PSYC Chapter 13.docx

Self-Knowledge Children's self-knowledge develops steadily across the childhood years and is interwoven with the development of other cognitive and socialization process 1. Discovery of the Self in Infancy a. The Role of Perception  Perceptual processes are thought to play an important role in infants' first coming to recognize their separateness  Only weeks after birth, infants can imitate certain adult facial expressions ------>interpretation: children can connect sensory input with motor responses.  This means that children of that age have the capability that lays the groundwork for their realizing that they can interact with and affect the world around them.  3 months-->infants perceive that they control their own body movements o Experiment showed: babies can detect when their leg movements did not correspond to what they were watching  6-month olds taught to look for an object located in left. then they are moved so that the object is to their right. 6 month olds continue to look at left. The addition of visual cues or landmarks doesn't have much effect on 6 mon olds.  unsuccessful searching-->gives way for more effective perceptual strategies as baby approaches 1 year.  young infants show simple awareness of their own separate existence b. Personal Agency  personal agency- the understanding that one can be the cause of events o babies moving toys, banging blocks show awareness that they are separate from these things  personal agency appears to develop through babies early interaction with their parents o The more the parents are sensitive and responsive to infant's signal, the quicker babies develop an understanding of their own personal agency!  Question: do babies acquire understanding of self first or mother first? Answer: infants develop actions/speeches toward themselves than their mothers or others  I can do it to me precedes I can do it to her  at Age 2, this reverses o Why this change: more self conscious or child's increasing focus on interpersonal relations, and ability to play 2. Self-Recognition  ~2 yrs, babies display an increasing awareness of the self a. Visual Self-Recognition in Infancy  Visual self-recognition- the ability to recognize oneself often studied in babies by having them look into mirrors and examining babies' reactions o 1st year- babies will smile and vocalize at their reflection  Some evidence that child can distinguish b/ween own image and other child's image o 3 months of age- babies would rather look at images of other child. So babies can discriminate and also are familiar with their own face o 5 months of age- still images are altered (i.e. putting red mark on cheeks of both own image and the other child's), the baby prefers to look at its own image o it is unknown though whether babies realize what they are seeing is themselves  2nd year of life- the baby can say "it's me" or something in that line. so babies by 2 yrs can apply these sayings to their reflections  put mark, place infant in front of mirror-> does the baby touch the mark? (self recog) o 15 mon. - don't show self-recognition o 2 yrs (24 months)--> self-recognition is observed  when shown a group picture, infants point to pictures of themselves after hearing their names  others use video of babies themselves or other babies to see reaction  Delay after marked face--> age of self-recognition rises o babies saw videos of experimenter putting sticker on their forehead  2 year olds didn't search for it on their own forehead,  3 year olds (25%) searched (but all could identify with confidence "that's me")  4 year olds searched for it  mark directed experiments show more than self recognition...they also mark a broad shift in cognitive development near 2 yrs. b. Individual Differences in Self-Recognition  Temperament o difficult babies develop sense of self earlier, in order to deal better with the intensity of the stimulation they experience o Infant reacts strongly to vaccine at 6 mon-->show mirror recognition at 18 mon. (normally 24 months)  Attachment o Securely attached = better understanding of both personal agency and physical characteristics o infants whose relationship with mother is characterized by emotional responsiveness show better self-recognition o Secure attachment promotes development of the self o Maltreated children-->less securely attached-->display less evidence of self-recognition, responded negatively to mirror image (indication of beginning of low sense of self- worth, their language is less likely to involve descriptions of themselves or of their internal states/feelings  Secure attachment promotes exploration and cognitive dev in baby c. Self-Awareness and Awareness of Others  As we become more self-aware, we also become more other-aware o 4 mon- babies reacted differently to a live video of an adult mimicking their behavior vs. their own live video image o infant's behaviour toward the mimicker were more social than were their reaction to their own image, with more smiling and longer gazes o when both videos were frozen, infants tried to re-engage the adult mimicker more o this suggests that babies feel that the other person, and not themselves, is a possible social partner  synchronic imitation- preverbal children play with similar toys in a similar fashion (i.e one baby bangs spoon, the others bang spoons too). So, to synchronize play, the child must have some understanding of other child's intentions and behaviours o 18 months olds who give evidence of mirror self-recognition display more synchronic imitations with same age peers and adults  1.5 yrs Self recognition not only develops other-awareness, but also self-conscious emotions o embarrassment, empathy, and jealousy  2-3 years-->self-conscious evaluative emotions such as o shame, guilty, and pride as children become able to evaluate the self relative to some social standard 3. Developmental Changes in Self-Descriptions  2 years --> children know whether they are boys or girls, that they are children o categorization is learned via modelling, repeatedly told "my little boy" o Cognitive development also plays a role in the self-discovery process  Preschool years- self-descriptions involve physical features, possessions, and preferences o 4 years --> "I live in a big house" "I have a dog" or "I like ice cream" o Sometimes unrealistically positive o Piaget's idea of pre-operational children's view of world o focus on objective attributes, general traits  Middle childhood- self-descriptions indicate shift to concrete operational abilities o 6-10 yr --> less tangible characteristics (i.e. emotions, combining separate attributes into an overall attribute) o Accuracy improves, although stress is on positive characteristics  Later childhood- descriptions based on social comparisons with others o children evaluate their skills or talents relative to those of friends or classmates o children can include opposing attributes o Intense negative self-evaluations and more general feelings of low self-worth  Adolescence- self-descriptions continue to change o the child thinks and self-describes in more abstract and hypothetical terms o concerned with attitudes (i hate chemistry), personal attributes (I'm a curious person), and beliefs involving hypothetical situations (if i meet someone with diff idea, i try to be tolerant)  Middle Adolescence- self differentiates into more roles o adolescents give different responses when asked to describe themselves in classroom, home, friends (i.e. shy in class but outgoing with friends) o for the first time, such conflicts produce feelings of confusion and distress  Later adolescence- opposing characteristics are combined into single personality style ("cheerful", "sad" are combined into "moody") o these complex views of the self comes to be viewed as legitimate and normal o adolescents display false self behaviour, which is basically behaving in a way that is knowingly different from how one's true self would behave  The self continues to differentiate throughout adolescence and adulthood a. Adolescence and Cultural Identity  Adolescence is the time when many youth begin to explore their cultural heritage and its relevance for their identity  most studies of ethnic minority youth  According to a theory, there are 3 phases of ethnic identity development o initial phase: young people give little consideration to their cultural/ethnic identities. This might be because the race/ethnicity is just not salient to warrant their attention. Or, they may refuse to consider what it means to belong to an ethnic minority and may simply adopt the views of others without question o second phase: adolescen