Johari Window

How much do you know yourself?

The first image above is a cognitive psychological instrument created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955 in the United States of America. It is called Johari Window and I’m still unsure why they named it such. It is an instrument used to help people understand their interpersonal communication and relationships better.

The exercise is performed by giving each subject/person 55 adjectives. The adjectives are shown in the second image. Then they will pick five or six adjectives that will describe themselves. Friends or peers of the same person are also given five or six adjectives which will also describe the subject. These adjectives are placed on the subject’s/person’s windows.

Charles Handy, an Irish philosopher who specialized in behavior and management came up with this so called Johari House concept. This concept is made up of four rooms. The first room (known to self and known to others) is the room of personality that is visible to the self and to other people. The second room (not known to self but known by others) is the personality that is visible to other people but the self is not aware about it. The third room (known to self but not known by others) is the private space or the personality which we know but we keep them from others. The fourth room (not known to self and not known by others) is the mysterious personality that is composed of the unconscious and subconscious self. It is not visible to us and to other people. This is the most dangerous side of a person’s personality.

Nohari Window is the opposite or inversion of Johari Window. It uses negative personality traits to describe the subject or person. Of course, people have their positive and negative traits.

This instrument is a perfect tool to honest people and to those who know how to accept who they really are. If you aim to be a better person, try to get rid of the negative traits and improve those positive traits. Know yourself and be more humane!