The character of a person is a structure of persistent mental properties that determine the characteristics of a person's relationships and behavior. In the structure of the character there are four groups of traits that express the attitude of a person to different aspects of reality:
- sensitivity, sociability and responsiveness characterize a person to other people;
- diligence, conscientiousness in work, propensity to creativity characterize a person to work;
- Self-criticism, modesty, pride characterize the attitude of a person to himself;
- accuracy, careful handling of things characterize a person to things.
These relations for a person are fixed in the usual forms of communication, behavior and activity.
In this article, we consider the third group of traits - the relationship of a person to himself, namely self-criticism, which is expressed by the ability to soberly assess their actions and admit mistakes. Self-criticism is a useful quality that helps people to improve. This is an objective view of yourself from outside, which allows you to see both the advantages and disadvantages. However, it should be remembered that self-criticism should not go to samoyedstva (excessive self-criticism), which has negative consequences.
People with low self-esteem in everyday life are looking for evidence of a bad attitude towards themselves. For them, each error indicates insolvency. Because of failure or any difficulty, they become unsound and brand themselves ("not competent", "stupid", "unattractive" and so on). Thus, these people in relation to themselves completely deny the positive qualities and see themselves only on the one hand. As a result, they have an excessive self-criticism. This condition helps underestimate self-esteem, as it generates a sense of shame, guilt and provokes depression.
Self-Criticism Test
You can evaluate the impact of self-criticism on you with the help of the following questions:
For each of the fifteen questions, choose one of the seven statements (1-no, 2-no more than yes, 3-rather no; 4-I do not know; 5-rather yes; 6-yes more than no; 7-yes) , which best describes your feelings.
- It's hard to be happy, if not rich, not beautiful, not smart and not talented.
- People will think worse about me if I make a mistake.
- If I always do wrong things, they will not respect me.
- A sign of weakness is a request for help.
- I'm weak if I'm not successful like others.
- If there is no way to do well, then for this it is not necessary to undertake.
- I can be considered a failure if I fail work.
- If people disagree with me, it probably means that I did not like them.
- I'll look stupid if I ask a question.
- If I want to be a valuable employee, then I should not be outdone in one thing.
- If I do not set high frames for myself, I will become mediocrity.
- If people find out what I really am, people will think worse of me.
- People who have good ideas, they are better than those who do not.
- If I make a mistake, I'll be upset.
- If I fail even partially, then for me it will mean a complete failure.
Now calculate the points: no - one point; No more than yes - two points; rather no - three points; I do not know - four points; rather yes - five points; more yes than not - six points; yes - seven points.
And check the result:
- 54 points or more is a high level of self-criticism;
- 39 - medium level;
- 24 and less is a low level.
And so, you conducted the test and determined how much you are self-critical. Now it's up to you to decide whether you need self-criticism or not. How useful and important for you and your loved ones is this quality.