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Self-knowledge: Limits, implications, and paths to change
Isabel Thielmann1, Matthias Burghart1
1Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law, Germany.
Current Opinion in Psychology
|June 13, 2025
Summary
Understanding oneself is crucial, yet self-knowledge is often limited, particularly in moral traits. Personality feedback shows promise for improving self-awareness and enabling personal growth.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Personality Psychology
Background:
- Self-knowledge is a long-standing topic of interest, central to personality psychology.
- Evidence indicates systematic limitations in self-knowledge, varying across individuals and traits.
- These limitations are especially pronounced in the moral domain.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent advancements in understanding individual and trait-level differences in self-knowledge.
- To explore the implications of self-knowledge limitations for intentional personality change.
- To examine personality feedback as a method for enhancing self-knowledge.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent developments in personality psychology research.
- Focus on studies examining individual and trait differences in self-knowledge.
- Analysis of research on personality feedback interventions.
Main Results:
- Self-knowledge is systematically limited, with pronounced deficits in the moral domain.
- Individual and trait differences significantly influence the extent of self-knowledge.
- Personality feedback emerges as a potential strategy to improve self-knowledge.
Conclusions:
- Limitations in self-knowledge, especially regarding moral traits, impact personality change.
- Personality feedback offers a promising avenue for enhancing self-knowledge.
- Further research is needed to address challenges and unanswered questions in this field.
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