PSYCH 2AA3 Lecture 16: Lecture 16 - Self-Understanding (Nov 16)
11 Feb 2019
School
Department
Course
Professor
Child Development
November 16, 2017
Self-Understanding – Socio-Emotional Development I
Overview
• Definitions
o Self
▪ Our knowledge of who and what we are
o Self-understanding
▪ Our cognitive representation of self
• Ties to cognitive development
o Piagetian development
o Metacognitive development
Self-Understanding in Infancy
• What does self-understanding look like in pre-verbal infants?
o Self-recognition
▪ Can they recognize themselves?
• Mirror technique research
o Originally used in non-human consciousness research (Gallup, 1970)
o Mirror Technique in Humans
▪ Lewis & Brooks-Gunn (1979)
▪ Aged
• 9-12 months
• 15-17 months
• 18-20 months
• 21-24 months
▪ Mothers put rouge on the babies nose
▪ Place baby in front of mirror to see how much they touch their nose
▪ Results
• Aged
o 9-12 months – no % increase from control
o 15-17 months – 20% increase from control
o 18-20 months – 70% increase from control
o 21-24 months – 78% increase from control
Self-Understanding in Early Childhood
• Easier since they can talk
• Researchers will ask the child to describe themselves
o Five themes
▪ (1). Activities-oriented
▪ (2). Concrete
▪ (3). Physical and material
▪ (4). Centered
▪ (5). Unrealistically positive
