Blind Spot as Self-unknown: Self-esteem Under the Influence of External Evaluations of Personality Traits

Abstract for master's thesis Safiullina A.A. On the topic: "Blind spot as self-unknown: self-esteem under the influence of external evaluations of personality traits". The relevance of the research lies in the fact that self-esteem is an important element of the structure of self-knowledge of a personality, it can influence the level of a person's own claims, correlate his needs with his abilities. The question about the dynamics of self-esteem in the process of self-knowledge of the individual remains undisclosed and debatable. It seems relevant to study different types of information impact on self-esteem, including the impact of information from the blind spot. The aim of the thesis research: to reveal the peculiarities of personality's self-esteem dynamics when getting information from the blind spot (under the influence of assessments of personality traits by outside observers). The aim of the research is solved in theoretical tasks: to make a theoretical analysis of publications on self-knowledge and self-esteem of personality, factors and characteristics of influence on self-esteem and in empirical tasks: to conduct an empirical study of the dynamics of personality self-esteem under the influence of assessments by others. Research methods: theoretical analysis, empirical study containing an experimental plan, methods of statistical analysis, qualitative phenomenological analysis. The main results of the study: - theoretical analysis showed that: the change in the perceptions of the personality about themselves can be influenced by significant people; the process of obtaining knowledge about themselves is infinite; the tool of formation of new knowledge about themselves can be a "Blind Spot"; people tend to have distortions in the self-evaluation of the personality. - empirical research showed that personality self-esteem does not change statistically significantly under the influence of external evaluations of personality traits, i.e. without a directional influence self-esteem is a rather autonomous construct. The study also revealed connection effects between positive personality traits assessments and self-esteem dynamics. - The conducted qualitative study of the phenomenology of self-esteem dynamics in interaction with evaluations of other people allowed to identify several forms of influence on the self-perception of the information from the Blind Spot. Practical significance lies in replenishment of empirical data, which can be included in scientific base of personality self-esteem research, and also in replenishment of data for diagnostics of the clients, carried out within the limits of psychotherapeutic, training work by the specialists, working in the field of personality self-esteem and self-identity. Key words: self-knowledge of personality, blind spot, self-esteem of personality, influence on self-esteem, dynamics of self-esteem.