Social

Question 1

The Self

Answer 1

The Self - The idea babies arrive at that they are an entity and a separate entity from any one else

→ Joint attention

• 9 month olds point to share
• Understand that their perspective is different to the perspective of others

Question 2

Self-recognition

Answer 2

18-24 month olds pass “rouge” test

• Put sticker on forehead and look into a mirror, if they touch the sticker then they can recognise that they are their own person, that they know that the person they are looking at in the mirror is themselves

Question 3

Self-representation

Answer 3

3 year olds can describe themselves and how they feel

• Among infants it begins with just naming observable characteristics

Question 4

self-concept

Answer 4

mental picture we have of ourselves

Question 5

Self-Esteem

Answer 5

Judgement of worth, liking and satisfaction

• Is it global or domain specific

Generally found it is more domain specific for children

• Such as scholastic or athletic competence
• Physical appearance
• Behavioural conduct
• It is of greater importance to the child depending on how valued it is among the family

Question 6

Changes in self-esteem

Answer 6

• Young children generally have high self esteem

Adolescence is associated with a drop in self-esteem, particularly for girls

• Value of other opinions
• Authoritarian parenting style
• Relationships with opposite sex (increases for males, doesn’t make a difference for females)

Self-esteem also declines in old age

• Not many gender differences in older age

Question 7

Self-esteem importance

Answer 7

Related to mental health

• Low SE associated with loneliness, anxiety, depression, reduced life satisfaction
• Low SE in adolescence linked to poor mental health, financial/employment difficulties, and criminality in adulthood

Question 8

Ways of improving self-esteem

Answer 8

Praise from parent

• Telling them they are good at something
• Reinforcing that there is a positive value of their representation
• 80% of parents think that praising their children’s ability helps children feel good about themselves

Question 9

Is there a downside to praise (Mueller & Dweck (1998))

Answer 9

• 10 year old children set 1 reasoning problem of moderate difficulty, standard for children of that age

Then manipulated the feedback after success (“you got > 80% problems right, that’s a really high score”)

• Group 1: you must be smart (innate ability)
• Group 2: you must have worked hard (effort)
• Group 3: no feedback

Given more problems later on that were the same or more difficult

• The proportion of children who chose the easier problems were moderate in control, higher than control in praised ability and lowest in praised effort groups