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Sophia Quiroz

Professor J. Lindholm

Honors Collegium 50

March 20, 2019

Self-Awareness: Causes and Results of Self-Awareness and Understanding in College Students

Introduction

It is no rumor that college is known to be a confusing and uncertain time period in

student’s lives. Most people during this time are trying to figure out who they are, take on

challenging adult responsibilities, and are more or less thrown into the rigorous pace and

intensity of a university curriculum. With all of these high expectations and changes, one can’t

help but wonder; what kind of effects do all of these stresses have on a student’s self-image and

perception? If they don’t even know who they are yet, how could they successfully navigate such

a critical time in their lives? They have no choice but to achieve self-awareness, and quickly.

College students are more likely to go through a self-understanding experience and become self-

aware, because they are going through an unsure time in their lives due to the sudden transition

from high school into a world of responsibility and pressure to find their identity, as well as

determine their own future. So, universities should provide open resources and programs for

students to learn skills valuable to understanding themselves. By gaining an understanding of

who they are and feeling at peace with their identity, students will be able to perform better

academically and have an overall improved college transition experience. In this essay, I will

define what self-awareness is, analyze the benefits that result from it, compare how self-

awareness related to mindfulness and leadership and propose ideas for the future of self-

awareness in colleges.
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What is Self-Awareness? The Defining Problem

Formally, self-awareness is defined as “the knowledge of one’s thoughts, emotions, and

behaviors” (Richards, Campenni, Muse-Burke, 250). Informally, I would define it as the power

to know one’s own strengths, limitations, and abilities to an extent that allows them to

understand what is best for them and make accurate decisions based on that knowledge.

However, much debate and research has been made about the definition of self-awareness.

According to a research article, self-awareness, at a basic level is the simple act of recognizing

oneself in the mirror and progresses in more depth as “levels” of self-awareness increase.

Another article about self-care and wellbeing describes that self-awareness is considered a state

that one falls into, being aware of their own thoughts and emotions, and also compares it to

another term labeled self-consciousness. Yet another definition of the term is brought up in an

article written by Alan Morin, researching the definition, effects, antecedents, and functions of

self-awareness; “self-awareness also comes in degrees: Terms such as ‘meta’, ‘reflective’,

‘iterative meta-representational’, and ‘extended’ consciousness indicate various levels of self-

awareness” (Morin, 808). This same article even goes so far as to make connections between

self-awareness and its results, or what it could lead to, which include self-description, self-

esteem, self-efficacy, death awareness, self-conscious emotions, and self-talk. The reason for so

much disagreement on a definition for self-awareness is primarily because there has not been

much talk or research about self-awareness. For the sake of this research paper, I will be

referring to self-awareness as the advanced consciousness of one’s own thoughts, emotions, and
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behaviors, and how one can use this consciousness to make changes to better themselves as a

person.

Why is Self-Awareness Important?

Self-awareness is a beneficial outcome of the reevaluation of one’s values and characters.

It is researched that “awareness on the development of self-esteem in teenagers will lead to the

achievement of realistic goals which will help professional and personal maturity by establishing

values and moral principles” (Sandu, Pânișoară, 1659). This is key to succeeding in school,

landing job opportunities, and navigating the complexity of social relationships among peers,

friends, and family. A study comparing the correlation between self-care, wellbeing,

mindfulness, and self-awareness has shown that “self-awareness and well-being were found to be

significantly positively correlated, which suggests that with an increase in self-awareness, there

is an increase in well-being” (Richards, Campenni, Muse-Burke, 260). If being knowledgeable of

one’s own self has a positive correlation with well-being, it is important that more people

generally become self-aware, but this benefit would especially help college students amid their

transition from high school to college.

With this knowledge about the connection between self-awareness and well-being, it can

be concluded that self-awareness does have a positive impact on a person’s health. Going

forward with this idea, what kind of benefits would college students gain by practicing self-

awareness? The first reason why self-awareness is beneficial to college students is that their

confidence in academic ability can increase their performance. Here, we look at an article titled
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“Academic Self-Efficacy and First-Year College Student Performance and Adjustment”, which

outlines a study performed at the University of California, Santa Cruz about first-year student’s

experiences and academic performance while adjusting to college. This study does not focus

specifically on self-awareness, but self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is described here as “the belief in

one’s capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to produce given

attainments” (Chemers, Hu, Garcia, 55). Self-efficacy is almost a form of self-confidence and

belief in one’s own abilities. The authors highlight the difficulties that college students face

while transitioning to a new life, stating that “college life can be demanding and stressful for a

new student” (Chemers, Hu, Garcia, 55), and constructing their main thesis on the argument that

confidence in one’s own abilities (i.e. self-efficacy) and optimism are a large part of the success

of student transition during this challenging time. Key factors such as persistence, academic

expectations, and coping ability can determine the experience of the first-year college transition.

Their findings showed that students who entered college with high self-efficacy came out of their

first academic year with a higher academic performance than students with lower self-

confidence. Self-efficacy of students can be dependent on the way they perceive their own

abilities and the knowledge they have of themselves, which is what self-awareness is. We can

start to make the connections here between a strong foundation of self-awareness that can

support building blocks of self-efficacy and self-confidence that lead to higher academic

performance. This implies that students will experience less stress and poor health due to stress

and would fully benefit from gaining a higher sense of academic self-efficacy. This in itself is

quite a revolutionary idea. College students living stress free, performing well academically, and

keeping good health? It seems to defy every stereotype about the college lifestyle. Yet, if

students were to increase self-confidence and believe in themselves more, they would achieve
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very high levels of success in general through their college experience. And, self-awareness can

help them achieve that through the realizations of their real potential. Self-awareness can be an

empowering feeling of realization when students find themselves and their true abilities,

especially because students often underestimate their skills. It would open new doors of

achievement – building stronger relationships, making sound decisions, having a solid work

ethic, and communicating more effectively.

A second reason why self-awareness is beneficial to college students is that college

students often struggle with mental health issues and stress due to school and the transition in

lifestyles. Mental health is now a serious crisis on college campuses, and the connection to self-

awareness can be made as one method of solution for such mental issues and can help

significantly in developing important self-care habits. The more students recognize habits that

are affecting them negatively, the better off they will be in terms of seeking help and actively

working to correct those bad habits. In the future, students that become self-aware will be able to

make more accurate decisions geared towards the development of their future, therefore easing

the transition period from high school to college, and hopefully lowering the high rates of poor

mental health among college students.

Self-Awareness and Mindfulness

In many respects, self-awareness and its ideas are related to practices of mindfulness.

Self-awareness and mindfulness overlap in terms of their benefits and practices, often going hand

in hand. People who are mindful tend to be self-aware, and vice versa. The study outlined in the

article “Self-care and Well-being in Mental Health Professionals: The Mediating Effects of Self-

Awareness and Mindfulness” highlights just that. Researchers analyze the direct effects on self-
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care from self-awareness and well-being. Although no research has proven that there is a direct

link between self-awareness and well-being, there is evidence showing that mindfulness has a

positive correlation with well-being. Therefore, the theory is made that there is a relationship

between self-awareness and mindfulness, as well as mindfulness and well-being, so mindfulness

is the missing link to the connection between self-awareness and well-being. This implies that all

three of these concepts are intertwined and relative to each other in some way. One way to

differentiate mindfulness from self-awareness is that mindfulness is seen as the awareness one

has on their own surroundings, acknowledging the things around them; while self-awareness is

the consciousness one has of their inner self and all that entails. This is a slight difference;

however, they share many similarities as well. As the aforementioned article states; “It has been

suggested that the practice of mindfulness may facilitate insight, which can be understood as

awareness of oneself and one’s motives” (Richards, Campenni, Muse-Burke, 251). If

mindfulness leads to the awareness of oneself and their motives, can self-awareness therefore be

considered an advanced form of mindfulness? More research on this topic needs to be done in

order to make all these connections and concepts clearer; but it can be said and inferred that

mindfulness and self-awareness are related. This is important when considering implementation

of more self-care practices for students on college campuses.

Self-Awareness and Leadership

Just as connections can be made for mindfulness and self-awareness, the same can be

said for the relationship between self-awareness and leadership abilities. Surprisingly, there are

many articles emerging that talk about the importance of self-awareness that leads to qualities

that make a good leader. Self-awareness helps leaders understand the strengths of the qualities
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they do have, which they can capitalize on to their advantage. They also are aware of their own

limitations, and in accepting that they are not perfect, grow a motivation for improvement in

these flaws. In leaders, a deep self-awareness helps them “adapt and change in response to new

challenges. Self-awareness can help you meet new demands by pushing your performance

beyond what you assumed to be your limits” (Swavely, Gallagher, 4). A research study

performed on the effects of mindful self-awareness and leadership abilities reported that

individuals who are mindful can identify their own emotions or have an increased Emotional

Self-Awareness and Emotional Social Intelligence Competency (performed in the study). This

allows leaders to make important decisions such as identifying what types of behaviors are

needed in certain situations, and their ability to determine how effective those methods are is also

increased. A national study performed on leadership development in college students revealed 10

important things to expose students to in order for them to develop effective leadership skills.

One of these 10 rules was to “align student’s perceptions of leadership competence and

confidence” (Dugan, Komives, 19), helping them to develop their levels of self-efficacy and

healthy self-awareness about their leadership capacity. Studies have even shown that “self-

awareness may be one of the foundations of empathy” (Newman), which implies that people

who are self-aware are capable of so much outside of simply being conscious of their own

emotions. So, self-awareness is an important part of not only maintaining one’s well-being, but

also building qualities of a good leader and having a positive impact on the people and

environment around them.

Implementation of Self-Awareness in College

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Self-awareness is a concept that can help humans – and college students especially –

reach their full potential through empathy, leadership, and self-understanding and control of their

emotions. We know this now because all the research has shown us the evidence; that self-

awareness is very beneficial overall. Now the question lies in how to get more people actively

being self-aware. How can colleges develop and implement programs and resources for their

students to become more knowledgeable in what self-awareness is, and get them to start

practicing it? One way that could be quite effective is through the student body. If students create

an organization focused on being mindful and self-aware, it would likely be more popular than

incorporating such things in the form of a mandatory curriculum. They could function in a

fashion that informs peers of what self-awareness is, what benefits could be gained from it, and

why it’s important to incorporate it into daily life. Another way schools can incorporate

knowledge of self-awareness to their students is by including it in orientation presentations at the

start of each school year. Along with the information and presentations about sexual abuse and

harassment, drug use, etc., a presentation or two about self-awareness could be included into the

mental health topic. This would expose incoming students to what self-awareness is as a form of

self-care and would help to start a positive culture on campus about self-awareness. Students

should be taught social practices that promote the awareness of one another’s abilities. Instead of

comparing student’s abilities with each other, they should focus more on how they can better

themselves. Instead of promoting harsh competition, they should focus on personal growth and

development as people. Another option would be to include courses on mental health and the

importance of self-awareness. There are many methods that colleges and universities can use to

bring awareness onto their campuses and promote a culture around self-awareness and self-care.

UCLA’s Resources
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UCLA has already begun its path towards the goal of well-being. It has been performing

research on many health topics such as depression and mindfulness, those being the Depression

Grand Challenge and the Mindful Awareness Research Center, both based in UCLA.

Particularly, the Mindful Awareness Research Center has a mission to “foster mindful awareness

across the lifespan through education and research to promote well-being and a more

compassionate society” (MARC at UCLA). This program is a great example of incorporating

resources into the university that are available for students to use for free. Besides publishing

research on emotion and mindful awareness, MARC hosts workshops open to the general public

to teach them about mindfulness, brings mindful awareness information to UCLA’s medical

professionals and staff, and offer mindfulness meditation workshops to help students deal with

stress from the burden of schoolwork. Although this program is incredibly helpful and an

amazing resource offered by UCLA, it is not taken advantage of to its fullest extent by students,

nor does it receive proper recognition as an available resource. With more publicity perhaps

students will recognize MARC as a useful resource for student health and wellbeing. Another

useful resource offered by UCLA is the Mindfulness Collaborative at UCLA as part of the

UCLA Campus and Student Resilience program. The Student Resilience Program aims to

promote resilience skills with an emphasis on connection and belonging, service, self-efficacy,

and self-reflection. This program essentially promotes the practices of self-awareness and

mindfulness for students to succeed even through the hardest adversities that college presents.

The Mindfulness Collaborative is a program that networks students, faculty, and staff at UCLA

to implement mindfulness practices in their focus or field of study. Although it is not explicitly

focused on self-awareness, this program along with MARC are the closest programs at UCLA

that offer the resources needed to at least bridge the way towards self-awareness.
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Future Goals and Outlook

Going off of this topic, because there are no programs with a direct focus on self-

awareness yet, we as a community can actively work towards creating programs that will focus

on self-awareness in the close future. UCLA is always striving towards greater goals that will

have an impact on students and the community, which is why a program focusing on self-

awareness, offering workshops for practicing it, and shaping students to increase their self-

efficacy can create excellent leaders for the future. It is good to analyze the benefits and the gaps

in the resources here on campus, in this case the gap is in self-awareness. But, by identifying the

need, we can work together to act upon it. Creating a program specifically for self-awareness in

college students could open doors for further research on this relatively new concept and is

effective for students as they become self-aware of their own potential.

Just as implementation of self-awareness in college is extremely important to student

success, implementation of self-awareness at a younger age would likely result in higher student

success over time. The need for a connection between K-12 education and college education is

important in student transition, so incorporating self-awareness in K-12 and not just college

would further prepare the students for a successful college experience. The article “Developing

Leadership Capacity in College Students: Findings from a National Study” highlights the

importance of the pre-college experience, explaining how “what students come to college with

largely explained how they developed in college” (Dugan, Komives, 13). The authors explain

that partnerships between K-12 and colleges with leadership programs could be the connections

that “have the potential to create important bridges between K-12 and higher education as well as

serve as a catalyst in the leadership development process” (Dugan, Komives, 19). From this
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observation, we can make the connection between leadership development alongside self-

awareness. By building an early familiarization with self-awareness with students in K-12

grades, they can develop the skills needed for success before even entering college, so that by the

time they get there they will already be prepared. This would be an ideal future for the

implementation of self-awareness in students. It might not always go this way, but it should be a

large focus and goal for the near future.

Conclusions and Summary

Throughout the research process, it has been discovered that self-awareness is not

something that stands alone in the world of academic research. Self-awareness intertwines itself

with mindfulness, leadership skills, and other mental health topics, in which it is all a critical part

of. Self-awareness is a core part of many topics, which is what makes it so important. Deep self-

understanding is important to success in many areas of life, which is why it should be especially

critical for college students to adopt, as college is a time where students are preparing themselves

to become successful adults with careers. Self-awareness and understanding are skills that, when

mastered, can open many doors of opportunity. This is why college should be a time when

students experience self-awareness, as it could likely become a very important part of their life.
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Works Cited

Sandu, Cristina M.; Pânișoară, Georgeta; Pânișoară, Ion O. "Study on the development of self-

awareness in teenagers." Proceida Social and Behavioral Sciences (2015): 1656-1660.

Dugan, J.P.; Komives, S.R. Developing Leadership Capacity in College Students: Findings from

a National Study. Study. Maryland: National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs,

2007.

Health, UCLA. UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. 2019. 11 3 2019.

Richards, Kelly C.; Campenni, Estelle; Muse-Burke, Janet L. "Self-Care and Well-Being in

Mental Health Professionals: The Mediating Effects of Self-Awareness and

Mindfulness." Journal of Mental Health Counseling (2010): 247-264.

Chemers, Martin M.; Hu, Li-tze; Garcia, Ben F.. "Academic Self-Efficacy and First-Year

College Student Performance and Adjustment." Journal of Educational Psychology

(2001): 55-64.

Alan, Morin. "Self-Awareness Part 1: Definitions, Measures, Effects, Functions, and

Antecedents." Social and Personality Psychology Compass (2011): 808-823.

Kira, Newman M. Can Self-Awareness Help You Be More Empathic? Berkeley, 11 April 2018.

Article.

Swavely, Steve; Gallagher, Patrick. "The BB&T Leadership Corporation." 2018. The BB&T

Leadership Institute. 1 March 2019.

UCLA. UCLA Campus and Student Resilience. 2019. 15 3 2019.