What is social awareness and why is it important?

                            What is social awareness and why is it important?  

The concept of social awareness is fairly simple; it's a person's ability to consider the perspectives of other individuals, groups, or communities, and apply that understanding to interactions with them.

What is Social Awareness?

Being the third step in developing emotional intelligence, social awareness is a skill that we all must work to build within ourselves. In a broad sense, it means having an awareness and understanding of the world around us. 

This includes environments, cultures, communities, societal norms, problems, struggles, and all other areas that make up the social atmosphere in which we live. 

But the way I am discussing social awareness is in a much more narrowed sense. I want us to look at how social awareness leads to the development of emotional intelligence.

One of the most prominent figures in the field of emotional intelligence is Daniel Goleman. He breaks emotional intelligence down into four subsects: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. 

In relation to emotional intelligence, social awareness is best defined as our ability to accurately understand the emotions of other people and empathize with them.

Empathy is a large component of effective social awareness, and something we will go into more depth later on in the article. 

Social awareness is all about taking the focus off ourselves for a moment and beginning to think about those around us. This can be very difficult to do for some of us, especially if we are often wrapped up in ourselves and consumed by our own thoughts. 

It requires suspension of selfishness and self-absorbed thinking in order to accurately identify and understand how those around us think and feel. 

The easiest way for me to understand social awareness is by one simple word: consideration. It all boils down to taking a second to consider how our thoughts, emotions, and actions impact others. This is a large aspect of external self-awareness which is why the two skills are often intertwined. 

Consideration to me is a much simpler way of thinking about social awareness because since I was a kid, I’ve heard the phrase, “Be considerate of others.” 

This refers to how my actions impact those around me. If I say something hurtful, how will it make the other person feel? If I act without thinking, could it possibly harm someone else? Or, on a more positive note, how can I be of the most service and benefit to other people?

Taking all of these questions into consideration, as well as many others, can help ensure we will be acting in a socially aware manner.

But, however you best understand social awareness, the fact remains the same it is an important skill to build within ourselves.

What are the types of social awareness?

Social-emotional learning theory is underpinned by the work of Daniel Goleman, who builds the idea of social and emotional intelligence (EQ) around a number of key social awareness components, they include:

• Emotional self-awareness: Being emotionally aware is the skill behind understanding what one is feeling and appreciating how different moods can impact those around us.

• Self-regulation: Self-regulation is the art of controlling the response to emotions - anticipating outcomes in an effort to avoid being emotionally reactive in personal and social situations.

• Motivation: Motivation involves understanding how to use emotional factors to learn and achieve personal goals.

• Empathy: Empathy is the skill of considering the emotions and circumstances of other individuals.

• Respect: Respect is best defined as having regard for another person or group's experiences, emotions, wishes, or rights.

• Kindness: Kindness is the idea of being friendly and considerate to other people, and is especially important even if you don't share their views or standpoint.

• Listening Actively: Active listening is the skill of truly being seen to listen - paying attention, and taking time to understand what is being said.

• Cooperation: Cooperation is an important part of finding a resolution or a way of working with other individuals or groups. It often involves compromise - but helps to achieve shared goals.
  Final Thoughts-

  Social awareness is one of the key components of emotional intelligence. It is a skill that allows us to understand how another person is feeling, empathize with them, and take a different perspective on a situation. 

  It can be a very difficult skill to develop. We often get so caught up in ourselves that taking the time to understand someone else is not on our list of priorities. However, it is a valuable skill that we should all strive to cultivate within ourselves. 

  Do you think social awareness is important? I would love to hear your opinion so please leave a comment below. 

  I hope that this article was helpful, and you gained a better understanding of what social awareness is, why it’s important, and how to better develop it within yourself. 

  If you have any questions about social awareness or any other performance psychology topic, please feel free to reach out to me. 

  Thank you for reading and I wish you the best of success in all that you do.