Self-Knowledge: Definition, Examples, & Benefits - The Berkeley Well-Being Institute

Self-Knowledge: Definition, Examples, & Benefits

By Kelsey Schultz, Ph.D. Candidate
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
Discover more on self-knowledge and the benefits of a thoroughly examined life. 
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How well do you know yourself? On the surface, this might seem like an absurd question. We spend all day every day being ourselves and accumulate decades' worth of observations of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to inform our self-concepts. How then is it possible that so many of us sometimes feel like strangers to ourselves?​​
​Research suggests that self-knowledge, or how well we understand ourselves, is actually much more challenging to achieve than we might guess (Wilson & Dunn, 2004). Social pressures and psychological defense mechanisms can skew our perception of ourselves and lead to a mismatch between how we see ourselves and who we really are. Luckily, with time, effort, and a willingness to accept our flaws, we can get to know our true selves. Let’s talk more about what self-knowledge is and how we might benefit from it.

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What Is Self-Knowledge? (A Definition)

Self-knowledge can be defined as possessing accurate information about yourself (Morin & Racy, 2021), including information about your
That is, our self-concepts (what we believe about our goals, preferences, motivations, etc.) might not always align with how we actually behave. For example, I might believe that I am a dedicated and driven student yet fail to complete assignments and study for tests. This would be an example of possessing inaccurate information about myself or lacking self-knowledge in this domain. On the other hand, if I believe that I am generous and compassionate and I consistently volunteer my time to help others, my self-image and behavior align, meaning I am not lacking in self-knowledge in this domain.
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Self-knowledge comes from a variety of sources such as our own experience of ourselves, other people’s experiences of us, and the consequences of the ways in which we relate to the world (Higgins, 1996). Because we are not always aware of our behaviors and are often inclined to ignore information about ourselves that contradicts the self-image we hold, it is important to seek evidence from external sources (Wilson & Dunn, 2004).

Why Self-Knowledge Is Important

Self-knowledge is essential for living an authentic and meaningful life. After all, how can you be authentically yourself if you don’t know who that is?

Cultivating self-knowledge helps us gain clarity on who we are and how we can live our best lives. That is when you attain a comprehensive and accurate representation of your true self, you are better able to make decisions that serve your goals and desires and avoid experiences that diminish your ability to flourish. For example, self-knowledge facilitates selecting compatible friends or intimate partners, choosing education or career opportunities that fit your preferences, goals, and abilities, and identifying the optimal place to live (Morin & Racy, 2021).  

Having true self-knowledge also allows us to recognize our strengths and weaknesses, which provides an opportunity for us to leverage our strengths and improve our weaknesses (Higgins, 1996).

Video: Self-Awareness & Self-Knowledge

Benefits of Self-Knowledge

In addition to facilitating a rich, meaningful life, self-knowledge provides many other benefits. These benefits include:
  • Increased ability to recognize and understand our feelings
  • Improved ability to predict future feelings, behaviors, and preferences
  • Improved relationships with others
  • Greater satisfaction with life
  • Increased well-being
  • Greater self-acceptance
  • Improved emotion regulation

Examples of Self-Knowledge

Below are a few examples of self-knowledge in action. 
  • You decide to stay home from a party because you’re tired and you know you wont be able to fully enjoy it.
  • You choose a career in medicine because you know it aligns with your core values.
  • You adopt a dog because you know being a caregiver makes your life feel more meaningful.
  • You decide to end a relationship because you know your needs are not being met.
  • You prepare your dinners for the week in advance because you know you will be too tired to cook in the evenings.
  • You set aside time to exercise because you know it makes you feel better.
  • You turn down a job in another state because you know being near family is important to you.

What Contributes to Self-Knowledge?

Self-knowledge necessarily arises from both internal and external sources. That is, we gain self-knowledge through reflection and introspection as well as through feedback from others. Reflection and introspection can help us learn about many aspects of ourselves, but it is a limited method of gaining self-knowledge for several reasons including willful suppression, unconscious repression, and inaccessibility of information (Wilson & Dunn, 2004). Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Self-Knowledge Block: Willful Suppression​
One common reason for lacking accurate knowledge about certain aspects of ourselves is simply not wanting to accept that information. In other words, we are often motivated to keep some thoughts out of our minds because they are unpleasant, anxiety-provoking, or conflict with our existing self-image.

Self-Knowledge Block: Repression
Repression is similar to suppression but does not include a deliberate, conscious effort to suppress certain thoughts. Rather, repression is commonly a nonconscious defense mechanism whereby distressing, often traumatic, information is blocked from consciousness. Even when successfully blocked from consciousness, these distressing thoughts still linger in the mind and can influence behaviors and emotions.

Self-Knowledge Block: Inaccessibility of Information
Our brains process an enormous amount of information at all times and only a limited amount of this information makes it into conscious awareness. For example, right now the presence of clothing is activating touch receptors in your skin, which are sending messages to your brain indicating that you have clothes on. However, to save on conscious processing power, this information is typically tuned out by the brain because it isn’t useful. Just imagine how frustrating constant conscious awareness of the feeling of your shirt on your back would be.

As we move through the day, our feelings and behaviors are influenced by sensory stimuli of which we are not consciously aware. These influences sometimes lead to thoughts and behaviors that we can’t accurately explain. For example, one study demonstrated this by having research participants hold a therapeutic pad that was either hot or cold. They were then offered a reward and asked if they wanted to keep the reward or share it with a friend. People who held a warm pad were more likely to opt to share their reward than people who held a cold pad (Williams & Bargh, 2008). If asked why they made the decision they made, they would likely provide reasons that were unrelated to the experimental manipulation. Put differently, the sensation of warmth or cold influenced their decision without their conscious awareness. 

Self-Knowledge Vs. Self-Awareness

Self-knowledge and self-awareness are related terms but are not synonymous. Self-awareness is defined as the ability to become the object of your own attention and includes identifying, processing, storing, and recalling information that is specific to yourself and your experiences (Morin & Racy, 2021). Put more simply, self-awareness can be thought of as your ability to reflect or introspect.
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Self-awareness is the basis for self-knowledge. The two concepts differ in that self-knowledge implies an accuracy to your perceptions of yourself. For example, if I consider myself to be an extrovert but feel immediately overwhelmed by the presence of others, I would be expressing self-awareness, but not self-knowledge.

Tips on Developing Self-Knowledge

Developing self-knowledge may not be as simple as we might hope, but there are a few strategies we can employ to get to know ourselves better.

Introspection
Taking time to reflect on our inner world of thoughts, feelings, and desires is an important part of developing self-knowledge.

Behavior Tracking
Tracking our habits and behaviors, such as our habits or progress toward our goals, can help us view our behaviors objectively which is useful for identifying whether our beliefs about our behaviors align with what we actually do. Additionally, because behaviors can be driven by nonconscious processes that are not immediately accessible to conscious awareness, it is helpful to track our behaviors in order to identify patterns that we might want to change.  

Journaling
Writing out your thoughts and feelings is a great way to improve self-knowledge. Daily journaling can help us organize our thoughts, engage in self-analysis, and gain a greater understanding of our motivations. Journaling can also help us identify recurring patterns of behavior that may or may not be aligned with our goals and values.

Ask for feedback
As mentioned previously, external sources of information are critical for the development of self-knowledge. We can gain greater insight into what we are like when we are with others by asking trusted friends and mentors for their perspectives on our personalities and other personal characteristics.

Quotes on Self-Knowledge

  • “Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; these three alone lead life to sovereign power.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • “There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.” – L.M. Montgomery
  • “Self-knowledge is better than self-control any day," Raquel said firmly. "And I know myself well enough to know how I act around cookies.” – Claudia Gray
  • “I found power in accepting the truth of who I am. It may not be a truth that others can accept, but I cannot live any other way. How would it be to live a lie every minute of your life.” – Alison Goodman
  • “Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.” – G.I. Gurdjieff
  • “It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.” – Francis Bacon
  • “A lot of the conflict you have in your life exists simply because you're not living in alignment; you're not be being true to yourself.” – Steve Maraboli
  • “[I]t doesn’t matter whom you love or where you move from or to, you always take yourself with you. If you don’t know who you are, or if you’ve forgotten or misplaced her, then you’ll always feel as if you don’t belong. Anywhere.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach
  • “I call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.” – Hermann Hesse
  • “When we allow ourselves to show some patience and take time to listen to the others, we may learn a lot about ourselves. Patience does not endure instant gratification, though, and self-knowledge may take a lifetime.” – Erik Pevernagie
  • “The greatest challenge in life is to be our own person and accept that being different is a blessing and not a curse. A person who knows who they are lives a simple life by eliminating from their orbit anything that does not align with his or her overriding purpose and values. A person must be selective with their time and energy because both elements of life are limited.” – Kilroy J. Oldster
  • “To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.” – Bruce Lee
  • “We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. But we cannot just walk into the cavern and look around. Most of what we think we know about our minds is pseudo-knowledge. We are all such shocking poseurs, so good at inflating the importance of what we think we value.” – Iris Murdoch
  • “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates​

Articles Related to Self-Knowledge

​Want to learn more? Check out these articles:

Books Related to Self-Knowledge​

If you’d like to keep learning more, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is not quite as easy to come by as we might expect. Developing self-knowledge requires effort, intention, and a willingness to accept our flaws, but it is worth the effort. With greater self-knowledge comes greater satisfaction with our lives. For more on self-knowledge, check out this video from the NYUAD Institute:

Video: Virtues of Self Knowledge

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