參考資料

The Johari Window

One of the most provocative models for conceptualizing levels of awareness in human behavior is the Johari Window (Luft, 1959). (“Johari” derives from the first names of the two psychologists who developed it, Joseph Luft and Harry Ingram.) Essentially, the model offers a way of looking at the interdependence of intrapersonal and interpersonal affairs. The illustration in Figure 1 represents you as you relate to other human beings by four quadrants – in effect, four panes of a single window. The size of each quadrant or panes is determined by awareness – by yourself and by others of your behavior, feelings and motivations. Unlike most windowpanes, those of the Johari Window sometimes change in size.

Each of you may be described by a Johari Window. Quadrant 1, the open quadrant, will reflect your general openness to the world, your willingness to be known. It comprises all aspects of yourself known to you and to others. This quadrant is the basis for most two-person communication.

By contrast, quadrant 2, the blind quadrant , consists of all the things about yourself that other people perceive but that are not accessible to you. Perhaps you tend to monopolize conversation unwittingly, or you think of yourself as quite a wit but your friends find your humor heavy-handed. Then again you might feel quite confident and yet have several nervous mannerisms that others are aware of but you are not.

In quadrant 3, the hidden quadrant, you are the one who exercises discretion. This quadrant is make up of all the things you prefer not to disclose to someone else, whether they concern yourself or other people: your salary, your parents’ divorce, your feelings about your roommate’s closest friend, your overdue bills, and so on. In short, this quadrant represents your attempts to limit input or communicative stimuli concerning yourself.

The last pane, quadrant 4, is the unknown quadrant. The blind quadrant is unknown to you though known to others. The hidden quadrant is unknown to others but known to you. Quadrant 4 is completely unknown. It represents everything about yourself that has never been explored, either by you or by other people. It contains all the untapped resources, all your potential for personal growth. You can only infer that it exists or confirm its existence in retrospect.

The four quadrants of the Johari Window are interdependent: a change in one quadrant will affect others. As you reveal something from the hidden quadrant, for example, you make it part of the open quadrant, thus enlarging it and reducing the size of the hidden quadrant. Should friends tell you about your nervous mannerisms, this information becomes part of the open quadrant, with a corresponding shrinkage of the blind quadrant. Such change is not always desirable. Sometimes, for example, telling a person that he or she seems nervous only makes him or her more ill at ease. Because inappropriate disclosure of feeling or perception about another can be damaging, your friends will need to use some discretion in communicating with you about quadrant 2.

Known to self / Not known to self
Known to others / Open / Blind
Not known to others / Hidden / Unknown

Figure 1: The Johari Window

Basically, however, Luft proposes that it is rewarding and satisfying to enlarge the open quadrant – that is, not only to learn about yourself but to reveal yourself to some degree so that others will know you better too. It is also his belief that greater knowledge of self in relation to others will result in greater self-esteem and self-acceptance. If you can learn more about yourself and others, you can change the shape of your own Johari Window. An improved window might look something like the one in figure 2.

Known to self / Not known to self
Known to others / Open / Blind
Not known to others / Hidden / Unknown

Figure 2: Improved Johari Window

Extracted from:

Tubbs, S.L. & Moss, S. (1977). Human Communication (2nd ed.).N. Y.: Random House, pp. 134-6

Reprinted by permission of McGraw Hill, Inc.