Historically, most intelligence theories include the personal intelligences that encompass apprehension of one’s own experience, the ability to understand and manage people, and insight into the states of other people. Intrapersonal intelligence enables an individual to cultivate self-awareness, which operates during transitions at three progressive levels. Self-knowledge is produced by reflective thinking and is the basis for growth and development. The capacity for self-assessment follows and evaluates strengths and weaknesses during a transition. This supports self-development, which turns awareness into action. Interpersonal intelligence enables an individual to empathize with others, manage relationships in mutually beneficial ways, give and receive feedback, and build collaborative relationships that develop and ultimately lead others. The personal intelligences are investigated through retrospective interviews with twenty-four elite performers in three domains (business, sports, and music) who successfully and repeatedly transitioned to higher positions within their field.

The worldviews of Jean Genet, Marquis de Sade, and Anton LaVey are presented in this chapter. All of them accuse society of being morally hypocritical. Empirical research vis-à-vis hypocrisy in the psychology of morality is discussed. A moral-pluralistic approach is proposed in which different moral positions are prominent and can come into conflict with each other. In this context, Max Weber’s “ethic of responsibility” is discussed as relevant to political leadership. Then, the monopositionality of utopian visions, such as fascism, communism, religions, and neoliberalism, are criticized as being focused on one ideal end-position that does not allow counter-positions or alternative points of view As practical implications of this chapter, I offer three guidelines for dealing with hypocrisy: the role of self-awareness, perspective-taking, and the stimulation of moral multiplicity.

Chapter 9 explores the impact that dyslexia has had on people in a range of professional settings. As detailed at the start of this book, we asked a number of adults with dyslexia to tell us about their career journeys. Those who responded to our request work in a variety of professions, such as health care, the civil service, management, entertainment, engineering and some are self-employed (entrepreneurs). All have achieved some degree of success in their work. This chapter includes their stories, with as little editing from us as possible to fit the requirements of the book. We told our contributors that the aim of these stories was to gain their perspectives of the impact that dyslexia had on them as individuals as well as on their careers. We asked them to consider what skills supported them in their work-life, and what challenges had influenced their job performance, as well as how they may have overcome these challenges. We also asked them to talk about whether they felt that their current job was right for them. The variety of perspectives are consistent with many of the points made in previous chapters, including self-understanding, positive attitudes and goodness of fit.

Recent decades have seen a revival of interest in the study of the self, self-awareness and various changes in self-awareness, especially in the context of mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia. This chapter outlines the psychopathology of various disturbances of awareness of self-activity, including depersonalisation, loss of emotional resonance, disturbances in the immediate awareness of self-unity, disturbances in the continuity of the self and disturbances of the boundaries of the self. It also explores theory of mind, consciousness and schizophrenia, which represent areas of growing research interest. The chapter concludes with suggested questions for eliciting specific symptoms in clinical practice, in addition to standard history-taking and mental state examination.

Previous chapters showed that learners are ready to engage in instruction that addresses sophistication. It therefore behooves the field to examine what the construct of “pronunciation” means to both learners and practitioners.

The present chapter explores the need for new assessment criteria; it makes a call for research incorporating variables that would examine, for example, L2 learners’ awareness of what we call “sophisticated-language use” so as to match their manifested beliefs with how they are able to describe what advancedness should look like.

Are we, as scholars, helping to perpetuate elite-bilingualism and nativespeakerism? And how do we affect identity construction among L2 learners and heritage speakers? We assert that the communicative approach in teaching and assessment needs to shift to a more holistic and sociocognitive approach. This also extends to the need to reconceptualize our focus of assessment so that all skills, as well as other forms of literacy and cultural awareness are included.

What remains to be examined in the next chapters is learners’ self-perception, identity construction and awareness of their own social agency as L2 speakers

This chapter explores Plutarch’s presentation of greatness as it equates with leadership ability and outcomes. He expressly values civic participation and leadership that aims to secure and promote the welfare of the community. Subsequent to the presentation of some basic information concerning his theories of education, especially ethical education, attention is then focused on the innate components of greatness and the appropriate means to develop this inborn talent in training individuals to wield power in an effective and responsible fashion. A comparative analysis is then undertaken to set forth the similarities and differences between the psychological/behavioral makeup of Plutarch’s ideal leader and recent influential work in leadership theory by Daniel Goleman, James MacGregor Burns, and Bernard M. Bass. The significant degree of correspondence elucidated leads to a discussion of the literary techniques Plutarch employs to place in sharper relief the salient aspects of great leadership (and its opposite), including his developed use of synkrisis and the Socratic paradigm, as well as the representation of performative acts of leadership.

This chapter guides therapists to examine their social and cultural identities and their power and privilege as an essential part of becoming culturally competent therapists. This chapter emphasizes the importance of therapist cultural self-awareness as the basis for creating meaningful relationships with clients of all social and cultural backgrounds. We suggest concrete strategies to respect and validate the social identities of the self and clients to demonstrate comfort and readiness to work.

What does it actually mean to be professional? How can students develop their own sense of self, and how might this interact with their professional identify and performance? This chapter explains self-awareness and the importance of understanding your own values, beliefs and motivations in order to better understand the diverse experiences of others, and to nurture the therapeutic and professional relationships that are essential for quality nursing practice.

The role of emotional and social intelligence in understanding ourselves and others is also explored, as this concept is closely linked to self-awareness. Critical reflection and mindfulness are suggested as two strategies for fostering the development of greater self-awareness and better self-care, which may assist in caring for others with empathy, compassion and ‘intelligent kindness’. In essence, enhancing your self-awareness,self-care, understanding and compassion for others will help you interact and communicate more effectively, reconcile any differences or conflicts that may arise, and better cope with the emotional demands inherent in healthcare practice (Foster et al. 2015, Kelly, Runge & Spencer 2015).

A ‘nursing philosophy’ underpinning the curriculum is mandated by the accrediting body, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council (ANMAC). We believe that a rigorous philosophical position underpinning nursing theory and practice can provide a focus for the discipline in terms of practical reasoning and moral commitment.

This chapter introduces the concept of gratitude as an example of a virtuous character trait. Aristotle recognised the importance of properly trained emotions for acquiring the virtues; thus his account is consistent with our emphasis on emotional intelligence and self-awareness. We show how excellent practice as a nurse aligns with doing well as a human being. The main point argued in this chapter is that Aristotle’s conception of virtue can provide a philosophical ‘basis for nursing that focuses on moral competence in a robust, coherent and systematic way, while at the same time accommodates the demand for discipline-specific knowledge and high levels of technical skill’ (Bliss et al. 2017, p. 1). We contend that this underpinning philosophy allows the knowledge and caring aspects of nursing to be united.

This chapter reviews five decades of research on reactions to mirrors and self-recognition in nonhuman primates, starting with Gallup’s (1970) pioneering experimental demonstration of self-recognition in chimpanzees and its apparent absence in monkeys. Taking a decade-by-decade approach, developments in the field are presented separately for great apes on the one hand, and all other primates on the other (prosimians, monkeys, and so-called lesser apes), considering both empirical studies and theoretical issues. The literature clearly shows that among nonhuman primates the most compelling evidence for something approaching human-like visual self-recognition is seen only in great apes, despite an impressive range of sometimes highly original procedures employed to study many monkey species. In the past decade, research has been shifting from simple questions about whether great apes can self-recognize (now considered beyond doubt), to addressing possible biological bases for individual and species differences in the strength of self-recognition, analysis of possible adaptive functions of the capacity for self-visualization, and searching for evidence of self-recognition in a range of nonprimate species.

Monitoring our progress is an important – yet oft-overlooked – aspect of goal pursuit. However, the need for setting achievable markers that benchmark progress in the short term is crucial to achieving long-term success. After all, goal pursuit is a dynamic (rather than static) process and maximizing that process over time requires a systematic effort to monitor our progress.

This chapter tells the fascinating story of how human motivational processes evolved from the humblest of creatures, starting with “primordial” goals and precursors of basic emotions. In addition to explaining how our capabilities for self-direction and self-regulation evolved, this chapter provides a way of understanding the complexly organized motivational systems we see in humans in a way that transcends specific motivation theories. It is thus a chapter about the fundamental properties of human nature as they relate to motivation and optimal functioning rather than a chapter about a particular theoretical approach to human motivation. That is an essential framing, as one of the basic premises of this book is that efforts to motivate self and others can best succeed if they are consistent with basic human nature.

Although parents and educators have identified student social and emotional development as an important educational outcome, this domain has not received as much emphasis in educational policy or practice as academic achievement. Recognition of the contributions of social and emotional learning (SEL) to students’ social and academic success, however, has increased interest in promoting SEL in schools over the last decade. This chapter begins with a brief introduction to SEL constructs and definitions, followed by a synopsis of current SEL assessment and intervention practices. We also highlight the current state of empirical evidence for these practices and then turn to several important necessary future directions to advance school-based SEL practices.