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Journal of Education and Training Studies
Vol. 7, No. 5; May 2019
ISSN 2324-805X E-ISSN 2324-8068
Published by Redfame Publishing
URL: http://jets.redfame.com
76
Expansion of the Open Area (Johari Window) and Group Work Directed to
Enhancing the Level of Subjective Well-being
Devrim Erginsoy Osmanoğlu
Correspondence: Devrim Erginsoy Osmanoğlu, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Education, Kafkas
University, Turkey.
Received: March 11, 2019 Accepted: April 11, 2019 Online Published: April 22, 2019
doi:10.11114/jets.v7i5.4128 URL: https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v7i5.4128
Abstract
Open and healthy communication plays an important role in the determination of human relations. While people are
interpreting the bodily feedbacks given by the people they are communicating with to understand their intentions, they
rely on the information they give about themselves; that is, their explanations about themselves. The Johari Window
technique is the technique that supports the creation of trust in interpersonal relations, as well as the elimination of
problems arising in the communication used in counseling processes. According to this technique, the area including an
individual's behaviors, attitudes, feelings, experiences, skills or clear information about how he/she looks is called the
open area. This area’s being broad plays an important role in the individual’s developing close relationships with other
members of society, in his/her happiness or in his/her living positive emotions. In many studies, it was determined that
both the physical health and psychological health of the people who shared their knowledge about themselves were
positively affected. The purpose of the current study is to expand the open area of the group members participating in
nine-session group work by using Johari window so that their understanding and awareness of themselves can be
improved and their understanding of others can be enhanced and they can be enabled to see interpersonal differences.
The study group of the current research is comprised of 12 students; 5 females and 7 males, from the Department of
Psychological Counseling and Guidance who participated in the study on a volunteer basis. In the current study, in order
to collect data, the Psychological Well-being Scale, which was developed on the basis of Ryff's (1989) psychological
well-being model and the Johari Window Evaluation Form developed according to the model proposed by Joseph Luft
and Harry Ingham were used. According to the posttest results obtained at the end of the study, it was observed that the
open areas of the university students participating in the group work were expanded and their scores taken from the
sub-dimension “positive relationships with others” of the subjective well-being increased.
Keywords: Johari window, subjective well-being
1. Introduction
The existence of healthy social relations is a psychological need and the happiness of people depends on the extent to
which this need is met (Nur Şahin, 2011). Communication plays an important role in the formation of human relations.
While people are interpreting the bodily feedbacks given by the people they are communicating with to understand their
intentions, they rely on the information they give about themselves; that is, their explanations about themselves. They
determine the quality of social support they will offer and the direction of the human relations they will establish on this
explanation and trust (Kılıç & Önen, 2011). The individual’s talking about himself/herself during his/his attempts to
create new relationships provides the ground for the development of the relationship as it can bring trust, warmth and
acceptance (Ataşalar, 1996). In his book “The Transparent Self” (1964), Jourard stated that conversational patterns are
related to the level of intimacy between people. In other words, when a person reveals his / her personal information,
the interlocutor responds to it. Subsequent studies have determined that this is about the principle of reciprocity in
disclosure. According to this principle, as long as the person gives information about himself/herself and shows
closeness to the other person, the other person will give the same amount of information and feels close (Burger, 2006;
p:466; Ağlamaz, 2006 ). The Johari Window technique is the technique that supports the creation of trust in
interpersonal relations, as well as the elimination of problems arising in the communication used in counseling
processes. There are two dimensions involved in this technique; what the person knows about himself/herself and what
other people have learned about this person (Yıldız, 2014). From the interaction of these two dimensions, four states
emerge:
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77
1. General State (Open Area): This refers to open information about the individual’s behaviours, attitudes,
emotions, experiences, skills and how he/she looks. This area is generally easily observable by both the person and the
group and includes the information the individual is not hesitant about disclosing.
2. Special State (Hidden Area): This hidden or avoided self includes the information that a person knows
about himself/herself but consciously wants to hide. Information about one’s concerns, fears, feelings of jealousy is kept
in this area. Reduction of hidden area opens the way to effective and trusting communication.
3. Suspicious State (Blind Area): It includes the information that is known by others about the person yet is
not known or rejected by the person. The blind area can also be named as the ignorance about oneself. This is an area of
increasing self-consciousness. This area of any group member can be narrowed through the sensitive feedbacks given
by the other group members and by encouraging the member to be more open.
4. Unknown State (Unknown): It includes the remarkable characteristics of the individual that are not known
much by both himself/herself and others. Unknown subjects can be emotions, behaviours, attitudes, abilities or they can
be deeper aspects of a personality, and these unrecognized features can affect the individual’s behaviours in various
ways. Lack of information about the source of behaviours and thoughts can be seen much in individuals who are
lacking experience or having low self-efficacy beliefs (Luft & İngham, 2014; Malhan and Ersoy, 2001).
The Johari Window can be used for the person to understand himself/herself and to raise his/her personal awareness and
also to enable him/her to understand others and to see interpersonal differences. Harmony in interpersonal relations and
a healthy communication depend on the width of the open area. The main purpose of all work groups should be to
expand the open area of the individual member because open or free area can be seen as the area where good
communication and cooperation take place. Individuals with a wide open area can communicate well with others in a
reciprocal understanding. On the other hand, while the wideness of the “blind area” refers to “blind communication”,
the wideness of the “hidden area” refers to “crippled communication” (Yıldız, 2014; Nofriza, 2017).
Decrease in the number of people with whom intimate issues such as private life can be talked about may mean that
communication established with other people is distant from being intimate and is like doing it as a requirement of a
role (Üstündağ, 2006). Spherer and Wheeless, who examined the nature of self-disclosure in developing relationships,
concluded that the amount of self-disclosure is significantly effective on the relationship development, whether the
relationship lasts long or not, and on the relationship’s dimensions of depth, honesty, intent, and positivity (Nur Şahin,
2011). The forms of communication which are influential on the development of close relationships between individuals
play an important role in the happiness of the person or his/her living positive emotions. In many studies, it has been
determined that both the physical health and psychological health of the people who tend to share information about
themselves are positively affected.
In terms of the psychological and physical health of the individual, not only establishing relationship and self-disclosure
but also how this relationship is established is important (Doğan and Sapmaz, 2012). The feeling expressed as feeling in
the daily life is defined as “subjective well-being” by Diener (1984) in the literature. Subjective well-being represents a
positive aspect of mental health (Diener, 2000). It is clear that the subjective well-being of the individual will have
many positive reflections in his/her life, such as experiencing positive emotions, becoming productive, coping with or
adapting to inevitable negative life experiences, and building more qualified relationships with people. According to
Myers and Deiner (1995), besides these two components, there is a third component called life satisfaction (cited in
Özen, 2010). In the positive feelings dimension of subjective well-being, there are feelings such as joy, excitement,
pride, hope, interest, vigilance and trust while in its negative feelings dimension, there are feelings such as sadness, guilt,
hatred, and anger. The third dimension, life satisfaction, includes the individual’s sense of satisfaction and evaluations
related to different fields of life. In order to be able to claim that the subjective well-being of the individual is high,
his/her life satisfaction should be high, positive emotions should be experienced frequently and negative feelings should
be experienced less (Eryılmaz, 2010).
Many theories have been created to explain the subjective well-being by placing many different ideas developed to
explain what makes the individual happy on a scientific ground. These theories are goal theories, theory of effectiveness,
inductive and deductive theories, theories of judgment, adaptation theory, bond theory, equilibrium theory and Ryff's
psychological well-being theory. According to goal theories, what makes individuals whose goals and desires are
different happy is their behaving in compliance with goals suitable for their own values (Saygın, 2008). According to
theory of effectiveness, what brings happiness to the life of individuals is their being engrossed in an activity so deeply
that they do not care about anything. Csikszentmihalyi, (2005) calls this state as “flow”. Happiness is individuals’
feeling satisfied as a result of involvement in an activity and product of their effectiveness (Diener, 2000; Yavuz, 2006).
According to inductive theories, happiness is the combination of the satisfaction taken by the individual from different
fields of life such as family life, marriage, income level. According to the deductive theorists, the difference between the
Journal of Education and Training Studies Vol. 7, No. 5; May 2019
78
happiness levels of people stems from their tendencies towards thinking positively and negatively. That is, while the
inductive theory argues that subjective-well being depends on living conditions, the deductive theory contends that the
personality is more influential than living conditions on subjective well-being (Brief, George, Butcher & Link, 1993).
The theories of judgment argue that subjective-well being emerges as a result of the comparison made between some
standards such as the state of others, past conditions and desires and actual conditions. That is, the individual decides
whether he/she is happy or not by comparing himself/herself with other individuals in many respects. The theory of
adaptation argues that the individual creates happiness as a result of the comparison he/she makes between his/her new
situation and standards which he/she has had for a long time and which are a part of his/her normal life. If the
individual’s new situation is better than his/her old standards, then he/she will feel happy but if this new situation
continues for a long time then the person will get used to them and they won’t make him/her happy anymore; thus,
he/she will seek new standards to be happy (Yetim, 2001; Nur şahin, 2011). The theorists advocating the bond theory
are of the opinion that the individual’s happiness depends on the existence of a rich cognitive network or conditionings.
They see the reason for the unhappiness as individuals’ being connected to each other with negative bonds and their
limited and isolated cognitive networks (Yetim, 2001). The dynamic equilibrium theorists have stated that the level of
subjective well-being is associated with inherent personality traits to some extent yet positive or negative deviations
from the person’s normal life affect his/her level of happiness (Headey and Wearing, 1989). The six factors making up
the Ryff's subjective well-being concept are classified as follows;
Self-acceptance: The individual’s being in a positive attitude towards himself/herself by accepting
himself/herself and his/her past life,
Positive Relationships: The people who can develop positive relationships with people they are living with
can develop a sense of deep empathy and love. Establishing open and reliable relationships with other people is an
indication of positive mental health and maturity.
Autonomy: It refers to characteristics such as making decisions on the basis of one’s own standards as
independent of others and being able to resist to social pressure. Autonomy creates the sense of freedom in the daily life
of the person.
Environmental Mastery: It is seen to be the skill of coping with the complex events experienced throughout
the life and of controlling them. Environmental mastery also defined as the individual’s selecting the environment
suitable for his/her own spiritual conditions is one of the features of positive mental health.
Purpose in life: The individual’s believing that his/her life is meaningful and has a goal.
Personal Growth: Being open to new experiences is an important criterion for the personal growth of the
individual and for his/her self-actualization.
Ryff (1989) admits that these six dimensions are affected by the factors such as the culture, history, ethnic origin and
class of the individual and all of them together contribute to the happiness of the individual (Ryff, 1989; Ryff , 2014;
Özen, 2005).
When all these theories are examined, it is seen that the individual’s social relations in his/her daily life, how these
relations are organized and his/her level of understanding others are important in terms of the level of subjective
well-being. Expanding the open area representing the person in the Johari Window, his/her view of the world and the
way others perceive him/her, and narrowing of the unknown area can be achieved by increasing the degree of
self-disclosure. Expanding the open area representing how the person in Johari Window sees himself/herself, his/her
view of the world and how others perceive the person and reducing the “unknown area” can make it possible to increase
the level of individual’s disclosure. The purpose of the current study is to expand the “open area” of the group members
participating in a 9-session group work in Johari window aiming to enhance the group members’ understanding of
themselves, raise their self-awareness and enable them to understand others and see interpersonal differences and to
improve their subjective well-being levels. In this context, the general objectives of the group work have been
constructed as follows:
Helping them in their relationships with the people involved in their lives and share their positive and negative
feelings about these relationships,
Encouraging them to express the effect of their previous experiences on the approaches they have adopted to
life and more importantly their effect on their attitudes deeply rooted in their life attitudes,
Raising the group members’ self awareness,
Encouraging them to develop different and multi-faceted views for findings solutions to life problems.
In the current study, the following hypotheses were tested:
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1. The experimental group’ posttest well-being scores will be significantly higher than their pretest well-being scores.
2. The experimental group’s feedback and being open posttest scores making up their open area scores will be
significantly higher than their pretest scores.
2. Method
The current study was designed according to the experimental method and employed the single-group pretest-posttest
research design. The experimental design is a research method aiming to determine cause-effect relationships between
events and used to test the hypotheses proposed by the researcher. When the same subjects’ measurements for the
dependent variable before and after the experimental application are taken, measurements of the subjects need be
repeated at different time intervals (Büyüköztürk, 2012).
2.1 Study Group
The study group of the current research is comprised of 12 students; 5 females and 7 males, from the Department of
Psychological Counseling and Guidance who participated in the study on a volunteer basis. Before the formation of the
group, a short interview was made with the students wanting to participate. Care was taken to select the ones not having
participated in such a study before.
2.2 Data Collection Tools and Analysis
In the current study, in order to collect data, the Psychological Well-being Scale, which was developed on the basis of
Ryff's (1989) psychological well-being model and the Johari Window Evaluation Form developed according to the
model proposed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham were used.
2.2.1 Psychological Well-Being Scale
In the scale developed by Ryff in 1989 and adapted to Turkish by Cenkseven in 2004, there are 84 items. The lowest
score to be taken from the scale is 84 and the highest score to be taken is 504. The increase in the total score indicates
increasing psychological well-being. The scale was developed to measure 6 dimensions of psychological well-being: 1)
autonomy-independence, personal determination, 2) environmental mastery, the person’s managing his/her life, 3)
personal growth – being open to new experiences, 4) positive relationships with others – being satisfied with relations, 5)
purpose in life – the person’s believing that his/her life is meaningful, 6) self-acceptance – having positive attitudes to
the self and his/her past. Each of the 6 factors in the scale has 14 items. The loading of the scale items were found to be
ranging from .54 to .76. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the fit indices were found to be as follows RMSEA= 0.08,
SRMR= 0.04, GFI= 0.96, NFI= 0.94, RFI= 0.92, CFI= 0.95 and IFI= 0.95. The Cronbach Alpha internal reliability
coefficient of the scale was calculated to be .80. Test-retest has revealed that between the first and second administration
of the scale, there is a high level positive and significant correlation (r= 0.86, p<.001).
2.2.2 Johari Window Evaluation Form
This evaluation form developed by the psychologist Joseph Luft and psychiatrist Harry Ingham is a technique used to
eliminate the problems stemming in communication and to command trust and it is also used in counselling processes.
The 48-item Johari Window evaluation form includes items related to giving feedback and being open. While the scale
is evaluated, 4 different scores can be obtained that are Gl (Open Area), G2 (Hidden Area), Al (Blind Area) and A2
(Unknown Area). Each item is assigned 1 point. The scores taken from G1 and G2 are summed and then divided into
two and in this way their mean is taken and the area known to the self is calculated. The mean of A1 and A2 gives the
score of the area not known to the self. The intersection point of these scores gives the size of the open area.
2.3 Experimental Application Procedure
Following the pre-test administered during the group work, one session was conducted each week and the whole
experimental application lasted for 9 weeks. Each session lasted for 90 minutes. After the completion of the 9-session
experimental process, the effect of the application was tested through post-test analyses. The session contents related to
group works are given below:
1st Session: Name Stories
After a short introduction with the participating group members, the group rules were determined. As the first session is
an introduction session, it was initiated by asking the participating students’ names and their meanings. Then the session
was ended by letting the group members talk about these questions; “Do you think that your name represents you? If
you had a chance to select your name, which name would you prefer? From which aspects do you find the name you
would select close to you?” and the names they found suitable for the other group members and other people. In this
way, it was attempted to help the group members to get to know themselves, to make communication with them easier
and help them understand the first impression they leave on others.
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2nd Session: Drawing of Social Atom
In this activity, the main emphasis was on getting to know the group members more closely by talking about their
family members and their relationships with these members. While this activity was being carried out, crayons and
pastel colours were used. The activity was conducted as follows: The group members were asked to draw the people
who are having or having had positive or negative impacts on their lives together with the symbols indicating their most
typical characteristics and then to interpret these symbols. In this way, information was elicited about their relationships
with people who are important in their lives. Then, everybody interpreted their social atoms in turn. Then a whole group
discussion was started about why they selected their symbols, why they selected these colours and who these symbols
represented. All the group members actively participated in this discussion.
3rd Session: First Memories
Adler emphasized that people describe their first memories as my life story from a subjective point of view. He also
states that the first memories that individuals remember about their childhood have formed their opinions which
approve and support their current world views or in Adler’s words, formed their conceptual schemes. Moreover, he
argues that as they direct the efforts invested by the individual for meaningfulness and security, they constitute the law
of behaviours or the goal of a functional life (Kopp and Eckstein, 2004). The first memories contain individuals’
different approaches of life and more importantly their effects embedded in their life attitudes. At this point, the first
memories are the starting point of a human being and a strong indication of the individual's orientations (Mc.Curdy,
1986). The use of the first memories in the counselling environment helps the individual to understand that he/she has a
unique and effective empathy potential, in establishing empathy with the client and in understanding his/her way of
perception (Arthur, 2001). In addition, Martin Mayman (1957) believes that the first memories determine the life style
of the person and stresses that these memories are chosen and unconsciously organized according to the personality
dynamics of the person (cited in Fowler, Hilsenroth and Handler, 2000, Balen, 1999). Mayman (1968) named them as
personality myths by thinking that these experiences are mostly related to the pieces of personality, directly reflected on
the functioning of the ego and that they define the psychological realities that show the dominant subjects in human life
(cited in Ghazala and Manzoor, 2003). For these reasons, the group members were asked to describe their first three
memories which they had clearly remembered in the first years of their lives and how they had affected their lives.
4th Session: Communication Cards
Therapeutic cards reflect the inner world of people as a projective technique. The users of these cards make their own
interpretation of what they have seen. Thus, people using the cards can make a special sense about their current state
and themselves from what they have seen in the cards. Therapeutic cards can be used for individual, family and group
counselling. Through these cards, interpersonal interactions can be established and individuals can explore their inner
worlds.
In the study, the therapeutic card groups such as ON; SAGA; HABITAT; PERSONA; MORENA; MYTHOS; 1001
NIGHTS were used to encourage the participants to think about the situations they see as problems negatively affecting
their lives and then they were asked to select the cards to represent the past, present and future of these situations. It was
aimed to improve the group members’ emotional discharge and interpersonal interactions by allowing them to share
their feelings about the situations they see as problematic. In the next stage, each participant was made to select a card
for the solution to the problem and last card was asked to be chosen as an alternative solution; thus, a total of 5 cards
were selected by each participant and in this way the problems were reified and the participants were encouraged to
think about solutions. The opinions of the other group members were sought about the solution and alternative solutions
and thus each participant was enabled to make use of different viewpoints.
5th Session: Dreams
Freud widely used dreams in the counseling process. Yet, Freud believes that the banned thoughts, impulses, and desires
that are suppressed in subconscious are lived through symbols in dreams. Unlike Freud, Adler sees dreams as the
structural and functional processes of the future, which consist entirely of the lifestyle of the client, due to the thematic
structures that exist within his/her personality. Dreams are structures that can be redefined and recalled. During the
dream, concurrent and harmonious thoughts with the current life style are separated and reinterpreted. These
reinterpretations are in fact a way of solving one's problems. Adler states that the current and future-oriented aspects of
experiences and conflicts that could not be overcome in the past are tried to be solved by dreams. Yet, the client is not
aware of these thoughts of him/her (Oberst and Steward, 2003). The materials obtained from the content of dreams give
much information about the client without spending too much time and energy (Carlson & Slavik, 1997, p. 97) because
they the reflections the client’s current interests and mental state. That is, they are short-term solutions. Clients can learn
recognizing and observing their own internal dynamics by investigating their dreams. Children attach great importance
to their dreams. In contrast to what is claimed by Freud, there are no universal or fixed symbols. Symbols are specific to
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people. Dreams cannot be understood without knowing their owner (Mosak, 1997, p. 37; Geçtan, 1981; Carlson &
Slavik, 1997, p. 97). For this reason, in this session the group members were asked to tell the dreams that had
profoundly affected them and then they were asked to interpret them and the other group members were asked to
interpret them, too.
6th Session: Secret Drawing
Secrets are experiences which the person is ashamed of or regrets. The sharing of one's own private secret feelings in a
safe environment reduces emotional pressure (Tuzcuoğlu, 1992). In this session, the group members were asked to
express through drawing how their thoughts and secrets which they cannot disclose, which they feel guilty of and which
compel their minds make themselves feel through the paper and pastels or watercolors given to them. For the group
members not to regret later, they were not forced to explicitly express their secrets and the ones who were willing to
express were not prevented. Background music was used during the activity and after the completion of the drawings,
the group members who wanted made comments on each other’s drawings. At the end of session, group members were
asked to interpret their own drawings and thus they were allowed to experience emotional discharge.
7th Session: Wise Man
In this session, it was aimed to develop problem solving, independent and solution-oriented thinking skills of the group
members. In the session, all the group members were asked to think about their problems they hadn’t solved and made
them concerned in their lives. The group members were then divided into two groups and one was the wise man of the
other. The wise man was assigned the responsibility of finding solution to the problem of the other. Then the roles were
exchanged. The other group members were also asked to think about alternative solutions to the discussed problems.
This was repeated for all the pairs and the session was ended.
8th Session: Aliens Kidnapped
It is an activity to identify coping strategies for the problems to be encountered and to create awareness. The activity
starts with the narration of a story. The content of the story is as follows: “You are lying in your bed relaxed after you
have finished your routine works at any time in any day and then you have slept. While you are sleeping, you have been
kidnapped by aliens. When you open your eyes, you have found yourself in a completely strange place. In this strange
place there are a lot of people like you but you haven’t met any of them before in your life and it is not possible to
communicate with them. There are creatures you have never seen before and these creatures want you to obey some
rules. What would you do in such a situation?” This story was given to the group members. Then, they were given
some time to think and organize their thoughts. The most common behavior patterns used by the group members in their
daily life and the related emotions they felt were discussed.
At the end of the process, they discussed the coping strategies they used against this situation, how frequently they used
these strategies in their daily life and whether these coping strategies worked or not. Those having different viewpoints
from the others were given the opportunity to talk. Then, the session was ended.
9th Session: The Last 2 Hours of Your Life
Many individuals continuously put off what they want to do and put aside the most important moments and thus they
reduce their life satisfaction. One of the important causes of unhappiness is that a person cannot really do what he/she
wants or, in other words, cannot actualize himself/herself. Many people find the power and courage to perform what
they want to do when they remember the existence of death. Therefore, the group members were asked “If today were
the last day of your life, would you like to do the things that you normally do?”. The group members shared their
opinions in relation to this question. The session continued with the activity “letter to my friend”.
Letter to my friend: The group members wrote unanimous letters to each other and expressed their opinions about how
they perceive the group member to whom the letter was written. In this session, they expressed what they like in the
other person, what they are mistaken about the other person and what aspects they think the other person needs to
develop. All the sessions were reviewed and the positive and negative sides of group works were discussed. Then the
group work was ended after the group members had shared positive feelings and thoughts about each other.
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3. Findings
Table 1. The Results of the Single Sample Shapiro-Wilk Test Conducted to Test the Normality of the Distribution of the
Johari Window and Subjective Well-Being Scores
Values
Feedback Pre-test
Being Open
Pre-test
Feedback
Post-test
Being Open
Post-test
Total
subjective
well-being
Pre-test
Total
subjective
well-being
Post-test
N
12
12
12
12
12
12
Normal
34,70
31,33
36,83
32,83
378,25
386,41
Parameters
12
12
12
12
12
12
Shapiro-Wilk Z
,375
,011
,730
,109
,631
,251
p
p>.05
p<.05
p>.05
p>.05
p>.05
p>.05
According to the results of Shapiro-Wilk Test conducted to determine whether the data are suitable for normal
distribution, except for the being open pre-test, the distribution was found to be normal in all the dimensions. As a
normal distribution was found for the being open post-test and not so much difference was observed between the
non-parametric results of the being open pre-test, in the analysis of all the dimensions, the dependent-samples t-test was
preferred.
Table 2. The Results of the Dependent Samples T- test Conducted to Determine Whether there is a Significant
Difference between the Experimental Group Pre-test and Post-test Mean Scores Taken from the Johari Window Scale
and Subjective Well-Being Scale
Measurement
N
Mean
S
t
p
Johari
Window
Feedback
Pre-test
12
34,70
2,783
-3,451
,005
Post-test
12
36,83
2,972
Being open
Pre-test
12
31,33
2,579
-2,675
,022
Post-test
12
32,83
1,466
Subjective Well-Being
Positive Relationships with
Others
Pre-test
12
66,25
9,215
-3,559
,004
Post-test
12
71,83
12,575
Autonomy
Pre-test
12
57,50
5,823
,611
,554
Post-test
12
56,66
6,866
Environmental Mastery
Pre-test
12
59,91
9,614
-1,049
,317
Post-test
12
61,91
9,336
Personal Growth
Pre-test
12
66,08
5,915
-2,006
,070
Post-test
12
69,50
5,823
Purpose in Life
Pre-test
12
62,33
8,116
-1,638
,130
Post-test
12
65,08
8,436
Self-acceptance
Pre-test
12
60,66
8,381
-,223
,828
Post-test
12
61,08
7,476
Total Subjective Well-Being
Pre-test
12
378,25
40,627
-,966
,355
Post-test
12
386,41
38,808
As a result of the Dependent Samples T-test conducted to determine whether there is a significant difference between
the pre-test and post-test mean scores taken from Johari Window Scale and Subjective Well-Being Scale, it was found
that in the “feedback” dimension of Johari Window, the post-test mean score was found to be significantly higher at the
significance level of .01 than the per-test mean score and in the “being open” sub-dimension, the post-test mean score
was found to be significantly higher at the significance level of .05 than the per-test mean score. Moreover, in the
“positive relationships with others” sub-dimension of the subjective well-being scale, the post-test mean score was
found to be significantly higher at the significance level of .01 than the per-test mean score. These results indicate that
at the end of the 9-session group work, relationships with others improved and the open area that this area is generally
easily observable by both the person and the group and includes the information the individual is not hesitant about
disclosing.
4. Results and Discussion
One of the most important elements that ensure integrity in the establishment of healthy and balanced relations with
other members of the society; perhaps the most important one, is the sharing of the information, feelings and needs that
the person avoid disclosing with others because on the basis of the secure and intimate relationships lies the sharing of
private information with others. Self-disclosure of the individual at appropriate level and at the right time leads to more
secure attachments to parents, the opposite sex and friends (Koçak 2002; Çetinkaya & Akbaba, 2011). Emotions such as
the comfort arising from sharing one’s problems positively affect the individual’s subjective well-being and accordingly
x
ss
Journal of Education and Training Studies Vol. 7, No. 5; May 2019
83
life satisfaction, an important component of subjective well-being. According to Diener (1994), the subjective
well-being also defined as happiness is the evaluation of the extent to which the individual is satisfied with his/her life
and the extent to which he/she experiences positive and negative feelings. These evaluations include people’s emotional
reactions to events, mood and satisfaction with their marriage and business life and their positive or negative
judgements about their life satisfaction. People with higher levels of subjective well-being are individuals positively
evaluating their own life situations and conditions (Uygur, 2018).
In the related literature, there are explanations and similar study findings that support this finding. Uygur (2018) also
remarked that the sense of relaxation brought about for adolescents by sharing their problems would contribute to life
satisfaction, and that the increase in self-disclosure behaviors would increase the healthy and close relations in their
environment. Demirci & Şar (2017) showed that self-knowledge and psychological well-being are closely related to
each other. Self-knowledge refers to the person's awareness of his experience and standards over time and corresponds
to the open area in the Johari window technique. In the study by Behjati, Saeedi, Noorbala, Enjedani and Meybodi
(2011), they concluded that a person's level of self-knowledge is positively correlated with both his/her mental and
general health. Kahn & Hessling, (2001), Larson & Chasting, (1990) concluded that people who hide their unpleasant
information experience more stress, their well-being and level of happiness have been adversely affected. In their study
investigating the relationships between the subjective and psychological well-being; positive dimensions of mental
health, and the styles of the relationships established with other people, Doğan and Sapmaz (2012) found that
communicating in a clear, respectful and healthy way contributes to the subjective well-being of the individual. In their
study, Gündoğdu and Yavuzer stated that the creation of environments that improve students’ subjective well-being,
allow the satisfaction of students’ basic psychological needs, in which students’ personal opinions are appreciated and
their sense of belongingness and capacity of effectively interacting with the environment are promoted would enhance
the level of well-being (Gündoğdu &Yavuzer, 2012). Clark (1995) stated that social adjustment could be improved by
creating programs that could be implemented within the school, such as collaborative learning, conflict resolution,
special education with peers, peers' counseling, communication services and class discussions. In other words,
according to research results, the happiness level increases as the person raises his/her awareness of himself / herself.
In the current study, nine-session group work was conducted to expand the “open-area” representing how the individual
participating in the group process sees himself/herself, his/her view of the world and how others perceive the individual,
to reduce the “unknown area” and to increase the extent to which the individual reveals and his/her well-being level. As
a result of the current study, it was observed that the participating university students’ open area was expanded and their
scores taken from the subjective well-being’s sub-dimension of positive relationships with others increased. People’s
not using effective communication methods leads to conflicts with the environment they are living in. These conflicts
are thought to pose a threat to the person’s state of well-being and to reduce the capacity of man who is a social entity
and creates the meaning of his/her own life through interactions with other members of the society. Luft and Ingham
(2014) pointed out that the scope of the open area can be expanded towards the hidden and blind areas when group
members actively listen to each other and receive feedback from other group members. Yalom (1992) defined various
enhancing elements which he found important for change in group therapies and group works such as inspiring hope,
revision of the group members’ primary family relationships and dynamics in the group, development of socialization
techniques, taking model, interpersonal learning, group commitment, sense of group belongingness and catharsis (Kızıl
& Yalçın, 2015). As a conclusion, in contrast to environments preventing the satisfaction of the basic psychological
needs, environments allowing individuals to satisfy their needs were found to be positively affecting well-being and
mental health.
When the results of the current research and other research results are evaluated, it can be argued that workshops,
seminars or psycho-education programs should be organized at schools by psychological counselors to inform
adolescents about behavioral patterns that will facilitate self-disclosure and to seek ways of providing healthy social
support for adolescents (Uygur, 2018). The general nature of such programs involves improving the desire to
communicate by focusing on the anxiety of helping others, promoting the feeling that someone is valuable and making
this feeling internalized. For a society with a high level of mental health and subjective well-being, education and
guidance activities can be organized starting from the first years of education, which will improve the self-awareness of
children, young people and their families.
Journal of Education and Training Studies Vol. 7, No. 5; May 2019
84
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