Chapter 6 Social and Personality Development

Psychological Comparisons Phase

tendency to form impressions of others by comparing and contrasting these individuals on abstract psychological dimensions

Intimacy versus isolation

the 6th of Erikson's psychological conflicts, in which young adults must commit themselves to a shared identity with another person (that is, intimacy) or else remain aloof and unconnected to others

Cognitive-Development Theory 7-10 year olds

will change in many ways as these youngsters enter Piagets concrete- operational stage. Not only is egocentrism becoming less pronounced, but children are now decentering from perceptual illusions and beginning to recognize that certain properties of an object remain unchanged despite changes in the objects appearance.

Ethnic Identity

sense of belonging to an ethnic group and committing oneself to that group's traditions or culture

Psychological constructs phase

tendency to base one's impressions of others on the stable traits these individuals are presumed to have

Categorical Self

A person's classification of the self along socially significant dimensions such as age and sex Once toddlers can clearly display evidence of self recognition, they also become more sensitive to the ways in which people differ and begin to categorize themselves on these dimensions

Cognitive Influences

Adolescents who have achieved solid mastery of formal operational thought and who can reason logically about hypotheticals are now better able to imagine and contemplate future identities.

Desire Theory

An early theory of mind in which a person's actions are thought to be a reflection of her desires rather than other mental states such as beliefs

Self-Esteem Origin

Children's evaluation of themselves and their competencies is the most important aspect of self that can influence many other aspects of their conduct and their psychological well-being

Present Self

Early self-representation in which 2 and 3 year olds recognize current representations of self but are largely unaware that past self-representations or self-relevant events have implications for the future

Negative identity

Erikson's term for an identity that is indirect opposition to that which parents and most adults would advocate

Identity crisis

Erikson's term for the uncertainty and discomfort that adolescents experience when they become confused about their present and future roles in life

Cultural-Historical Influences

Identity formation is strongly influenced by the broader and historical context in which it occurs. A point that Erikson himself emphasized. The very idea that adolescents should choose a personal identity after carefully exploring many options may well be peculiar to industrialized societies of the 20th century.

Foreclosure

Identity status characterizing individuals who have prematurely committed themselves to occupations or ideologies without really thinking about these commitments

Self-Esteem in Childhood

Indicate their overall feelings of self-worth or global self-esteem - they make these assessments by indicating whether statements pertinent to each competency domain are true or not true of themselves

False-Belief Task

Method of assessing one's understanding that people can hold inaccurate beliefs that can influence their conduct, wrong as these beliefs may be

Extended Self

More mature self-representation, emerging between ages 3 ½ and 5 years old, in which children are able to integrate past, present and unknown future self-representations into a notion of a self that endures over time

Self-Awareness

One social experiment that contributes to self-awareness in humans is a secure attachment to a primary caregiver Parents contribute to self-concept by providing descriptive information (ex. "you're such a smart boy") Parents also ask questions about activities they have done to help give them story-line narratives and to recall them as events that have personal significance "as things that happen to me"

Self-Esteem

One's evaluation of one's worth as a person based on an assessment of the qualities that make up the self-esteem

Self-Esteem in Adolescence

One's perception's of self-worth become increasingly differentiated and increasingly centered on interpersonal relationships Relational self-worth - feelings of self-worth within a particular relationship context (example, with parents, with male classmates) may differ across relationship context Romantic appeal and quality of close friendships become the main focus for interpersonal relationships

Self-concept

One's perceptions of one's unique combination of attributes

Parenting style

Parents can play a crucial role in shaping their child's self-esteem. Sensitivity of parenting in early childhood clearly influences whether infants and toddlers construct positive or negative working models of self Children with high self-esteem tend to have parents who are warm and supportive, set clear standards for them to live up to and allow them a voice in making decisions that affect them personally

Children's Theory of Mind and Emergence of the Private Self

Public Self (me) - those aspects of self that others can see or infer Private self (I) - those inner, or subjective, aspects of self that are known only to the individual and are not available for public scrutiny Theory of Mind- an understanding that people are cognitive beings with mental states that are not always accessible to others and that often guide their behavior

Selman's Role-taking Theory

Role-taking - the ability to assume another person's perspective and understand his or her intentions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; One's theory of mind in action Children will gain much richer understanding of themselves and other people as they acquire the ability to discriminate their own perspectives from those of their companions and to see the relationship between these potentially discrepant points of view.

5 Domains on which children evaluate themselves:

Scholastic Social competence Physical appearance Athletic competence Behavioral conduct

Bowlby's "working model theory"

Securely attached children who construct positive working models of self and others should soon begin to evaluate themselves more favorable than insecurely attached children whose working models of self and others are not so uniformly positive

Self as a pre-schooler

Self is defined with physical attributes example: I am three years old and I live in a big house with my mom, dad and sister (Kristin). I have blue eyes and blonde hair. I know my ABC's and 123's. I like pizza and cookies. I have a nice teacher.

Rouge Test

Test of self-recognition that involves marking a toddler's face and observing his or her reaction to the mark when he or she is placed before a mirror

Self-Recognition

The ability to recognize oneself in a mirror or a photograph, coupled with the conscious awareness that the mirror or photographic image is a representation of "me"

Social and Emotional Consequence of Self-Recognition

The achievement of self-recognition paves the way for several new social and emotional competencies.

Joint Attention

The act of attention to the same object at the same time as someone else; a way in which infants share experiences and intentions with their caregivers

The self

The combination of physical and psychological attributes that is unique to each individual

Early Understanding of Mental States

The first step toward acquiring a theory of mind is the realization of oneself and other humans are animate (rather than inanimate) objects whose behaviors reflect goals and intentions

lookingglass self

The idea that a child's self-concept is largely determined by the ways other people respond to him or her

Parenting Influences

The relationship adolescents have with their parents can also affect their progress at forging an identity.

Belief-Desire Theory

Theory of mind that develops between 3 and 4 years old; the child now realizes that both beliefs and desires may determine behavior and that people will often act on their beliefs, even if they are inaccurate

Identity

a mature self-definition; a sense of who one is, where one is going in life and how one fits into society

Brown and Meltzoff

believe that newborns have the capacity to distinguish the self from the surrounding environment - because of proprioceptive feedback infants want to mimic their caregiver facial expressions

Cognitive-Development Theory 12-14 years old

children are entering formal operations and are now able to think more logically and systemically about abstractions.

Cognitive-Development Theory 3-6 year olds - "preoperational"

children tends to center on the most salient perceptual aspects of stimuli and events. Very concrete , observable terms, mentioning their appearances and possessions their likes and dislikes and the actions that they can perform

Scholastic Influences

college tends to send people towards setting career goals and making stable occupational commitments but college students are often far behind their working peers in terms of establishing firm political and religious identities.

Moratorium

identity status characterizing individuals who are currently experiencing an identity crisis and are actively exploring occupational and ideological positions in which to invest themselves

Identity diffusion

identity status characterizing individuals who are not questioning who they are and have not yet committed themselves to an identity

Identity Achievement

identity status characterizing individuals who have carefully considered identity issues and have made firm commitments to an occupation and ideologies

epiphenomenal

if good things happen self-esteem rises, if not, self-esteem in low; therefore stating that high self-esteem is a consequence rather than a cause of positive social adjustment

Meilman

measured the identity statuses of males between 12-24 observing a clear development progression; the vast majority of 12-18 year olds were identity diffuse or foreclosed, not until age 21 or older had the majority of participants reached the moratorium status or achieved stable identities (there is no clear evidence that it differs between boys/men and girls/women on what age they achieve stable identities)

Cultural, Ethnicity and Self-esteem

our families and ethnicity can play an affect on one's self-esteem The views of accomplishment can very depending on culture which in turn can affect one's self-esteem → they have differences in reflecting the different emphases placed on accomplishments and self-promotion Ethnic differences in self-esteem among people in multicultural societies as well → stereotypes and prejudice

Charles Cooley and George Meade

proposed that the self concept evolves from social interaction and will undergo many changes over the course of a lifetime Believe people are born with no sense of self: newborns experience people and events as "streams of impressions"

Margaret Mahler

refers to a newborn as a "chick in an egg" who has no reason to differentiate the self from the surrounding environment

Erikson (1963) on Identity

the major development hurdle that adolescents face is establishing an identity

Social comparison

the process of defining and evaluating the self by comparing oneself to other people Peer influences on self-esteem become even more apparent in adolescence ages, although you can see it in the earlier ages as well

Behavioral Comparisons Phase

the tendency to form impressions of others by comparing and contrasting their overt behaviors