DEVELOPMENT OF A KID’S sense of self a2

DEVELOPMENT OF A KID’S

SENSE OF SELF

Learning to understand signals begins with kid’s development of self, enabling them to distinguish self from other. Leads to a Theory Of Mind where someone else’s thoughts are separate from your own.
A CHILD’S SENSE OF SELF-
SUBJECTIVE SELF-AWARENESS- Some aspects are present from birth
- By 2 months, infants have a sense of ‘personal agency’ if they recognise their limbs.
- Bahrick et al (1985)- 5 months old aware of what their legs are doing
- Legerstee et al (1998)- 5-8 month olds looked longer at pictures of others than
themselves showing they can recognise their own face
- Lewis (1991)- this is subjective than objective
Subjective self-awareness is ability to perceive oneself as distinct from others
Different from the ability to reflect upon oneself (objective self awareness)
OBJECTICE SELF-AWAREWNESS AND SEFLF-RECOGNITION - Ability to reflect upon oneself (objective self-awareness) is a key feature of human
Behaviour and milestone in development
When an infant touches its nose with a rogue mark rather than the mirror suggests an understanding that the mirror image of itself, become objective self-awareness (Amserdam1972)
- Amsterdam (1972)- 88 babies but only 16 (rest didn’t want to play )
Babies 6+12 months behaved as if the baby in the mirror was someone else
13 to 24 months babies looked warily at the mirror displaying self-awareness
24 months babies clearly recognised themselves
The mirror test - Lewis and Brooks- Gunn (1979)
19% of babies touched their nose by age of 15 months
66% at 24 months
At the same age babies are beginning to use personal pronouns such as ‘me’ and ‘mine’
(Slater and Lewis 2002)
PSYCHOLIGICAL SELFYoung kids still lack a psychological concept of who they are
Kids aged 4 more likely to mention physical features (Harr et al 1988)
However they begin to develop a psychological self
Edor (1990)- Used questions to elicit insight into kid’s psychological self ‘I like to play by myself’ ‘ I like to play with others’ which kids think about
The choice young kids made were stable over time, showing psychological insights.
Self esteem is another development, value that a person attaches to their self concept, signs begin to appear at age of four.

DISTINGUISHES BETWEEN SELF AND OTHERS

THEORY OF MIND

Its an intuitive self of beliefs developed each individual. Understanding that someone else has a different mind and does not experience what you do.
New borns can distinguish humans from other subjects- have knowledge of others (Legerstee, 1992)
Age 2- Kids display understanding of mental state of others such as deceit which requires understanding of what someone else believes to be true
A distinction is made between knowing someone else’s internal state and knowing how they experience the world
Wellman et al (1990)- infants are capable of social interaction but social relationships require TOM
TOM 1^st appears at age 3-4 years, kids start to use terms such as ‘think’ and ‘know’ referring to othersFALSE BELIEF TASK This task demonstrates theory of mind:
- A story about two dolls, a kid with TOM can answer final questios.
- Anne will look into the basket despite the fact that the ball is in the box
- Without TOM kid’s cant separate their own knowledge from Anne’s- so Anne will look in the box as that’s where the kids will look
- TOM makes us recognise that other people can have beliefs that are false
Perner et al (1983)- nearly all 3 year olds said the ball is in the box
4 year olds gave correct answer (a false belief)
Supported by ‘smartie test’.
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

COMMENTARY

SUBJECTIVE- SELF AWARENESSFreduians such as Mahler et al (1973)- at birth as an infant has no sense of separateness from his/her mum.
Individualism is something that develops over the first few months.
OBJECTIVE SELF-AWARENESSEMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT-
Development of self- awareness makes the ability to display emotions. Very young kids display basic emotions sad, happy but step in emotional development leads to self- conscious emotions such as empathy, jealousy.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES-
development of self recognition is faster in securely attached infants (Pipp et al, 1992) also babies who have encouraged to be independent (Brooke et al, 2007)
Western cultures attachments is about independence, infants are given more stimulation and less body contact.
The norm in non- Western cultures is interdependence (Borke et al, 2007).
PSYCHOLICAL SELFDevelopment of self- esteem, key aspects of psychological self is also related to attachment and this creates individual differences.
Marcoen et al (1999)- securely attached kids rated themselves more favourably and this was stable over time.
THEORY OF MINDAutism- Simon Baron Cohen: Autism kids find social interaction difficult
Baron Cohen et al (1985)- Sally Anne Test to demonstrate that autistic kids lacked TOM, whereas kids with Down’s syndrome coped normally, showing autistic kids is not linked to low IQ but a specific TOM deficit.
TOMMGallup (1970) and Amsterdam (1972):
Developed a test of self-awareness using monkeys and human babies.
Rogue red mark on the nose and then sees what they do when shown their reflection.
If they posses self awareness they will touch their own nose otherwise they will touch the mirror.
Bard et al 2006- to this day it is the best way to asses self-awareness