The
self as subject. The entity that
thinks, feels, and acts. Unlike
the Me, the I changes from moment to moment; it is merely a moment of
consciousness. It's really not
worth studying, according to James.
Other psychologists have disagreed.
The
self as object. The entity which
known, felt, and observed in action; changes over time.
In
the beginning their is no differentiation between the self and the
environment. Only over time do we
develop the sense that we exist as a distinct physical entity. As early as 6 months children will
stare into a mirror, but it is not until about 18 months that they pass the
"ironclad" test. A spot of rouge
and a mirror. How great of a test
is this?
From
the time they acquire language, children tend to emphasize physical and
observable qualities. What they
look like, what they have (possessions), their house, their family &
friends, and their favorite activities.
They might mention some likes and dislikes, but that is as psychological
as they will get.
Rarely
use psych terms before 8 or 9 years.
After this children begin to describe stable personality
dispositions.
As
we get older, more of who we are comes to depend upon the social groups that we
are in contact with, that we value.
I am a boy, I am on the basketball team, I am in a band, I am a
Marxist-Leninist. Also we must
begin to juggle our social selves.
We present different facets to different people. Work with Harter. Self with friends, self with family,
self with significant other, the "real" self.
As
children grow older, they form impressions of who they would like to be, or who
they should be. We all have ideal
selves, the people we would like to be.
Unfortunately we do not always live up to our own expectations. This is called self-image
disparity. Take a test, "When I try my best, I
usually do a good job, It is hard for me to make new friends." Rate yourself using a 7 point scale. Then go through and rate how much you
would like each of these to be true about you. This disparity increases across the elementary school
years. How do these children
act? depressed, anxious? No! They act more mature than other children.
The
evaluative component of the self.
How do you feel about the self?
There are behavioral differences between high and low self-esteem
children. High self-esteem children are active participants rather than passive
learners, assertive, non-conformists, express their opinions, approached new
tasks with confidence, they made friends easily.
Which
comes first? The self-esteem or these
behaviors? Susan Harter suggests
that children's self-esteem is comprised of the following facets:
How
smart do you feel, how well do you read, how are you doing in school?
How
popular are you? Do others like
you?
How
good are you at sports? Do you get
picked to play? Do you like to try
new games?
In
general, how sure do you feel of yourself? Do you like things the way they are?
How
much control do you have over your life?
If you can prevent unpleasant things from happening to you, if you
believe that if you try harder you will succeed, then you have an internal
locus of control. If you blame
your situation on others, or on luck, fate, you have an external locus of
control. Research suggests that as
early as the third grade the locus of control is well established, and it has
an impact for life!
Some
things we think we are good at, other things we don't. We will work harder, longer, at tasks
we believe we are good at. Our
perception of self-efficacy is different from locus of control. I believe that you will only become the
heavy weight boxing champ through hard work, but that doesn't mean that I am
going to invest myself in becoming a boxer.
A
lot of who we are is determined by the way that others see us! Coopersmith 1967, boys with high
self-esteem had parents who showed more approval, affection, appreciation, and
respect of their sons. Avoid the
use of power assertive discipline.
As
children get older (5-8), they are more likely to be influenced by positive
attributions.
From
what we see ourselves doing. What
do you do all the time? I'm a
nerd, do you lie? Cheat? steal? Influence locus of control. Does what I do make a difference? When I study?
What
were the rewards and punishments in any given situation? These influence how much we attribute
the behavior to ourselves. Do we
see ourselves controlled by external factors, or are we intrinsically
motivated?
How
do others our own age act? Are we
different? The same? How? We pick and choose are comparison groups. Do minority groups tend to have low
self-esteem? Despite what you read
in the popular press, most empirical research says no.
A
mature self-definition; a sense of who one is, where one is going, and how one
fits into society. What do you
want to be when you grow up?
Choices concerning morality, politics, sex, religion.
Often
in our culture, adolescence is seen as an important period in identity
formation. What sort of choices
did you make/are you making? Have
there been areas where you didn't feel you could choose? Why not? James Marcia has looked at how adolescents achieve their
identity statuses - to what extent have they thought things over for themselves
and come to solid conclusions?
Individuals
who haven't started thinking about identity and who haven't made any
commitments.
Individuals
who have made commitments, but haven't really thought about what they really
want to do. Often parents or other
factors have "chosen" a course for them.
If I am expected to take over the family farm, I might be experiencing
identity foreclosure.
Individuals
who are experiencing "crisis" (they're thinking a lot about what they want to
do in the future), but haven't made any commitments yet. I'm going to join the army for 4 years
to think about what I want to do with my life.
An
individual who has passed through a crisis period and who has made a strong
personal commitment to occupation or ideology.
This
isn't to say that everyone is going to make up their minds on these issues in
adolescence. Far from it. You can take the rest of you life and
never commit. Or you might find it
easier to make choices concerning a particular area (occupation, gender-role,
religion, politics).
Obviously,
achieving Piaget's stage of Formal Operations is going to be very helpful if
you're going to be expected to think about these types of issues. But how do you approach the problem? Do you actively seek out information,
or do you wait to hear what others think?
How much time do you spend considering your options?
Parents
can play a key role. Feeling very
apart or hostile towards your parents can lead to diffusion. On the other hand, being too close to
your parents may lead to foreclosure.
How comfortable do you feel disagreeing with your parents? This can be a key issue.
It
looks like going to college has a positive influence on career selection, but
may actually impede political and religious choices.
Obviously
culture and history have a very significant impact on these types of
choices. You get drafted, you
might be a peasant, opportunities exist for you that were never available
before. Nowadays, you have to form
a cultural identity as well.
What factors influence that decision?
The
ability to regulate one's conduct and to inhibit actions that are unacceptable
or that conflict with a goal. You
can see how this is important; how could you get anything done if you gave in
to every impulse that you have. I
don't think you'd get much studying done.
Initially, our behavior is controlled by our parents. Hopefully, over time we begin to take
control of our actions (look what happens when some people get away from their
parents and come to college).
Children
are acquiring the ability to control their actions around age 2. Parents still control most of their
behavior, but children are also working hard to be able to do things for
themselves, thus the "terrible twos."
How do you respond to children who insist on doing things their
way? If you respond by physically
intervening, or by threatening or criticizing, you are more likely to have a
child who will act defiantly for the rest of their lives. It's probably a better idea to use
reasoning with children, and provide the logic and rationale for your
decisions.
Language
has an interesting impact on children's self-control. Interesting research by Luria shows that children can't
respond appropriately even to their own commands to stop. Luria gave children 1.5 to 5 a squeeze
bulb and had either an experimenter or the child him/herself issue the command
"don't press." Before age 3,
children would typically squeeze even faster, regardless of whether the command
was issued by themselves or by the experimenter. It looks like children have problems complying with oral
commands up until around 5-6 years.
So don't be surprised when younger children don't initially comply with
your oral commands.
A
form of self-control involving the capacity to inhibit impulses to seek small
rewards that are available immediately in the interest of obtaining larger
delayed incentives. In general,
children find it VERY difficult to delay gratification when they can actually
see the reward. Also, kids get
better at waiting for larger, delayed incentives by 10-12. Very young children are not aware that
they should be distracting themselves, and in fact often focus their attention
on the incentives they are trying to resist.