1. PSY 226: Child and Adolescent Development
The Development of Self

2. Learning Objectives
(1) Differentiate between self-concept and self-esteem, understand how they are assessed, and how they are related.
(2) Describe how the self-concept of teenagers is different from children.
(3) Know the “dual masters” of self and discuss research examining:
Self-other correspondence over time.
The predictive validity of self-ratings.

3. Self-Concept and Self-Esteem: What Are They?
Self-Concept: a cognitive evaluation one’s domain specific ability or competence (e.g., athletics, math, relating to others).
Self-Esteem: an evaluation of one’s worth as a person. The evaluation is both cognitive and affective.
How do they relate?
The Self-Perception Profile by Susan Harter

4. Self-Concept Relates to Self-Esteem

5. Development of Self: Early Childhood
A Categorical Self
When asked “Tell me who you are.”
Concrete, Physical, Objective feature
I am a girl
I am four years old
I have curly hair
I have two brothers
I have all the “Twilight Dolls”
I have good teeth when I smile

6. Development of Self: Early Childhood
Non-Integrated Self
Features are not compared or cross-referenced
Non-Conflicting Self
Dualistic thinking – descriptions are in “either/or” rather than relative terms
NOT LIKELY: “I’m better at playing “Twilight” than my younger brother, but my older brother is faster than me except when I get a head start.”

7. Development of Self: Early Childhood
Positive Self
Self description is often very favorable
Egocentric
“Actual” and “Ideal” selves are not distinct (W. James)
Limited basis for social comparison
Positive feedback bias
Glowing, distorted, absence of negative feedback

8. Development of Self: Middle-to-Late Childhood
Emergence of Social Comparison and
Integration
Relative Statements about Ability
I’m tall and smart
I’m the best at dodge ball
I love play dodge ball
Continued Positive Bias
Limited basis social comparison
Temporal, internal comparisons (I’m better than I was…”)

9. The Changing Self
2:15

10. Development of Self: Emerging Adolescence
Differentiated, Hierarchically Integrated Self
Emphasis on Psychological and Personality Characteristics
Considerable Self-Other Comparison
Allows for Self to Vary Across Situations/Contexts
Allows for conflicting views of self
I’m good at “fightin” and I isn’t none too good at “talkin’”
“I’m smart at English but, but not math. But math is pretty useless because I’m going to be a writer, so who cares about numbers.”
Social comparison leads to the emergence of social norms and peer group formation
Select our friends based on “deep features” similarity
Selective peer group reference allows for continued positive appraisal of self

11. Hongling Xie et al. “The looking-glass self” The Self: Dual Masters
Maintain an objective, accurate view of the world
“The looking-glass self”

12. The Looking Glass Self
“We appear as selves in our conduct insofar as we take the attitude that others take towards us. We take the role of what may be called “generalized other.”
-G.H. Mead (1925)

13. The Looking Glass Self

14. The Looking Glass Self
“The development of the child could not go on at all without the constant modification of his sense of himself by suggestions from others. So he himself, at every stage, is really in part someone else, even in his own thought of himself.”
-James Mark Baldwin (1897)

15. (2) Maintain high personal regard, sometimes in spite of reality.
Hongling Xie et al.
The Self: Dual Masters
(2) Maintain high personal regard, sometimes in spite of reality.

16. William James on Self Esteem
Self Esteem = success / pretentions
(what are we good at / what do we aspire to be good at)
Self Esteem must be and is often preserved by:
Exclusion of negative information
Selective inclusion of positive information
Projecting a self that elicit a positive “looking glass”

17. Maintaining Personal Regard
“The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us.”
-Quentin Crisp

18. What’s the Function of Selfies?

19. Hongling Xie et al. The Self: Dual Masters
1. Maintain an objective, accurate view of the world
Suggests the looking-glass view is accurate
2. Maintain high personal regard, sometimes in spite of reality
Looking-glass is not accurate when feedback is negative
Protection of “self-esteem” is equally important
Suggests a basic tendency for “self-enhancement”
Suggests a low correspondence between self & other

20. Hongling Xie et al.: “A Lack of Contemporary Association”

21. Xie et al.: “The Self-Other GAP”
Independent correspondence between self and teacher ratings of competence in “math” and “spelling”

22. Xie et al.: Self Enhancement in “Spelling”

23. Xie et al.: Self Enhancement in “Popularity”
teacher

24. Xie et al. Predictive Validity for Spelling

25. Xie et al. Predictive Validity for Math

26. Remember…
Achieving a correspondence with the outside world is only one function of the self.
Maintaining high personal regard is an important and necessary function too.
Both functions remain important across development.

27. Correspondence Between Self-Other is Most Likely When…
The characteristic is public, salient, and not personally defaming
“Gets
into
Fights”

28. Correspondence Between Self-Other is Most Likely When…
The characteristic is made very explicit and involves a highly concrete task
Can you solve this problem?
2x + 4 = 12?

29. Correspondence Between Self-Other is Most Likely When…
The reference group is clear and the individual is knowledgeable about the group
The informants share the same biases

30. Self-Modesty Occurs Too… Physical Attractiveness
teacher
teacher
self
self
GIRLS
BOYS

31. Learning Objectives
(1) Differentiate between self-concept and self-esteem, understand how they are assessed, and how they are related.
(2) Describe how the self-concept of teenagers is different from children.
(3) Know the “dual masters” of self and discuss research examining:
Self-other correspondence over time.
The predictive validity of self-ratings.

32. The Self-Esteem Movement
Features Research By:
Roy Baumeister
Carol Dweck