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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–7Cite as

Self-Knowledge

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Synonyms

Self-appraisals; Self-insight; Self-perceptions; Self-views

Definition

Self-knowledge refers to the collection of representations believed to truly and accurately depict the Self. Like classic knowledge, Self-knowledge is acquired, stored, retrieved, and organized, and it conveys meaning and guidance on how to interact with the environment, in particular with other social beings. Unlike classic knowledge, Self-knowledge is not learnt from any textbooks or media but essentially from introspection and interactions. Importantly, Self-knowledge exists in many forms, such as knowledge of our past, our personality, or our life goals, and its accuracy is often difficult if not impossible to evaluate objectively.

Introduction

The scattered current state of the study of Self-knowledge can be attributed to the fact that various domains of psychology have focused on specific aspects of Self-knowledge, such as its domains of knowledge, the processes contributing to or influencing...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Perception Reasoning Interaction Neuroscience Group, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium

    Henryk Bukowski

Authors
  1. Henryk Bukowski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henryk Bukowski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Chris Ditzfeld

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Bukowski, H. (2019). Self-Knowledge. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2004-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2004-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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