Self is a natural process of learning their mental and physical properties, which accompanies man throughout life, starting with "the crisis of 3 years" when it first separates itself from the outside world.

based On self in humans is self-concept, which is a representation of the person about himself, about their place in society. Self-concept is closely linked with the notion of the self. For a number of reasons a person may have adequate self-concept, or inadequate. Adequate self-concept helps a person to better adapt to the environment and society, to pleasure of communicating with people, enjoy life. People with inadequate self-concept has a distorted view of themselves, which leads to intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts, to reduce or inflated self-esteem, lack of confidence or arrogance... This, in turn, is the cause of many problems in humans – lack of success in personal and professional life, depression, sense of meaninglessness of life and others.

it follows that self can help me to know myself better, its own characteristics, to adapt to them, extracting the maximum benefit from their personality traits, to accept what man is, to enjoy life. In other words, self gives you the opportunity to make friends with yourself and with the outside world, eliminating intrapersonal conflicts, and hence interpersonal.

How can I have self-knowledge?

* Testing. Usually be tested very fond of teenagers, who because of their age are interested in self-knowledge. But for adults psychological tests can help you better know yourself. There are many projective and verbal tests, which can examine the level of development of intelligence, emotional state, temperament, personality, professional preferences and other characteristics. Preference should be given to the author's valid techniques used by professionals, the results of which can be trusted, avoiding tests of unknown origin, which filled the Internet and various magazines.

* Introspection and self-analysis (not to be confused with introspection!). This means careful and objective (unbiased) analysis of your thoughts, emotions, feelings arising from various situations, understanding their causal relationships and to extract lessons and insights that give a person a view of himself. Soul-searching is different from introspection in that it has a negative connotation and condemnation of themselves, their actions, thoughts, decisions.

* address to the psychologist. In the case of inadequate self-concept (low-esteem, lack of confidence, dissatisfaction with life and relationships with people...) – the best solution is to seek professional help-request realization and the formation of an adequate self-concept. Using professional techniques and methods psychologist will help You to solve the problem of realization.

the Article was first published on the website of the Psychological centre "GROWTH" Saint-Petersburg: https://www.psycenter-rost.com/single-post/samopoznanie-zachem

© Elena and Alexander, Bazanchuk, psychologists-psychotherapists, neuropsychologists, family and personal psychologists for adults and children, the Psychological center of "GROWTH" Saint-Petersburg