Finally for part D of the assignment we met up and exchanged thoughts on each others photographs. When I met up with Karen to discuss what we had discovered about each other I think we were both quite surprised to find out that we had quite accurately analysed each other’s photos. We had only got little things wrong. Karen told me that she is in fact neat and tidy as her room suggests and this probably was influenced by her home, which as I predicted is close to university. I thought Karen probably lived close to uni as she has relatively few possessions in her room in comparison to me, I rarely go home but Karen is able to go home every weekend. I don’t think I did make any observations Karen hadn’t discovered before but I think she was definitely surprised by how much I did find out about her from some photographs.
When I saw Karen’s photographs I thought she might struggle with what I had given her, as I didn’t include any images of my bedroom or possessions. However, quite surprisingly Karen was able to summarise a lot about me under the following headings: tastes, influences and possessions. What she had managed to draw out of my photos was very interesting to read about. Below are Karen’s initial thoughts in response to my photographs:
- Active Lifestyle
- Fitness
- Sociable
- Team player
- Supportive
- Close relationship with friends/family
- Likes to try new things
- Competitive?
- Spent a lot of time with family/trips/outings
- Seen places
- Nice house/middle class
- Wore similar clothes to sister
- Animal lover
- Knows lots of people
- Member of different groups/clubs
- Dependable
- Developed own style/accessorises through scarves, belts earrings and glasses
- Holiday with the girls
- Enjoys nights out/having a drink/dance
- Relaxed
- Not a show off
- Self-assured
- Natural
- Artistic
- Rural
Were Karen's observations of me accurate?
Much of her findings I think are very true; I tend to exercise as much as I have time for. I especially like to go to classes at the gym, I occasionally go swimming and I also play hockey for Dundee University, so this also makes me a team player. I am quite competitive although less so than many hockey players, winning is not very important to me but I like to enjoy life and meet my own goals and targets. I am very close to my mum, and my mum’s family. My dad I tend to speak to less and over the years I have grown apart from my sister, we are very different now although do still have similar tastes in clothes. It is also very true to say I like to try new things, and visit places. I always like to be busy doing something. Lazing around all day watching TV for example bores me. I do really like animals, especially my dog Roy. It is true that I like to accessorize my outfits with scarves and jewellery as I wrote in an early blog post!
Karen wrote a great deal more about me and I found it all remarkably accurate, but she didn’t reveal anything I hadn’t considered. Karen also did get a couple of little things wrong. My favourite colour is not purple, I don’t think I really have a favourite colour. If I had to, I think I would say blue is my favourite colour but really I like all bright colours. Also I don’t choose to wear glasses, unfortunately I cannot get contacts suitable for my eyes yet. Karen also rightly suggested I played an instrument when I was younger however this was a lucky guess. The piano she made this assumption from was actually in the house when we moved in, none of my family can play an instrument other than me and my sister. We learnt the clarinet at school.
Did anything make me uncomfortable? How did I feel about thinking about other peoples private lives and being a research subject myself?
At first I wasn’t so keen on this task because childhood images, images of our possessions and environment are quite personal and in a way our privacy is being invaded. I could easily understand how some people may be unhappy with doing this task, perhaps their childhood is upsetting or they are worried other people may judge them. I also think the way each person goes about the task could affect how their partner found the task, degrading comments would be unpleasant. However I found the task interesting and I learnt a great deal.
‘The Johari Window’
Below is a diagram of The Johari Window
The diagram explains that it is only possible to obtain some information about any given person, you can never know everything about them. It is also impossible for anyone to know absolutely everything about himself or herself.
From analysing a persons photographs it is likely I would discover information about the ‘open self’ and possibly about ‘the blind self’ but I cannot know about their ‘hidden self’ unless they tells me, then it would become ‘open self’. Neither of us will ever know about their ‘unknown self’.
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