Interpersonal Communication essays

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Sept. 22, 2009

Self-Analysis Essay

A time of reflection is something that rarely happens in my own life. The self-analysis

survey required me to do just that and I found it quite refreshing. I tend to be my own harshest

critic, however, for this assignment I tried to limit the self-criticism and be totally honest about

how I perceive myself. Unfortunately I really did not feel like I had someone other than a

relative that knows me well enough to complete the survey. Therefore, all the surveys completed

were done by family member.

My husband, mother and younger sister participated in the survey. I asked each of them

to be completely honest and not to spare my feelings, but after reviewing their marks I still

cannot help but to think they were being too nice. For instance, my husband and mother both felt

like I am rarely selfish, while I think I am selfish half of the time. My husband was probably just

trying to avoid conflict. I definitely think that my relationship with each participant directly

affected their answers to the survey. My little sister seemed to view me in such a positive light,

but I think that has to do with her own maturity. I think she sees confidence and responsibility as

a high level of maturity but I think some things just come with age and life experience.

I really make an effort in my everyday life to be accepting of others, regardless of race,

religion, sexual orientation and any other characteristic that most people would see as

“different”. For that reason I was very proud to see that all three survey participants agreed that I

am rarely prejudiced. In addition to my lack of prejudiced, I was pleased to see that my family

believes that I can take criticism well. I just feel like constructive criticism builds character and

harsh criticism that doesn’t break you down makes you stronger. We all seemed to agree that I

have a cooperative personality, I am pretty passive person. Also, I tend view myself as self-

confident the majority of the time and my family tends to agree. I was disappointed to see that

my mom and husband felt that I was generally honest and I really considered myself an

extremely honest and upfront person. It makes me want to question as to why they would

answer in such a way.

The one thing I would change about this exercise is I would like input from people that

don’t know me well at all. I would like to know if I seem approachable to someone I’ve just met

or if I come across as arrogant rather than self-confident. Having said that, I would like to

believe that I have a realistic view of how others perceive me. With this knowledge, I hope to

improve how I relate to people that aren’t in my family. I never considered how other people

might view my personality.

Overall the responses seemed to be similar, that’s encouraging to me in the sense that I

feel like I’m not giving a false front, what you see is what you get. I think a lot of people could

benefit from an exercise just like this. It is hugely beneficial to communication lines that I have

a good idea of how my “audience” views me to help me adequately contribute to any

circumstance.