For the first window which is open self, DeVito claims that people know something about us and we also already know about oueselves. For instance, the basic details about ourselves liked our age, name, the color of hair, sex, attitudes, feelings, motivation, political and religion. When we meeting a new friend, we would tell him the basic about ourselves such as our name, where we live and where we were from. The open self will be more widen when the people we interact with can make us feel comfortable and closed to us. The relationship with our parents and best friends can be one of the examples. Communication becomes worse if our open self getting smaller. It means that if we are too secretive to others, it is difficult to communicate and we are surely having social interaction problems.
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It is a good thing if we have a large open self. Being an ‘open self’ person, others used to be more comfy with us and it is a very good point to students to have a large open self as working in groups is common between students. By practicing the open self more in future, we can simply accept other’s views and perceptions about us whether it is negative or positive. The people who have a large open self will get more powerful position in negotiation and the percentage to be exploited is less. (Straker, 2012)
The second window, the blind self, is the opposite window to the open self. In this window, DeVito (1994) argued that people usually know certain things about us that we do not know about it. It can be related to some information about us such as the way we defense ourselves or fight strategies. In example, we tend to play with our fingers when we getting nervous or we choose to keep in silence when we get angry with someone. Some people who have a very outsized blind self seems to ignore their own faults. Some people say that they know everything about themselves and saying that they can surely eliminate the blind self window. We can never get rid of the blind area yet it always there. Nevertheless, the communication will be difficult with it existence.
We have a tendency to be people who do not even care about what the others think about us if we have a large blind self. We do hide certain things about ourselves but only in a small count. People around us tend to labeled us as harmless person because they know certain things that we do not realize it liked our weakness points. If it is happen, people can easily take advantage of our naivety. Sometimes we can be aggressive which will cause to disliked and feared. For instance, we may have a smelly mouth or we may have a bad odor body that makes people stay a distance from us. People will not tell us about these because it will cause misunderstood or misconception in a relationship. And yes, it is difficult to make a truly confession about the blind self window. (Straker, 2012)
The third window is hidden self. Mostly, DeVito (2011) said that this window representing some information that you know but the others do not know about it. This part contains every secret that you successfully kept from other people. In this area, there are two types of groups which are the over disclosers and the under disclosers. The over disclosers do not mind to share all their secrets about themselves or others. They will let us know about their family history, dark sides, bank card passwords and everything else. While the opposites side, the under disclosers, they keep everything hidden. They will not tell anything about them in every conversation they have made even though with someone who is closed to.
By having a large size of the third window, people may say that we tend to appeared distance and secretive to others. Just like the second window, we tend to speak out less about us if we are in the under discloser group. We may be a person who not easily trusts people in a short period. We do take time to build a trust. While having a conversation, we may pay less attention to others because we are too afraid if we may slip our tongue when we speaking. Our introversion is the main cause that has led us to retreat the world with suspicion and awareness. It is a different thing when we go to the second group, the over discloser. This group may be labeled as a group of people who not a good person in keeping secrets. They have no doubt to tell the others about our past, our dark side and many things that we should keep it. Because of it, it will make people hardly to put a high expectation in keeping secrets. (Straker, 2012)
The last spot of the Johari Window theory that DeVito (2011) had mentioned is the unknown self which is no one know about the self neither ourselves nor others identify it. It hidden in our subconscious or by some means is we would escape notice on it that may remain an unrevealed. It can be discovered by hypnosis, various projective tests or dreams. The discovery also can be done through honest and emphatic relationship. Our interaction with family, friends and lovers can be used as examples as they are the most trusted person in our life and they trust us back. It is an efficient method to gain insight.
People may think we are mysterious person if we are having a great size of the unknown self. We may be looked like a lonely and friendless person but we are not a shy person. The hidden things may consist of both good and bad things that not possible to discovered it if this window go through the other window, the open self, the blind self or the hidden self window. (Straker, 2012)
Associated with Johari Window, DeVito (2011) conclude that each individual’s window will be vary as one self grows, one or more of the other selves shrink.
‘According to Charless Horton Cooley’s (1922) concept of the looking glass self, when you want to discover, say, how friendly or how assertive you are, you would look at the image of yourself that others reveal to you through the way they treat you and react to you (Hensley, 1996). You’d look especially to those who are most significant in your life. As a child, you’d look to your parents and then to your teachers. As an adult, you might look to your friends, romantic partners and colleagues at work. If these important others think highly of yourself reflected in their behaviors; if they think little of you, you’ll see a more negative image.’
(DeVito, 2011)
By visualizing this model as representing yourself, it will build up our personal development either to positive or negative. Hence, our self-concept, self-awareness and self-esteem will be increased in future.
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