Johari Window

Johari Window

Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham invented one of the most used models that describe human interaction called the Johari Window. The Johari Window describes four “panes” or types of personal awareness. The four panes are open, blind, hidden, and unknown.

The open pane is what is known to me and what others know about me. I know my name and I know what class I am writing this paper for. By reading this paper, you also know my name and what class I am writing this for. This is what is meant by open.

The next pane is blind. Blind is when others know things about me that I do not know. This seems illogical at first glance. How can others know something about me that I do not? Well, this happens to many students in college when they have to give a presentation. Most people are nervous at the thought of public speaking and they react in many different ways. They might rock back and forth or say “umm” a lot. This is something that they do not know about themselves but is quite evident to others.

The third pane is hidden. The Hidden pane is much more obvious and understood. This is what is known to me but not known to others. There are many things about ourselves that we do not share with others. It may be because it is embarrassing, it is private, or we just may not know the person well enough yet.

The last pane is much more elusive. The Unknown pane is what is not known by me or not known by others. As we said in the previous paragraph, there are many things that others do not know about us but what don’t we know about ourselves? Well, there are many things. There are situations that we have never experienced and we do not know how we would react to them. We may think we know but we don’t. Many of those heroes of 9/11 never would have thought that they could do the things that they did until they were placed in that situation. There are many other things that we do not know about ourselves. Fears are one of them. There are some fears that we may not know until we are faced with them.

As we have stated above, these windows are not static but dynamic. They can and will change constantly. The opening up of the open window is also known as self disclosure. We typically see this with political contestants. They tend to have to disclose a lot of personal issues including yearly incomes and income taxes.

The Johari Window is a great way to do some personal inventory and analysis. I encourage everyone to take a closer look.