Chapter 12 Development of the Self and Social Cognition Dr. Martha Pelaez

Development Of The Self-Concept Most developmentalists believe that infants are born without a self-concept and gradually come to distinguish themselves form the external environment over the first 2 to 6 months, as they gain a sense of personal agency and learn to discriminate their faces from those of other people By 18 to 24 months toddlers display true self-recognition- a milestone that depends on cognitive development and social experiences with companions. Initial self-recognition provides evidence for toddlers’ conception of a present self, which gradually evolves into a conception of extended self, or a self that is stable over time. Toddlers also classify themselves along socially significant dimensions such as age and sex, forming a categorical self.

Development Of The Self-Concept Cont… Who are you really? Are you the person that you are because of your unique personality, physical and mental abilities etc. Or do you get information about who you are from outside influences? The concept of self implies that people are a combination of physical and psychological attributes that are unique to that individual.

Development Of The Self-Concept Cont… The looking-glass self is the idea that a child’s self concept is largely determined by the ways other people respond to him or her. Social cognition - thinking people display about the thoughts, feelings, motives and behaviors of themselves and other people. Self concept - one’s perceptions of one’s unique attributes or traits.

The Emerging Self: Differentiation and Self Recognition Spatial awareness is something that can be noted at very early stages in human development. It is suggested that this ability to sense one’s location is a result of: Proprioceptive feedback - sensory information from the muscles, tendons, and joints that help one to locate the position of one’s body (or body parts) in space. *Infants rely very heavily on this feedback.

The Emerging Self: Differentiation and Self Recognition cont… As infants interact and gain more experience in their environments they begin to become aware of: Personal agency - recognition that one can be the cause of an effect. Infants as young as 2 months newborns have this recognition.

Self Recognition Self recognition - the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror or photograph. Present self - early self-representation where 2 and 3-year-olds recognize current representations of self but are unaware that the past self - representations or self-relevant events have implications for the present. Extended self - more mature self-representation, emerging between ages 3 1/2 and 5 years, in which children are able to integrate past, current and unknown future self. Babies as young as 15-17 months may recognize their reflections in the mirror but this ability is more concrete once they reach the approximate ages of 18-24 months.

Self Recognition cont… *One social and emotional consequence of self recognition is: The categorical self - a person’s classification of the self along socially significant dimensions such as age and sex. This usually occurs once toddlers display self-recognition

Who am I? Who am I? Responses of Preschool Children- Until recently, developmentalists believed that the self-concepts of preschool children were concrete, physicalistic, and nearly devoid of any psychological self awareness. Why? Because when 3- to 5 year olds are asked to describe themselves, they talk mostly about their physical attributes, about their possessions, or about actions of which they feel especially proud, such as hitting a baseball or walking to nursery school on their own. Although preschool children may not be consciously aware of what it means to be sociable or athletic or an achiever, Eder’s research implies that they have rudimentary psychological conceptions of self long before they can express this knowledge in traitlike terminology.

Children’s Theory of Mind and Emergence of the Private Self When adults think about the self, they know that it consists of a public self (or me) that others can see an a private self (or I) that has an inner reflective (thinking) character not available to others. Theory of mind - an understanding that people are cognitive beings with the mental states (beliefs, motives, feelings, and intentions) that are not always accessible to others and that often guide their behavior.

Early Understanding of Mental States: Desire Theory: an early theory of the mind where a person’s actions are thought to be a reflection of her desires rather than other mental states such as beliefs. Belief-desire theory of the mind: develops between age 3 and 4; child now realizes that both beliefs and desires may determine behavior and that people will act on their beliefs even if they are inaccurate. False Belief problem: method of assessing one’s understanding that people can hold inaccurate beliefs that can influence their conduct even if the beliefs are wrong.

Conceptions of Self in Middle Childhood and Adolescence Once children develop a theory of mind and clearly differentiate their public and private selves, their self-descriptions gradually evolve. As children grow and acquire all of the components of self awareness they begin to make decisions as to whether or not they accept their true selves. Often times when if an adolescent/teen is not self confident they will engage in: False self-behavior- acting in ways that do not reflect one’s true self.

Self-Esteem: The Evaluative Component Of Self As children develop, they not only understand more and more about themselves and construct more intricate self-portraits, but they also begin to evaluate the qualities that they perceive themselves as having. This evaluative aspect of self is called self-esteem. Children with high self-esteem are satisfied with the type of person they are; by contrast, children with low self-esteem view the self in a less favorable light.

Self Esteem cont... Origins and Development of Self-Esteem- Children's evaluation of themselves and their competencies is a most important aspect of self that can influence all aspects of their conduct and their psychological well-being. The theory predicts that securely attached children, who presumably construct a positive working model of self and others, should soon begin to evaluate themselves more favorably than insecurely attached children, whose working models are not so positive.

Self-Esteem cont... Components of Self-Esteem- By early adolescence one's perceptions of self-worth become increasingly centered on interpersonal relationships. Susan Harter and her associates coined the term relational self-worth to describe their finding that adolescents often begin to perceive their self-worth somewhat differently in different relational contexts. Changes in Self-Esteem- Young adolescents who experience the many physical, cognitive, and social changes associated with puberty often become confused and show at least some decline in self-esteem as they leave childhood behind and begin to search for a stable adult identity.

Self-Esteem cont... Social Contributors to Self-Esteem Parenting Styles- Parents can play a crucial role in shaping a child's self-esteem. The sensitivity of parenting early in childhood clearly influences whether infants and toddlers construct positive or negative working models of self Peer Influences- As early as age 4 or 5 children are beginning to recognize differences among themselves and their classmates as they use social comparison information to tell them whether they perform better or worse in various domains than their peers.

Development of Achievement Motivation and Academic Self-Concepts Achievement motivation - a willingness to strive to succeed at challenging tasks and to meet high standards of accomplishment. Phase 1: Joy of Mastery Phase 2: Approval Seeking Phase 3: Use of Standards (1)They do not call other people's attention to their triumphs or otherwise seek recognition, and, rather than being bothered by failures, they simply shift goals and attempt to master other toys. (2) As they near age 2 toddlers begin to anticipate how others will evaluate their performances. They seek recognition when they master challenges and expect disapproval when they fall. (3) Children begin to react more independently to their successes and failures. They seem to adopt objective standards for appraising their performance and are not dependent on others to tell them when they have done well or poorly.

Achievement Motivation during Middle Childhood and Adolescence Home Influences on Mastery Motivation and Achievement- Researchers have identified three especially potent home influences on children's mastery and achievement motivation and actual achievement behavior, they are: Quality of Attachment The Home Environment Child Rearing and Achievement

Achievement Motivation cont... Peer Group Influences- Peers are also an important source of influence on grade-school children and adolescents who may sometimes support and at other times undermine parents' efforts to encourage academic achievement.

Beyond Achievement of Motivation Development of Achievement Attributions Types of Achievement Attributions Ability Effort Task Difficulty Luck

Beyond Achievement cont... Age differences in achievement-related attributions- Young children do seem to have an incremental view of ability: They believe that ability is changeable, not stable, and that they can get smarter or become more capable through increased effort and lots of practice. Dweck's Learned-Helplessness Theory How does learned helplessness develop? On helping the helpless to achieve.

Methods used to Help the Helpless to Achieve Attribution retraining Person praise Performance goal Process-oriented praise Learning goals

Who Am I To Be? Forging An Identity Identity - a mature self-definition; a sense of who one is, where one is going in life and how one fits into society. Identity crisis - Erickson’s term for the uncertainty and discomfort that adolescents experience when they become confused about their present and future roles in life.

Who Am I To Be? cont… James Marcia has developed a structured interview that allow researchers to classify adolescents into one of four identity statuses 1. Identity diffusion 2. Foreclosure 3. Moratorium 4. Identity achievement 1. Persons classified as diffuse have not yet thought about or resolved identity issues and have failed to chart future life directions. 2. These persons are committed to an identity but have made this commitment without experiencing the crisis of deciding what really suits them best. 3. These persons are experiencing identity crisis and are actively asking questions about life commitments and seeking answers. 4. They have resolved identity issues by making personal commitments to particular goals, beliefs, and values.

Age Trends In Person Perception Behavioral comparisons phase - the tendency to form impressions of others by comparing and contrasting their overt behaviors. *Increases between ages 6 and 8 and declines rapidly after age 9. Psychological constructs phase - tendency to base one’s impressions of others on the stable traits these individuals are presumed to have. Psychological comparisons phase - tendency to form impressions of others by comparing and contrasting these individuals on abstract psychological dimension

Theories of Social-Cognitive Development Cognitive-Developmental Theory Selman’s Role-Taking Theory Role Taking and Thinking about Relationships (1) The ways that children think about the self and other people largely depend on their own levels of cognitive development. (2) Children gain much richer understandings of themselves and other people as they acquire the ability to discriminate their own perspectives from those of their companions and to see the relationships between these potentially discrepant points of view. (3) With the growth of role-taking skills, children’s conceptions of friendship gradually change from the one-sided, self centered view of friends as “people who benefit me” to a harmonious, reciprocal perspective in which each party truly understands the other, enjoys providing him or her with emotional support and other niceties, and expects these same in return.

Social Influences on Social-Cognitive Development Social Experience as a Contributor to Role-Taking- It seems that equal-status contacts among friends may be especially important for the growth of role-taking skills and interpersonal understanding. Social Experience as a Direct Contributor to Person Perception- It seems that both social experience and cognitive competence contribute in their own ways to the development of children’s understanding of other people.