WHO AM I?

The search for the self-

Self expression and identity

MODULE OBJECTIVES
he development of identity

ow do we develop self-esteem?

ow do children describe others?

WHO AM I?
elf: A conceptual system made up of ones thoughts
and attitudes about ones self, including ones:

Body
Possessions
Thoughts
Psychological functioning

DO INFANTS HAVE SELFAWARENESS?

SELF-AWARENESS: INFANCY
arly in infancy, infants demonstrate a rudimentary
sense of self
8 months
Self-awareness becomes more distinct when infants respond
to separation from their mother

12 months
Self-awareness becomes more distinct when infants show
joint attention with others

18 20 months
Self-awareness becomes more distinct when children can look
into a mirror and realize that the image they see is
themselves

2 years
Self-awareness becomes more distinct when children can
recognize themselves in photographs

HOW WOULD WE KNOW THAT

INFANTS RECOGNIZE
THEMSELVES IN A MIRROR?
he Rouge Test
The mother places a red mark on her infants
nose and then the infant is placed in front of
the mirror
12-month-olds:

Touch the red mark on the mirror, showing that they notice the mark on the
face in the mirror

15-month-olds:

Infants see the red mark in the mirror, and some then reach up and touch
their OWN noses

24-month-olds:

Infants see the red mark in the mirror, and all then touch their OWN noses

SELF-AWARENESS:
EARLY CHILDHOOD
2-3 years:

By

Children use language personal pronouns to refer to the self

Such as I and me

Children can construct narratives of the events in their lives

ween 2 and 3 years of age, self-awareness is quite

fragile

Bet

Toddlers self-awareness is not strongly linked across time it

is focused largely on the present

WHO AM I ?
oddlers gradually develop an awareness that they are individual.

his awareness becomes the Self Concept which is a persons

understanding of who they are:

I
I
I
I

am a girl/boy
am a big brother
am 4 years-old
can tie my shoes!

hey talk mostly about concrete,

observable behaviors, physical
features, preferences, possessions,
and members of the family.
At this point, the descriptions are
very positive almost
unrealistically positive.

BY 2 YEARS OF AGE, MOST

CHILDREN CAN RECOGNIZE
THEMSELVES AND REFER TO
THEMSELVES BY NAME OR
WITH I AND ME.

HOW DO TODDLERS
DESCRIBE
THEMSELVES?

Think on your own..

M
y name is Harvey. I live in a blue house with
my mom, dad, and sister Linda. I have a dog
that is brown. His name is Bluto. I have a
skateboard and a hockey stick. I can skate
really fast. I can brush my teeth and wash my
hair all by myself. I can jump on one foot 50
times in a row want to see? Im not even
tired when I stop. I have green eyes and lots
of freckles. Most of the freckles are on my
nose.

CHILDHOOD
y elementary school, children engage in social comparison
hildren compare themselves with others in terms of characteristics,
behaviors, and possessions

He can run faster than I can

She scored higher on the test
hey pay more and more attention to discrepancies between their
own behavior and others behavior

CHILDHOOD
y middle to late elementary school, children use higher-order
concepts to integrate features of the self and attitudes of others
heir self descriptions contain a pronounced social element and
focus on personality traits or physical characteristics that may
influence their place in the social network.
I am helpful
To be popular, I have to be nice and keep secrets

SELF-DESCRIPTION
m a human being. Im an 11-year-old girl. Im a truthful person.
Im not pretty. I do so-so in my studies. Im the best pianist in my
class. Im a little tall for my age. I like several boys. I like several
girls. Im a very good swimmer. I try to be helpful. Im always
ready to be friends with anybody. Mostly Im good, but sometimes
I lose my temper. I dont know if Im liked by boys or not.

SELF-AWARENESS:
ADOLESCENCE
n adolescence, the self is defined by abstract characteristics, social
competence, and social acceptance

dolescents can conceive of themselves in terms of a variety of selves,

depending on the context
With friends, siblings, parents, etc

dolescents create a variety of selves in their search for identity

SELF-DESCRIPTION
'm sensitive, friendly, outgoing, though I can also
be shy, self-conscious, and even obnoxious. I'd
like to be friendly and tolerant all of the time.
That's the kind of person I want to be , and I'm
disappointed when I'm not. I'm responsible,
even studious every now and then, but on the
other hand I'm a good-off too, because if you're
too studious, you won't be popular. I'm a pretty
cheerful person, especially with my friends,
where I can even get rowdy. I can be my true
self with my close friends. I can't be my real self
with my parents.

They don't understand me.

DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE IN
SELF-CONCEPT
Preschoolers

School-Age

Adolescents

Possessions

Emotions

Attitudes

Social Groups

Personality
Traits

Physical
Characteristics
Preferences

Comparisons with Beliefs vary with

Peers
the Setting
Future-oriented

SELF-CONCEPT OCCUR FROM

PRESCHOOL TO ADOLESCENCE:
1.Self-concept becomes richer as
children grow. Adolescents simply
know much more about themselves
than preschoolers.
2.The type of knowledge that children
have of themselves changes.
Preschoolers understanding is
linked to the concrete, the real, and
the here and now.

ADOLESCENTS
UNDERSTANDING IS MORE
ABSTRACT, MORE
PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND SEES
THE SELF AS EVOLVING OVER
TIME.

ADOLESCENT
he adolescent thinker
is more capable of complex thought, as
THOUGHT
previously discussed, but they experience the return of
egocentrism.

dolescents experience cognitive distortions that effect the way

adolescents see the world.

Imaginary audience
Personal fable
Illusions of invulnerability

MULTIPLE
eenagers canPERSONALITIES?
take on a number personas that vary by situation
and circumstances.
heir behavior can switch from rowdy to reserved, cooperative to
antagonistic. Aware of the inconsistencies, teens often ask
themselves which one is the real me?

MARCIAS IDENTITY
STATUSES
dentity achievement
oratorium

dentity foreclosure

dentity diffusion

IDENTITY
he ultimate status
in adolescence is identity achievement.
ACHIEVEMENT
dolescents who achieve identity know who they are and remain
connected to all the morals and attitudes they have learned earlier,
but are not bound to any of them.

FORECLOSURE
ome teenagers never fully examine
traditional values, which leads to
foreclosure.

his is premature identity formation,

which occurs when an adolescent
adopts parents or societys roles and
values, without question.

BOBS FATHER IS AN
ENGINEER. BOB WAS ALWAYS
ENCOURAGED SINCE HE WAS
A VERY YOUNG CHILD TO
FOLLOW IN HIS FATHERS
FOOTSTEPS.
So, what did Bob do?
He diligently took classes on
math and science to become an
engineer.

NEGATIVE IDENTITY
The negative
identity is taken on with rebellious defiance, simply because it
is the opposite of what the parents or society expect.

This identity
is formed by direct rebellion and the fact that the child cannot
find alternatives that are truly their own.

Example: a
teachers child refuses to go to college, the preachers child
becomes a prostitute.

IDENTITY DIFFUSION
ther adolescents experience identity diffusion where they dont
seem to care about their identity.
This is displayed by having few commitments or goals and are
apathetic about taking on any role.

hey usually have difficulty completing school, finding a job and

thinking about the future.

IDENTITY MORATORIUM
n the search for identity some teens need a time-out, which is seen
in identity moratorium.

his is a pause in identity formation that allows young people to

explore alternatives without making final identity choices.
The most obvious example in the U.S is college, which requires
students to sample a variety of academic areas before concentrating
on one.

SELF AWARENESS EVOLVES

The self

concept or self awareness turns from factual to

evaluative, becoming self esteem.

Self esteem is self pride

ASSESSING SELF-ESTEEM
These feelings are based upon self-evaluations of
many aspects of ones life. Below are several aspects
of an individuals functioning. Add up the numbers
for each of the 10 items. This is your total selfesteem score.
Very Dissatisfied
1
2

Very Satisfied
6

1. Physical maturity
2. Academic performance
3. Work experiences
4. Financial independence
5. Family relations
6. Peer relations
7. Role in community
8. Sense of values and religiosity
9. Romantic and intimate relationships
10. Coping skills

HOWS YOUR SELFESTEEM?

S
elf-esteem refers to a persons judgments and feelings about his or her own worth

High self-esteem: 45-60

Moderate self-esteem: 25-45
Low self-esteem: 10-25

YOUNG CHILDRENS SELFESTEEM IS MEASURED BY

DESCRIBING MORE AND LESS
COMPETENT PEOPLE, THEN
ASKING PRESCHOOL
CHILDREN WHICH PERSON IS
MORE LIKE THEM.

HARTERS FIVE DOMAINS

olastic competence
How competent or smart the child feels in doing schoolwork
etic competence
How competent the child feels at sports and games requiring
physical or athletic ability

Sch

Athl

Soc

ial acceptance
How popular or accepted the child feels in social interactions with
peers
avior conduct
How adequate the child feels about behaving the way one is
supposed

Beh

Phy

sical appearance
How good looking the child feels and how much the child likes his or
her physical characteristics, such as height, weight, face, and hair

HARTERS SELF-PERCEPTION
PROFILE FOR CHILDREN
Really True
for me

Sort of True
for me

Other kids worry about

Some kids feel that
whether they can do the
they are very good BUT school work assigned to
at their school work
them

Some kids find it

hard to make
friends

Really True
for me

BUT Other kids find its pretty

easy to make friends

Other kids dont feel that

Some kids do very
well at all kinds of BUT they are very good when
to comes to sports
sports

Some kids are

BUT
happy with the way
they look
Some kids often
do not like the
BUT
way they behave

Other kids are not happy

with the way they look

Other kids usually like the

way they behave

Sort of True
for me

DOES OUR SELF-ESTEEM

CHANGE AS WE DEVELOP?
elf-esteem is at its peak in the preschool years

hildren between 2 and 6 develop very favorable impressions of

themselves, in fact they overestimate their abilities!

They believe they can win any

race, count accurately, sing
perfectly.

C
hildren of this age enjoy showing off for an
audience, grandparents, stuffed animals,
peers
R
esearch suggests that children with relatively
high self-esteem tend to be more accepted by
peers over the years (Verschueren, 2001).

LAST?
Children
during this time feel older, stronger, and more skilled than
younger children.
One of the worst insults is to call a 4year-old a baby

Selfesteem drops somewhat when children enter the elementaryschool years as they begin to compare themselves with their
peers

Selfesteem has usually stabilized by adolescence

It neither increases nor decreases in these years

SELF-ESTEEM

Children with
high self-esteem judge themselves favorably and feel
positive about themselves.

Children with low

self-esteem judge themselves negatively, are unhappy with
themselves, and often would rather be someone else.

HOW DO I MEASURE UP??

Along
with this development of social cognition comes the
understanding of their own self.
School
-age children start to make measurements of themselves,
comparing themselves to peers
Increa
sed understanding of themselves often results in the
development of self criticism, which tends to rise as self
esteem starts to fall.
Ask a
child, Are you good?, rather than simply answering
yes, older children might use a specific standard set by
adults. This is social comparison

SOCIAL COMPARISON
ocial comparison is the tendency to assess
ones abilities, achievements, social status
and attributes by measuring them against
those of their peers.
Older children lose the rosy, imaginary assessment of their behaviors
that we saw in younger children and they tend to feel personally at
fault for their shortcomings and they are less likely to blame someone
else.

hildren compare themselves against peers

even when no one else explicitly makes the
comparison.

SELF-ESTEEM
Peer
acceptance is important to self-esteem

Chil
drens feelings of competence about their
appearance, athletic ability, and likeability is more
affected by peers than by parents

Chil
dren develop an internalized standard by which to

A CHILD WITH LOW SELFESTEEM IS A LIKELY

CANDIDATE FOR BEING
TEASED, REJECTED, OR
IGNORED
A CHILD WITH HIGH SELFESTEEM IS LIKELY TO BE
WELL LIKED

IS THE PEER GROUP THAT

IMPORTANT?
ost developmentalists consider getting along with peers to be crucial
during middle childhood. Research conducted by Borland (1998)
concluded that friends and being part of a peer group were central
to living a full life and feeling good.

eing rejected by peers is a serious precursor to later problems,

including juvenile delinquency, depression and drug abuse.

TO SELF-ESTEEM
One
of the most important influences on childrens selfesteem is the approval and support children receive
from others

The
Looking-Glass Self is the concept that peoples selfesteem is a reflection of what others think of them.
If children feel loved, they believe that they are worthy of others love
If children do not feel loved, they believe they are not worthy of others love

WHAT ARE THE SOURCES

OF SELF-WORTH?

or children 8 to 12 years of age:

Physical appearance most important
Social acceptance second
Less critical to self-worth were schoolwork, conduct and
athletics

arter found that American children judge themselves more

by good looks and popularity

APPEARANCE AND
COMPETENCE
ttractive individuals are more likely to
report high self-esteem than those who are
less attractive
May be stronger for girls than for boys particularly in late childhood and
adolescence

hildren who are academically successful

tend to have higher self-esteem with respect
to their intellectual and academic
competence than do their less successful
peers
Achievement affects childrens self-esteem more than self-esteem affects
academic achievement

CONSEQUENCES OF LOW
SELF-ESTEEM?
hildren with low self-esteem are:
More likely to have problems with their peers

1990)

(Hymel et al.,

(Garber,
Robinson, & Valentiner, 1997)

More prone to psychological disorders such as depression

(Dubow,
Edwards, & Ippolito, 1997)

More likely to be involved in antisocial behavior

More likely to do poorly in school