WHO am I? It is a simple yet profound question, long considered worth grappling with on the basis that self-knowledge is good. Take personality, for instance. Intuitively at least, it makes sense to think that if you know your personality, you will make wiser life decisions, have better relationships and ultimately enjoy greater well-being.
That may be true, but studying how accurately we perceive our personality, the subject of our cover story Self-knowledge: How to know your true personality and why it matters, is fraught with difficulties. The fact is there is no objective perspective on your personality in the same way there is if you are studying, say, subatomic particles.
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Add psychology鈥檚 shaky reputation when it comes to its findings holding up to repetition and scrutiny and it is easy to see why many people raise an eyebrow at the idea that we can bring scientific rigour to the question of self-knowledge.
However, psychologists have found ways to overcome many of the obstacles to studying how well we judge ourselves, testing self-reported perceptions against third-party observations of behaviour and, more commonly, the perceptions of others. The insights are enlightening. They reveal common pitfalls in self-knowledge that hint at how we might see ourselves more accurately. And it is vital that we do. Self-perceptions and the way that others see us are some of the most important influences on our lives.
So while insights into personality may not reach the threshold of objective 鈥渢ruth鈥� that some fields would demand, we should also recognise that subjective experience is what makes our state of consciousness so famously hard to study. Perhaps embracing this subjectivity is a vital part of fathoming this phenomenon.
That isn鈥檛 to say that psychology is off the hook. It should, of course, finesse its methods and seek new ones, but in the meantime we can use the tools at hand to try to shine at least a little light on the truth about our personalities and whether they align with the perceptions of others. As the holiday season looms for many, our loved ones may well thank us.
