The ‘JOHARI WINDOW’

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 THE JOHARI WINDOW MODEL OF
‘SELF-DISCLOSURE’
• One way to look at the important part that
‘self-disclosure’ plays in inter personal
communication, is by means of a device called
the ‘Johari Window’. (The window takes its name
from the first names of its creators, Joseph Luft and
Harry Ingham).
• Imagine a frame inside which is everything
there is to know about you: your likes and
dislikes, your goals, your secrets, your needs –
everything. Fig 1 will illustrate.
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 Fig 1. The Johari Window: Everything about you

Everything
about
you

It is obvious that you aren’t aware of everything about

yourself. Like most people you’re probably
discovering new things about yourself all the time.

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 Known Not known
to to
self self

Fig 2. The Johari Window: Known to Self, Not Known to Self

To represent this, we divide the frame containing

everything about you into two parts: the part you
know about and the part you are not aware of.

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We can also divide this frame containing
everything about you in another way. In this
division, one part represents the things about you
that others know, and the second part contains the
things about you that you keep to yourself.
Fig 3 below represents this view.

Known
to others

Not known to
others

Fig 3. The Johari Window: Known to Others, Not Known to Others

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When we impose these two divided frames atop the
other, we have a Johari Window. By looking at Fig. 4
below, you can see the everything about you divided
into four parts.
Known to Self Not Known to Self

Known
to 1 2
others OPEN BLIND

Not known 3 4
to HIDDEN UNKNOWN
others

Fig 4. The Johari Window: Open; Blind; Hidden; Unknown

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• Part I represents the information of which both you and the
other person are aware. This part is your open area.
• Part 2 represents the blind area: information of which you are
unaware, but the other person knows. You learn about
information in the blind area primarily through feedback.
• Part 3 represents your hidden area: information that you know
but aren’t willing to reveal to others. Items in this hidden area
become public primarily through self-disclosure, which is the
focus of this chapter.
• Part 4 represents information that is unknown both to you and
to others. At first the unknown area seems impossible to verify.
After all if neither you nor others know what it contains, how
can you be sure that it exists? We can deduce its existence
because we are constantly discovering knew things about
ourselves. It is not unusual to discover, for e.g. that you have
an unrecognised talent, strength or weakness. Items move from
the unknown area either directly into the open area, when you
disclose your insight, or through one of the other areas first.
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