An exploration of the relationship between self-awareness and life satisfaction

Self-awareness has long been recognized as playing an integral role in the understanding of humanity, and recently, the role of self-awareness has been especially emphasized in the field of applied clinical psychology. Although self-awareness is an observable aspect of therapy across many therapeutic systems, it is only within the past 30 years that the concept of self-awareness has begun to attract direct attention in the scientific literature. The concept of life satisfaction has experienced similar treatment in the literature, with interest mounting over the past few decades (Argyle, 1987; Diener, 1984; Eysenck, 1990). Despite the growing interests in these two concepts, the relationship between self-awareness and life satisfaction appears to have been neglected in the literature thus far. This exploration of the literature and research will focus upon an examination of the various aspects of self-awareness and the nature of the relationship between such aspects of self-awareness and the construct of life satisfaction. This review of the literature will explore possible hypotheses regarding the relationship between self awareness and life satisfaction, and suggest new avenues in the study of this field. Based upon the findings of these studies it is clear that self-awareness can be highly influential in regard to the underlying constructs that are involved in the determination of life satisfaction. Due to that fact that self-awareness can effect the underlying aspects of life satisfaction it is hypothesized that self-awareness can also influence life satisfaction as a whole