DEVELOPMENT OF SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT OF SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING • EMERGENCE OF SELF AND DEVELOPMENT OF SELF CONCEPT • THINKING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE • UNDERSTANDING CONFLICT : SOCIAL PROBLEM SOLVING EMERGENCE OF SELF AND DEVELOPMENT OF SELF CONCEPT Infancy is a rich formative period for development of both physical and social understanding. Infants develop an appreciation of the permanence of objects and that over the first year, infants recognize and respond appropriately to others’ emotions and distinguish familiar from unfamiliar people. Both objects and people achieve an independent, stable existence for infants implies that knowledge of the self as a separate, permanent entity is also emerging. Selfdevelopment begins with the dawning of self-awareness in infancy and gradually evolves into a rich, multifaceted, organized view of the self ’s characteristics and capacities during childhood and adolescence. EMERGENCE OF SELF AND DEVELOPMENT OF SELF CONCEPT In the Emergence of Self and development of self concept we will understand : • SELF-AWARENESS • THE CATEGORICAL, REMEMBERED, AND ENDURING SELVES • THE INNER SELF: CHILDREN’S THEORY OF MIND • SELF-CONCEPT • SELF-ESTEEM:THE EVALUATIVE SIDE OF SELF CONCEPT • CONSTRUCTING AN IDENTITY: WHO SHOULD I BECOME? SELF-AWARENESS AS EARLY AS THE FIRST FEW MONTHS OF LIFE, INFANTS SMILE AND RETURN FRIENDLY BEHAVIORS TO THEIR REFLECTION IN A MIRROR. WHEN DO THEY REALIZE THAT THE BABY SMILING BACK AT THEM IS THE SELF? BEGINNINGS OF SELF-AWARENESS EXPLICIT SELF-AWARENESS INFLUENCES ON SELF-AWARENESS SELF-AWARENESS AND EARLY EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT BEGINNINGS OF SELF-AWARENESS At birth, infants sense that they are physically distinct from their surroundings. Newborns’ remarkable capacity for intermodal perception supports the beginnings of self-awareness . as they feel their own touch, feel and watch their limbs move, and feel and hear themselves cry, babies experience intermodal matches that differentiate their own body from surrounding bodies and objects. They view another person (as opposed to the self) as a potential social partner This discrimination of one’s own limb and facial movements from those of others in real-time video presentations reflects an implicit sense of self–world differentiation. It serves as the foundation for explicit self-awareness: an objective understanding that the self is a unique object in a world of objects, which includes representations of one’s own physical features and body dimensions. EXPLICIT SELF-AWARENESS During the second year, toddlers become consciously aware of the self ’s physical features. Those older than 20 months develop awareness of their unique facial appearance Around age 2, self-recognition —identification of the self as a physically unique being —is well under way Mirror self-recognition predicts other milestones that reflect representation of the self, including use of personal pronouns (“me,” “my,” “mine”) and emergence of make-believe play (Lewis & Ramsay, 2004). Soon children identify themselves in images with less detail and fidelity than mirrors. Around age 2½, most reach for a sticker surreptitiously placed on top of their heads when shown themselves in a live video, and around age 3, most recognize their own shadow EXPLICIT SELF-AWARENESS As self-recognition takes shape, older toddlers also construct an explicit body self-awareness. They realize that their own body can serve as an obstacle. When asked to push a shopping cart while standing on a mat attached to its rear axle, most 18- to 21-month-olds (but not younger children) figured out how to remove themselves from the mat so the cart would move—an ability that improved with age Toddlers lack an objective understanding of their own body dimensions. They make scale errors, attempting to do things that their body size makes impossible. For example, they will try to put on dolls’ clothes, fit themselves into a doll-sized chair, or walk through a doorway too narrow for them to pass through. Scale errors decline around age 2, but many 2½-year olds still make them. Young preschoolers are still learning to process physical information about their own bodies in the same way they do for other objects. INFLUENCES ON SELF-AWARENESS • During the first year, as infants act on the environment, they probably notice effects that help them sort out self, other people, and objects, for example, batting a mobile and seeing it swing in a pattern different from the infant’s own actions informs the baby about the relation between self and physical world. • Smiling and vocalizing at a caregiver who smiles and vocalizes back help clarify the relation between self and social world. And watching the movements of one’s own hands and feet provides still another kind of feedback—one under much more direct control than the movements of other people or objects. The contrast between these experiences helps infants sense that they are separate from external reality. • Researchers do not yet know exactly how toddlers acquire the various aspects of explicit self-awareness. But sensitive caregiving seems to play a role. Compared to their insecurely attached agemates, securely attached toddlers display more complex self-related actions during play, such as making a doll labeled as the self take a drink or kiss a teddy bear. They also show greater knowledge of their own and their parents’ physical features—for example, in labeling of body parts. INFLUENCES ON SELF-AWARENESS • And 18-month-olds who often establish joint attention with their caregivers are advanced in mirror self-recognition. Joint attention offers toddlers many opportunities to compare their own and others’ reactions to objects and events, which may enhance toddlers’ awareness of their own physical uniqueness. • Cultural variations exist in early self-development. Urban German and Greek toddlers attain mirror self-recognition earlier than toddlers of the Nso people of Cameroon, a collectivist rural farming society that highly values social harmony and responsibility to other. Compared to their German and Greek counterparts, Nso mothers engage in less face-to-face communication and object stimulation and more body contact and physical stimulation of their babies. German and Greek practices reflect a distal parenting style common in cultures that value independence; the Nso practices a proximal parenting style typical in cultures that value interdependence. In line with these differences, Nso proximal parenting is associated with later attainment of self-recognition but earlier emergence of toddlers’ compliance with adult requests. SELF-AWARENESS AND EARLY EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Self-awareness quickly becomes a central part of children’s emotional and social lives. In the final months of the first year, as infants start to behave intentionally, they learn that their own goals. They become increasingly sensitive to variations in caregivers’ emotional messages. This sets the stage for social referencing and, in the middle of the second year, emergence of self-conscious emotions Self-awareness also leads to first efforts to understand another’s perspective. toddlers increasingly appreciate others’ intentions, feelings, and desires. They also begin to empathize mirror self-awareness precedes sustained, mutual peer imitation (a partner banging an object, the toddler copying the behavior, the partner imitating back, and the toddler copying again). These exchanges indicate that the toddler not only is interested in the playmate but also realizes that the playmate is interested in him or her. SELF-AWARENESS AND EARLY EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Two-year-olds’ self-recognition leads to a sense of ownership. The stronger their self definitions, the more possessive 2-year-olds tend to be, claiming objects as “Mine! A firmer sense of self also enables children to cooperate in resolving disputes over objects, playing games, and solving simple problems. Accordingly, when trying to promote friendly peer interaction, parents and teachers can accept young children’s possessiveness as a sign of self-assertion (“Yes, that’s your toy”) and then encourage compromise (“but in a little while, would you give someone else a turn?”), rather than insisting on sharing. THE CATEGORICAL, REMEMBERED, AND ENDURING SELVES Categorical Self: By the end of the second year, language becomes a powerful tool in self-development. Because it permits children to represent and express the self more clearly, it greatly enhances self-awareness. Between 18 and 30 months, children construct a categorical self as they classify themselves and others on the basis of perceptually distinct attributes and behaviors— age (“baby,” “boy,” or “man”), gender (“boy” or “girl”), and physical characteristics (“big,” “strong”). They also start to refer to the self ’s goodness and badness. Remembered self: Adult–child conversations about the past lead to an autobiographical memory. This life-story narrative grants the child a remembered self—a more coherent portrait than is offered by the isolated, episodic memories of the first few years. By participating in personal storytelling, children come to view the self as a unique, continuously existing individual embedded in a world of others. As early as age 2, parents use these discussions to impart rules, standards, and evaluative information about the child. THE CATEGORICAL, REMEMBERED, AND ENDURING SELVES Enduring self: As they talk about personally significant events and as their cognitive skills advance, preschoolers gradually develop an enduring self —a view of themselves as persisting over time. Not until age 4 are children certain that a video image of themselves replayed a few minutes after it was filmed is still “me”. Similarly, when researchers asked 3- to 5-year-olds to imagine a future event (walking next to a waterfall) and to envision a future personal state by choosing from three items (a raincoat, money, a blanket) the one they would need to bring with them, performance—along with future-state justifications (“I’m gonna get wet”)—increased sharply between ages 3 and 4. THE INNER SELF: CHILDREN’S THEORY OF MIND • As children think more about themselves and others, they form a naïve theory of mind —a coherent understanding of their own and others’ rich mental lives. • After age 2, preschoolers refer to mental states frequently and appropriately in everyday language. Although they confuse certain mental terms (see page 303 ), they are clearly aware of an inner self of private thoughts and imaginings. • Children’s developing theory of mind contributes vitally to perspective taking —the capacity to imagine what others may be thinking and feeling and to distinguish those viewpoints from one’s own . • Perspective taking, in turn, is crucial for a wide variety of social–cognitive achievements, including understanding others’ emotions, referential communication skills and self-concept and self-esteem. SELF-CONCEPT • As children develop an appreciation of their inner mental world, they think more intently about themselves. During early childhood, knowledge and evaluation of the self ’s characteristics expands. Children begin to construct a self-concept, the set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, and values that an individual believes defines who he or she is. SELF-ESTEEM • Another component of self-concept is self-esteem, the judgments we make about our own worth and the feelings associated with those judgments. High self-esteem implies a realistic evaluation of the self ’s characteristics and competencies, coupled with an attitude of self-acceptance and self-respect. Self-esteem ranks among the most important aspects of selfdevelopment because evaluations of our own competencies affect emotional experiences, future behavior, and long term psychological adjustment. As soon as a categorical self with features that can be judged positively or negatively is in place, children become self-evaluative beings. Around age 2, they call a parent’s attention to an achievement, such as completing a puzzle, by pointing and saying something like “Look, Mom!” In addition, 2-year-olds are likely to smile when they succeed at a task an adult set for them and to look away or frown when they fail . Self-esteem originates early, and its structure becomes increasingly elaborate with age. CONSTRUCTING AN IDENTITY: WHO SHOULD I BECOME? • Adolescents’ well-organized self-descriptions and differentiated sense of self-esteem provide the cognitive foundation for forming an identity, first recognized by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson (1950, 1968) as a major personality achievement and a crucial step toward becoming a productive, content adult. Constructing an identity involves defining who you are, what you value, and the directions you choose to pursue in life. One expert described it as an explicit theory of oneself as a rational agent—one who acts on the basis of reason, takes responsibility for those actions, and can explain them. This search for what is true and real about the self drives many choices—vocation, interpersonal relationships, community involvement, ethnic-group membership, and expression of one’s sexual orientation, as well as moral, political, and religious ideals. • Erikson believed that successful psychosocial outcomes of infancy and childhood pave the way toward a coherent, positive identity.
