I know, for so many times I was contemplating on why this or that saying made me angry or said: I sat and tried to find the reason, and, as mentioned above, I really found different reasons. First I thought that it was it, I analyzed it and made conclusions on how to overcome my difficulties, and I found the way, but the next time I acted as I thought to be right and still experienced negative feelings. So it meant only one thing – I found the wrong reason. Then I started the process once again, and, finally, always found the right reasons for my negative feelings. It is necessary to add that I often changed my mind even within a single self-reflection act. I put questions and found answers, I even argued with myself, and that brought its positive results.
Another very important psychological issue within the theory of self-reflection is self-concept. Theoretical research in this field is not so variable, as Suls puts it, because of its high practical application (1993, p. 59). And this is true, for self-concept research is widely used in many sciences and it is especially widespread in education, for “positive academic self-concept affects academic behaviors, academic choices, educational aspirations, and subsequent academic achievement” (Suls, 1993, p. 59). Thus, self-concept is very helpful for students, who need to decide what they are best at, and it helps to make one’s decision which can affect not only the future of this particular student, but the future of the whole humanity, which can either obtain or lose a genius. For me, for example, self-concept can be very helpful. Using this methodology I can define not only my inner (very rich and bright) world, but also it can help me to define my skills and my bents, which I can even accidentally miss while merely reflecting or thinking about my future expectations. Apart from helping to choose one’s future profession, for instance, self concept can also reveal one’s likings and abilities, in order to develop oneself to become a complete personality. Thus, this facet of self-reflection helps to form one’s future rather than make order in one’s past, or simply make order in oneself.
At present a lot of websites offer their help in finding oneself and especially in choosing future education. And it is very important to differentiate the necessary source of learning with fair and adequate information in this variety. The best variant for this purpose can be scholarly websites, but it is necessary to admit that not all of them can be appropriate. I have chosen three scholarly websites to consider the differences and similarities of these sources, their merits and demerits. My first example will be the website of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological [email protected]) which “represents psychology in the United States” (“About APA”, n. d.). It is necessary to point out that this site is very informative, even comprehensive, for those who are interested in psychology, eager to gain education in this field, want to start or develop their career as psychologists. And all this information is organized in such a way that there is no possibility to get lost there: the main links are revealed in the home page, so it is very easy to read the necessary information. It is significant that there I found a lot of information on the possible education in psychology, and then, of course, I passed to the link Career, which made me quite satisfied, for there one can, on the one hand, read about different opportunities in career and self-development (articles, news, events announcements), and, on the other hand, one can search a job or even post his/her resume. Moreover, this site has a very useful section Publications, where one can find numerous interesting books, articles, publications, etc. on psychology. It is also necessary to underline that the origin of all the publications can be easily traced, since even if the author of the article is not mentioned, there is a link with information about the source where it was taken, like in case with publication Managing Your Stress in Tough Economic Times, where it is pointed out that the material is written in cooperation with Nancy Molitor, PhD. So a person who has an aim to connect his/her life with psychology will find all the necessary information on this site. But apart from this the site contains a lot of material in psychology which can help anyone, for example, there are materials on different everyday issues, such as: Learning and Memory, Kids & Media, Personality, Stress, Teens, and many others. And here I found a lot of interesting stuff for myself, which can be very helpful in my everyday life, and even in my self-reflection. So this site can be regarded as a very good example of a successful and really helpful scholarly website, which can be interesting not only to those who want to connect his life with psychology, but also for the many other people, and thus, it can awake interest to its subject in people who were quite far from that.
Another scholarly website to be considered is Advancing Science, Serving [email protected]. This site is dedicated to the issues of scientific world. My main impression after surfing this site is its specific orientation. I don’t mean that only scientist can understand what is revealed there, but, to my mind, it will be interesting only for people connected with science. There is also a lot of information about educational possibilities and career development. The site provides links with different educational establishments with information about different programs, etc. And as far as the career development is concerned this site presents a link, which leads you to a separate site with comprehensive information on where to find a job, how to do it, and how to develop oneself and your career. And as for the veracity of information revealed on this site I must say it is absolutely traceable, and its sources are more than respectful. But on the whole, this site is still quite specific, and average person, with no connection to science, can only once visit it, find some general information for improvement of his/her general knowledge in publications or news, and have nothing to use in life. So this site can be considered to be a very good scholarly website for scientifically oriented people.
And one more scholarly website to be studied is that of the American Psychoanalytic Association (American Psychoanalytic [email protected] ). First of all, I’d like to point out that it is organized in a proper way, all the bulk of information is divided into logical section, thus, it is very easy to surf it. On the whole, I must say it is a very good scholarly website, which is more oriented on the education, rather than career development, and obtaining professional services. Thus here, in the section Training, I found information, even links to educational establishments’ sites, which is very convenient for those looking for study opportunities, moreover, this highlights numerous programs, researches and initiatives. And the site also reveals contact information of specialists all over the United States. The site provides a lot of publications on psychoanalytical topics. And there is also an interesting section About Psychoanalysis which can be very interesting in terms of overall knowledge, and to some extent, this information can inspire a person to know more about psychoanalysis. And it is also important to mention that the sources of the material are very transparent and competent.
So these three scholarly websites reveal comprehensive information on their topics. All of them are organized properly, and provide really up-to-date and truthful materials, compiled by the specialists. So on the whole they are quite similar and appropriate, but, to my mind, the one of American Psychological Association will be helpful not only in finding the necessary information on the educational establishment or work place, but it helps to find oneself. Two others sites are good for those who already decided everything and already knows oneself perfectly, but APA site moves further. It makes hints to those who is not quite sure, who only try to understand themselves. For example, I read one of the articles, Change Your Mind About Mental Health, which made me think on my own life and myself. I began self-reflecting, trying to find out whether I had those problems, discussed in the article. It turned out I haven’t none of them, and actually surfing this site made me feel like having more information on psychology. I looked deeply into myself and it occurred to me that I am quite interested in this subject. First of all, it really helps people to cope with their problems, for it is the topic of psychological study. And I understood that this science is very important and we should appeal to it. For example, one can think that the problem he faced is unsolved, for no one every couldn’t even think about it, and a bit later when this person visits a specialist it turns out to be an average case, with easy salvation. Or sometimes it is even possible to find a very good way out some situation simply visiting such great site as APA scholarly website.
In conclusion I would like to add to the above said some more words about self-reflection. My firm belief is that it is very helpful, for when you understand yourself you can understand people around and make those people better understand you. It is also essential to be honest with oneself and during self-reflection it is necessary to reveal every point of your own mind, without shame or sometimes even disgust. We must admit some negative facets of our nature, in order to remove them. Thus, I think that there can be no self-improvement without self-reflection, for first we find something and only then improve it. But I’d like to add (just now this idea flashed across my mind) that there can be no self-reflection without self-improvement, for when a person finds something negative inside, it is impossible to leave it there, people’s nature presupposes thirst for perfection, that is improvement, so there is nothing to do but improve oneself.
References
Honess, T. & Yardley, K. (Eds.). (1987). Self and Identity: Perspectives across the Lifespan. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Suls, J. (Ed.). (1993). Psychological Perspectives on the Self (Vol. 4). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wilson, T. D. (1990). 3 Self-Persuasion Via Self Reflection. In Self-Inference Processes, Olson, J. M. & Zanna, M. P. (Eds.) (pp. 43-62). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.