Chapter 12 Development of the Self and Social Cognition

1. Chapter 12 Development of the Self and Social Cognition

2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Self-Differentiation in Infancy • 2 months – a limited sense of personal agency – they are responsible for some events

3. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Self-Recognition in Infancy • Self-concept – who or what we are • 5 months – recognize the self as familiar • Self-recognition • Rouge test • 18-24 months, most realized the person in the mirror was them • 2 to 3 years, limited to present self • 4 to 5 years, extended self

4. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Contributors to Self-Recognition • Cognitive development is necessary • Social experience • Secure attachment • Parents provide descriptive information • Cultural differences • Younger self-recognition if autonomy was stressed

5. Figure 12.1 Average scores on a test of self-knowledge as a function of age and attachment quality. ADAPTED FROM PIPP, EASTERBROOKS, & HARMON, 1992.

6. Table 12.1 Proportion of mothers adopting different parenting styles with 3-month-olds and the proportion of those children achieving self-recognition when they were 18- to 20-months old. ADAPTED FROM KELLER ET AL., 2004.

7. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Social and Emotional Consequences of Self-Recognition • Necessary for self-conscious emotions • Infants become more socially skilled • May begin to cooperate • Begin to categorize themselves on dimensions of how people differ

8. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Who Am I? Responses of Preschool Children • 3 ½ - 5 – use psychological dimensions • Sociability • Intelligence • Athleticism • Tends to be stable over time

9. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Conceptions of Self in Middle Childhood and Adolescence • Becomes more abstract with age • Recognize they are not the same in all situations • May use false self behaviors – acting out of character to improve image, etc. • Becomes more integrated with age

10. Figure 12.2 Average number of inconsistent attributes reported by 13-, 15-, and 17-year-olds (panel A) and the percentages of 13-, 15-, and 17-year-olds who said they were confused or “mixed up” by these inconsistencies in their self-portraits (panel B). ADAPTED FROM HARTER & MONSOUR, 1992.

11. DEVELOPMENT OF THE SELF-CONCEPT • Cultural Influences on the Self-Concept • Self descriptors • American students – more likely to be personal or individualistic • Japanese students – more likely to be social or relational

12. Figure 12.3 Average percentages of personal/individualistic and social/relational attributes listed as core dimensions of the self-concept by American and Japanese students who responded to a “Who Am I?” questionnaire. ADAPTED FROM COUSINS, 1989.

13. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Origins and Development of Self-Esteem • 4 – 5 years, an early, meaningful, stable sense of self-esteem • Securely attached children more likely to have high sense of self-esteem • Reasonably accurate with how others (teachers) evaluate their social competencies

14. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Components of Self-Esteem • Academics, social acceptance, appearance, athleticism, and behavior • 4 – 7 years – positive on all • 8 years – based on others evaluation • Adolescence – relational self-worth, importance of relationships • Females – supportive friendships • Males – influencing friends

15. Figure 12.4 A multidimensional and hierarchical model of self-esteem. ADAPTED FROM HARTER, 1996.

16. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Changes in Self-Esteem • Some children experience a decline into middle and high school • Multiple stressors likely to contribute to declines • Overall stability is lowest in childhood and early adolescence • Relatively stable in late adolescence and early adulthood

17. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Social Contributors to Self-Esteem • Parenting Styles • Warm, supporting, nurturing / democratic leads to high self-esteem • Peer Influences • Social comparison, especially in individualistic societies • Social support from peers – high esteem

18. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Culture, Ethnicity, and Self-Esteem • Self-Esteem appears lower in collectivist societies • But being lower may make individuals feel good, as it is what society wants • Ethnic minorities express lower levels of esteem in elementary school, but equal or higher by adolescence • Support and pride in ethnic group

19. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Development of Achievement Motivation and Academic Self-Concepts • Achievement motivation • Willingness to strive to succeed at challenging tasks • To meet standards of accomplishment • Mastery motive • Inborn motivation to master the environment

20. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Early Origins of Achievement Motivation • Phase 1: Joy in Mastery • Prior to 2 years, pleased with successes, but do not seek recognition, failures don’t matter • Phase 2: Approval-Seeking • Near age 2, seek approval for successes, expect disapproval for failure

21. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Phase 3: Use of Standards • Adopted objective standards • Pride after success, shame after failure • Less dependent on others evaluations

22. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Achievement Motivation During Middle Childhood and Adolescence • Home Influences on Mastery Motivation and Achievement • Quality of attachment • Secure attachment results in being more self-assured, and comfortable about taking risks and seeking challenges

23. Figure 12.5 Scenes like this one were used by David McClelland and his associates to measure achievement motivation.

24. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • The home environment • 66% of children from intellectually stimulating homes doing well in school • Led to intrinsic orientation to achievement • 70% of children from unstimulating homes were doing poorly

25. Table 12.2 Relation between Quality of Home Environment at 12 Months of Age and Children’s Grade-School Academic Achievement 5 to 9 years later. SOURCE: Adapted from Doorninick, Caldwell, Wright, & Franenberg, 1981.

26. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Child-rearing and achievement • Independence training • Achievement training • Praising successes, not being overly critical of occasional failures aids achievement motivation • Authoritative parenting – style described above (warm, firm, democratic)

27. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Peer Group Influences • African American and Latino peer groups in low-income areas may discourage academic achievement • Parents value education, individuals may associate with peers sharing those values

28. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Cultural Influences • Chinese children much more critical of personal failures in learning versus American children

29. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Beyond Achievement Motivation: Development of Achievement Attributions • Types of Achievement Attributions • Ability – stable, internal • Task difficulty - stable, external • Effort – unstable, internal • Luck - unstable, external

30. Table 12.3 Weiner’s Classification of the Causes of Achievement Outcomes (and Explanations of How You Might Explain a Terrible Test Grade).

31. Figure 12.6 An overview of Weiner’s attribution theory of achievement.

32. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Age Differences in Achievement-Related Attributions • Prior to age 7, unrealistically optimistic • Incremental view of ability: ability is changeable and increases with effort • 8-12 – distinguish ability from effort • Entity view of ability: ability is a stable trait

33. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • Dweck’s Learned-Helplessness Theory • Mastery orientation: attribute successes to ability, externalize failures or attribute them to unstable causes • Persist after failure, increase effort • Learned helplessness orientation: attribute failures to stable and internal factor • Stops trying • Tends to persist over time

34. Figure 12.7 Characteristics of the mastery-oriented and learned-helplessness achievement orientations.

35. SELF-ESTEEM: THE EVALUATIVE COMPONENT OF SELF • How does learned helplessness develop? • Praise hard work if child succeeds, and criticize ability when failure occurs • Want to criticize lack of effort when failure occurs • Can be changed relatively easily through attribution retraining

36. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • Identity – firm and coherent sense of who one is, where one is heading, and where one fits into society • Identity diffusion: not yet thought about or resolved identity issues • Foreclosure: committed to identity but without a crisis of decision

37. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • Moratorium: identity crisis, actively asking questions and seeking answers • Identity achievement: resolved identity issues by making personal commitments to goals, beliefs, and values

38. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • Developmental Trends in Identity Formation • 12-18 – majority are identity diffused or foreclosed • 21 and older – moratorium status or achieved a stable identity • Women place more importance on sexuality, gender roles, family/career • Likely to be at different statuses in different domains

39. Figure 12.8 Percentages of participants in each of Marcia’s four identity statuses as a function of age. Note that resolution of the identity crisis occurs much later than Erickson assumed: Only 4 percent of the 15-year-olds and 20 percent of the 18-year-olds had achieved a stable identity. FROM MEILMAN, 1979.

40. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • How Painful Is Identity Formation? • Moratorium - not a stressful status • Identity achievement – healthy, leads to higher self-esteem, fewer personal concerns than other statuses • Long-term failure to establish an identity is negative • Small minority of adolescents

41. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • Influences on Identity Formation • Cognitive Influences – formal-operational thought helps imaging and contemplate future identities • Parenting Influences • Being neglected/rejected = diffused • Too controlling = foreclosed • Affection, mutual respect = moratorium, achievement

42. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • Scholastic Influences • College pushes people toward career setting • College students behind working peers in terms of political or religious identities • Social-Cultural Influences • Desire to choose a personal identity after exploration may only apply in industrialized societies today

43. WHO AM I TO BE?: FORGING AN IDENTITY • Identity Formation Among Minority Youth • Deciding to establish an ethnic identity • Once achieved • Higher self-esteem, relationships with parents and peers of other ethnicities • Parents need to • Teach traditions and foster pride • Prepare children to handle prejudice • Be warm and supportive confidants

44. Table 12.4 Based on a sample of 1,989 adolescents, the data show the percent of multiracial adolescents (based on their parent’s races) who self-identified with each single race, and those who refused to self-identify with a single race. ADAPTED FROM HERMANN, 2004.

45. THE OTHER SIDE OF SOCIAL COGNITION: KNOWING ABOUT OTHERS • Age Trends in Person Perception • Younger than 7-8, characterize people in same concrete, observable terms used to describe the self • 4-6 are capable of thinking about traits in meaningful ways • Less likely to think they are stable • Traits are used to describe recent behavior

46. THE OTHER SIDE OF SOCIAL COGNITION: KNOWING ABOUT OTHERS • 6-8: used many behavioral comparisons • 8-11: rapid increase in psychological constructs (traits) • 12-16: use of psychological comparisons • 14-16: recognize dispositional similarities, and situational factors both affect behavior

47. Figure 12.9 Percentages of descriptive statements classified as behavioral comparisons, psychological (traitlike) constructs, and psychological comparisons for children between ages 6 and 11. FROM BARENBOIM, 1981.

48. THE OTHER SIDE OF SOCIAL COGNITION: KNOWING ABOUT OTHERS • Theories of Social-Cognitive Development • Cognitive Theories of Social Cognition • Cognitive-development theory • Growth of social-cognitive abilities is related to cognitive development • Selman’s role-taking theory • Role-taking skills allow one to assume a different perspective • Developmental sequence

49. Table 12.5 Selman’s stages of social perspective taking.

50. Table 12.5 Selman’s stages of social perspective taking.(continued)