Development of self

How did you become you? What do you think are the factors that contributed in the making of you? Think about how you would explain how you developed into you. What sorts of explanations might you give? How do you think you might research this? What experiments or research might you do? Which of the debates might influence your understanding of the development of self?

Key questions Some key questions have been asked in the study of the development of self. Questions such as: Is ‘self’ or ‘identity’ fixed or fluid? For example is your personality and who you are the same throughout time and in each situation. Is there one ‘true’ version of self or do we have multiple selves? Is self nature or nurture? Can we apply the nomothetic approach to self, such as personality measurements? Or are we all uniquely different? How much of an influence are our early experiences on the way we develop and behave as an adult? Do we go through distinct stages in the development of self?

Theories We are going to briefly look at some of the key theories related to the development of self. These are: Cooley – Looking glass self Mead – I/Me Skinner – Behaviourist approach to understanding self Piaget – Cognitive-developmental approach Bandura – Social learning theory Rogers and Kelly – Humanistic perspective Maslow – Hierarchy of needs Selman – Theory of role-taking We will also look; Freud - Psychodynamics

Development of self Early researchers such as Cooley (1902) and Mead (1934) suggest that our development of self relies on our interactions with others Children become aware of judgements made by others such as ‘naughty’ ‘good’ ‘bright’ ‘slow’ ‘boisterous’ ‘feminine’ Through these labels children develop a sense of who they are – their self-concept. Cooley called this the ‘looking-glass self’ since it reflects what other people think of us Selman (1980) suggests the growth of role-taking skills demonstrates a mature understanding of self and other people. To ‘know’ another person one must take on their perspective, thoughts and feelings. And this requires cognitive competence.

Different ways of looking at self There are some theorists that suggest that we have multiple selves. In other words we may be different in different situations or with different people. We may take on different roles that represent different parts of ourselves. For example, I am a mother, a wife, a teacher, a belly dancer! Goffman (1959) suggested we play out different aspects of ourselves as though we are in a play; we are the audience, the actor and the character. Have you ever noticed that you behaved differently in different situations? – self as character Have you ever behaved in a particular way because you were worried about what people might think of you? – self as audience George Herbert Mead (1934) talked of self as ‘I/Me’ that the different ways we refer to ourselves reflect the different aspects of ourselves; how we see ourselves and how we perceive that others see us

Behaviourist approach to understanding self Behaviourists believe that as babies we are all quite similar and have the potential to grow-up to be very similar adults However our experiences shape how we develop and as a result each one of us is different with our own unique patterns of behaviour For example if you grow-up in a loving caring environment you may turn out to be optimistic and confident If however, you grow-up in an environment deprived of love you may turn out to be withdrawn and unsociable

Behaviourist approach to self Behaviourists believe that we are shaped by classical and operant conditioning Remember Pavlov and the experiment he carried out on dogs? Pavlov paired the stimulus of food with a bell so that eventually the dogs salivated to the sound of the bell alone. Watson and Rayner (1920) did an experiment on an infant to prove that fears could be developed in the same way How do you think they did this?

Behaviourism – Watson and Rayner Little Albert was conditioned to fear white rats. Each time that Watson presented a white rat to little Albert it was accompanied by the sound of a loud gong. How might this relate to the development of self/identity? As humans our emotional responses can be conditioned to the environment. Things or people present when a child feels happy/scared/sad become the stimulus for those feelings later in life.

Behaviourism - Skinner Remember the experiment Skinner did with rats? Skinner placed rats in a maze with different levers for food or electric shocks and used these to shape their behaviour and how they moved around the maze. The rats saw food as a reward and would return to levers with food or press levers that represented food. They avoided levers that provided punishment; the electric shock and even learned to press some levers that stopped the electric shock and therefore avoided it – negative reinforcement. How can this be applied to humans?

Behaviourism - Skinner Parents and key workers unconsciously shape children’s behaviour and development of personality through rewards and punishments A child who is praised for being helpful around the home is more likely to repeat that behaviour.

Social Learning approach Remember Bandura’s bobo doll experiment? 3 groups of children were shown the same video footage of an adult playing aggressively with a large doll. One group saw the adult being told off, the next group saw no punishment and the third group saw the adult being praised. When children were presented with the doll, all but the first group repeated the behaviour. – Observational learning How might this apply to development of self?

Social Learning approach You learn how to behave in different situations by watching others around you, particularly significant others such as parents, teachers, peers If you see your parent cry and get upset each time they make a mistake you too may develop this way of dealing with situations that involve a risk of error Think about some of the fears you have. Have you learnt those fears from watching other people’s responses? Why are small children often afraid of spiders or wasps?

Humanist perspectives on self Humanists such as Maslow, Kelly and Rogers are interested in how we experience the world George Kelly felt that we derive feelings about us/world through experiences and interactions. We then modify/extend them by testing them out. Carl Rogers developed a therapy that was client centred and he encouraged his patients to restructure their life by following their ‘true’ self not their social self. Rogers has a huge impact on counselling and psychology and promotes the idea that we are in control and can make conscious decisions for ourselves

Maslow Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs He felt that we could not reach the top of our potential unless other needs were met

Cognitive-developmental Cognitive-developmentalists such as Piaget, believe that children’s self-concept is distinctively linked to their cognitive development. Therefore they can only begin to develop an understanding of themselves as their cognitive skills develop Piaget believed that up until the age of around 6 or 7 children can only see the world from their own point of view. He called this ‘egocentrism’. E.g. If you ask a small child to tell you what someone else can see from the other side of the room they will describe things from their perspective. Or a child might tell you that they have a sister but strongly deny that their sister has a sister!!

Summary So far we have suggested that children’s development of self is dependent on a number of things: Development of self is dependent on interactions with others, including reinforcement Others provide labels that become a means of comparison in the development of self e.g. ‘clever’, ‘tall’ Children imitate and model themselves on significant others Through imitation we learn social roles which can be described like a play; we act out the role of mother, daughter, friend and so on

Summary We have considered the behaviourist, social learning, humanist and cognitive-developmental perspectives on the development of self. Next time we will look at Freud’s psychodynamic theory of self.

Bibliography Birch A., (1997) Developmental Psychology from infancy to adulthood 2nd Ed., New York: Palgrave Flanagan C., (1996) Applying Psychology to early child development, London: Hodder Education