It has been said that social awareness is the driving force behind social change. Changing social consciousness can be defined as an ongoing process where people from different walks of life face social situations that create and produce specific reactions and responses. These reactions influence our thinking and perception in a variety of ways. John Stuart Mill first introduced social awareness in 18 49 at the First International Exhibition of Social Work in London. Here, he discussed the idea of social cognition as a set of psychological qualities that lead to social transformation. According to him, social awareness is an essential part of every individual’s freedom, as it enables him or her to take an active role in his or her social world.
There are many social awareness dimensions, and they are Individualism and Esteem, Empathy, Responsibility, Openness to Experience, and Perspective-Takes. These are the essential elements of a person’s social awareness, where each one builds on the other in a meaningful way. When people can successfully integrate these different perspectives, they will generate a unique and positive social awareness. By effectively combining all these elements, people will be able to experience a social change in a meaningful way, which leads to better social relationships. Let us look deeper into the aspects of this concept to understand its impact on our daily lives.
Empathy and social awareness go hand in hand. Empathy helps us to comprehend the feelings and thoughts of another person. On the other hand, social awareness is primarily concerned with assessing and evaluating the different social situations around us and making appropriate decisions based on the information available to us. In this context, having good emotional intelligence is essential because emotional intelligence is the foundation of successful social awareness and acceptance. Indeed, the two complement each other and, by developing one aspect of emotional intelligence, social awareness will automatically improve. Moreover, if you combine both the elements, you can create a powerful personal identity and, as a result, enhance your quality of life.
People with high emotional intelligence levels are excellent at detecting the underlying motives and emotions behind others’ choices and actions in social interactions. They can see the situation from other people’s perspectives. Consequently, people with higher social awareness and social intelligence can build positive interpersonal relationships because they can quickly identify and differentiate between another person’s emotions, motives, and actions. Besides, they can also evaluate the feelings, explanations, and activities of a group of people objectively and adjust their own emotions accordingly.
The ability to understand, evaluate, and assess other people’s emotions, motives and actions are what we refer to as self-awareness. Self-awareness is crucial because it allows us to control our emotions and impulses and develop self-management skills. By developing self-managing skills, we become calmer, and our thinking improves. Furthermore, the capacity to understand and manage ourselves also helps us build strong relationships and bonds with other people. Therefore, friendship is related to high levels of social awareness and self-management.
To give students a holistic understanding of these concepts, teachers should incorporate them into their curriculum. Teachers need to teach students how to understand and manage social awareness, self-awareness, and self-management skills. The curriculum will be more effective, and students will benefit from learning these concepts. They will be able to engage in meaningful conversations with others, and they will be able to practice emotional empathy while engaging in classroom discussions.