The Self - Lectures 1 & 2 Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is bronfennbrenner’s bioecological model?
- Ecological perspective → need to take
into account context - Development as occurring within a
complex system of relationships
this comes from an ecological perspective that often has its roots in biology (you would say if you wanna study how a plant goes you need to take into account the context. What is in the soil, how sunny is it, how much pollution is there in the sky?) Bronfenbrenner takes this ecological perspective and says we need to care about context. He thinks development occurs in a system of relationships.
What are the levels of bronfenbrenners bioecological model?
The Child: biologically-based
dispositions, actively influencing
development
* Microsystem: immediate
environment (parents, peers, teachers, etc.)
- Mesosystem: connections between
microsystem
(its saying that the relationship between you and your one parent and the other maters, but also the connection between your parents matters etc.)
- Exosystem: indirect environments;
settings the child does not come
into contact with, but influence their
experiences
(this is settings the child is not necessarily coming into contact wit hthemselves but still has an impact. ex: parents’ workplace, the sorts of messages created in mass media.)
- Macrosystem: cultural values, laws,
customs, resources
(what are the canadian laws about childcare etc. ) - Chronosystem: time period; age of
child (a child growing up today will be impacted differently than someone 100 years ago and a 6 year old child is having different influiences than a 16 year old )
What is one example of an influence in the chronosystem?
covid.
What is the cool quote by Lang 2005?
“before Bronfenbrenner, child
psychologists studied the child,
sociologists examined the family,
anthropologists the society,
economists the economic framework
of the times and political scientists the
structure…”
-Lang, 2005
What is the legacy of bronfenbrenners bioecological model?
- Broad role of context,
beyond the immediate
environment - Influence on policy
- Critiques:
- Vague, difficult to test
- Little emphasis on
individual biology
some children seem to be quite resilient to context and others are much more sensitive to context and this is in part because of genetic differences.
What is the flow chart of what makes up the self?
- Cognitive construction
(Mental representation)
in some ways how you think about yourself is a cognitive construction.
- Social construction
(Interactions/experiences
with others)
its also a social construction because our ideas of ourselves are influenced by our expectations of other people.
The Self: Who you are
- self-concept
- self esteem
- identity
What is self-concept like in infancy?
What is a test we use to understand this?
slef-concept takes a lot of time to develop. In the first few months, babies turn towards a perso nstroking their cheeck but don’t do that when they are stroking their own cheek. They watch videos of themselves longer than videos of other people.
Infancy
* ~18 months
* Pass rouge test
* ~2 years:
* Recognize self in pictures;
* Label self using own
name/“me”
* Use category labels for self
(“categorical self”)
Rouge test, if you put a kid in front of a mirror and put a spot on their nose, kids early on will often try to rub it off of the mirror but around 18 months they recognize its themselves and try to rub it off themselves.
at 2 kids recognize themselves in mirrors, pictures, label things as themselves (me, I etc.)
What age would this person be according to their self-concept?
I have a dog, a cat, and
two hamsters. I can
colour really well, and
paint really well. My
room has dinosaurs in it.
I always win at miniature
golf! I have brown hair
and I’m really strong. I
can lift this chair!
- Early Childhood
What is your self-concept like in early childhood?
Early Childhood
* Can describe self
* Focus on concrete, observable
features
* Unrealistically positive
some of the things we see in these early self-descriptors are a focus on concrete observable things. Like I have brown hair, I can lift this chair etc.
these self-concepts are unrealistically positive.
What age would this person be according to their self-concept?
I’m good at art; I’m
creative. Most of the
other girls say that I’m
nice. I have two girls
who are my really
good friends. I’m not
very good at sports,
like I don’t do well at
baseball, soccer, or
gymnastics.
Middle Childhood
What is self-concept like in middle childhood?
- Middle Childhood
- More integrated; begin to refer to
global characteristics (become more integrated, less concrete, more global characteristics. I am creative not just I did this painting. ) - More realistic and balanced
- Linked to actual
competencies/evaluation (more based in reality and evaluation.) - Social comparisons ( How am I doing compared to other people?)
What age would this person be according to their self-concept?
I’m pretty complicated,
actually. Most people
don’t understand me,
especially my parents!
I’m sensitive, moody,
affectionate, and
sometimes self-
conscious. When I’m
with my friends, I’m
affectionate and fun.
Adolescence
What is self-concept like in adolescence?
- Adolescence
- Nuanced view of self (more abstract, developing this idea that I’m not always the same across different contexts. The understanding that I can be different ways in different places. ) (in early adolescence you see adolescents feeling some stress or concern around this nuance and this complexity. )
- Understand role of situations,
context, and perspective (this tends to be much more abstract than psychological. ) - More abstract and
psychological - Begin to think about the future;
possible selves (not just this is how I am but also this is how I want to do!) - Begin to develop
coherent/integrated self
self-concept development is generally a really important part of adolescence.
What are 3 things we often see regarding self-concept in adolescence?
- False self behaviour: intentionally
presents a false impression to
others (in adolescents we often see false self behaviour. We act in ways that don’t feel true to who we are. Most common in romantic relationships and with parents. Least commmon with friends ) - Personal fable: belief that one’s
own experience is unique and novel (the belief that you and yourself are unique and no one else has the same ideas etc. Adolescent egocentrism. ) - Imaginary audience: the belief that
everyone else is focused on you (also coming up in the imaginary audience. The belief that everyone else is focused on you. )
what are common influences on self-concept development?
- Cognitive development (as we become able to take perspectives of other people, thats where you start to see the self-concept doing more social comparism. Our self-concepts also get increasingly abstract. This all goes along with cognitive development. )
- Parents
- Warmth & support (children and teenagers tend to have more positive self concepts if the family shows more warmth and support. )
- Family narratives (things your family says about you. This shapes how we see ourselves. )
- Peers (feedback and stories from our peers matter.)
- Culture
- Individualistic vs collectivist
individualistic (I am a wonderful and very smart
person. A funny and hilarious person.
A kind and caring person. A good-
grade person who is going to go to a
good school. A helpful and
cooperative girl.)
Collectivist (I’m a human being. I’m a child. I like to
play cards. I’m my mom and dad’s
child, my grandma and grandpa’s
grandson. I’m a hard-working good
child.)
Neurodivergence
* Autistic individuals → Less focus on self as seen through others; less
focus on possible selves
What were the findings we discussed from Wang 2004?
looked at self-descriptors of teenage european americans and chinse teenagers. Private descriptors are more comon in european american kids. Collective is like (I am in second grade etc.) These collective descriptors are relatively more common among the chinese chidlren. Public self-descriptors are about how others see you. This is also relatively more common in chinese children. Abstract descriptors are more common in European Americans. MISSIN INFO. Autistic European americans talk less about what they could be like.
What is self-concept, generally?
self concept is like what your traits are etc. Self esteem is about how you feel about yourself. Like do you feel positively or negatively about yourself. Children before age 8 really struggle with that. Self-esteem tends to start really high. Kids tend to be unrealistically positive about themselves. Starting in elementary school we begin to see a decline in self-esteem which we think has to do with an increase in social comparison.
How much self-esteem do people typically have based on age?
Starts high, decline
through childhood
Overall, seems to
increase beginning in
mid-adolescence but there’s lots of individual differences
research generally suggests that self-esteem increases in adolescents. In childhood it declines. In early adolescence it is mixed but beginning in mid adolescence around 14, 15, 16 self-esteem seems to increase among adolescents. In mid adolescence you are gaining a lot of independence and autonomy.
What are gender influences on self-esteem?
- Gender
- Higher for cisgender boys vs
girls (boys tend to show higher self-esteem than girls.) - For transgender youth →
importance of gender-affirming
care - Culture (in some ways we see similarities across culture. One thing that jumps out is that the general increase is pretty common across these different cultures. )
- Different meanings of self-
esteem - Race (there has also been research looking at racial differences in self esteem. Black youth in north american have the highest self-esteem and asian american youth have hte lowest self-esteem.)
Approval of others → parents,
peers, teachers
- social influences also play a role in self-esteem. Positive feedback is linked to higher self-esteem etc. A lot of this also relates to societal standards. What seems to be particularly important for teenagers is whether or not they live up to physical standard about attractiveness. This is more true for girls than boys but it is true for everyone.
- this might go back to cultural differences. For example, cultural differences in the value of modesty. Some of these racial differences might have to do with how this is measured.
- in studies looking at black families, these families find it really important to talk about pride and self-esteem as a barrier against prejudice etc.
- Societal standards (Physical attractiveness)
UNDERSTAND GRAPH ON SLIDE 19
What is the impact of self-esteem/why is it important?
- High self-esteem → better in
school, better well-being - Low self-esteem → emotional
and behavioural problems - Self-Esteem Movement:
programs designed to boost
self-esteem in order to boost
academic performance/well-
being - Not effective!
it seems like there were only correlations between self-esteem and outcomes. It also might be that positive outcomes lead to good self-esteem. Maybe self-esteem is benefiical but only when it is secure. Maybe it has to be based in actual accomplishmenrs. When we are given all of this additional praise and rewards not based on that it backfires in some ways too.
More likely that positive
outcomes lead to higher
self-esteem?
High self-esteem only
beneficial when “secure”
(ie, earned, based on
accomplishments)
What is identitiy?
identity is often described as your answer to who am I but it is often deeper and more complex. How you feel secure about yourself. The ways you integrate all the different aspects of yourself.
A description or definition of
the self; a theory of oneself
* The extent to which
individuals feel secure
about who they are, who
they were, who they will be
often when we’re thinking about our identitiy, we are also encorporating how we are feeling about ourself in relation to the labels people put on us. Group membership becomes a part of identity development and is also a central focus during adolescence.
in adolescence you develop some of those cognitive capabilities of being able ot think about things abstractly.
What are different examples of identities?
- occupational identity
- political identity
- gender identity
- ethnic identity
- religious identity
- sexual identity
What does erikson believe about adolescence?
Erikson: adolescence a crisis of identity vs role confusion
* Psychosocial moratorium: time in which individuals are free from excessive obligations and can experiment with different
roles
Erikson talks about adolescents as a psychosocial moratorium. YOu are free from societal obligations. You don’t necessarily have job yet or a romantic partner and kids that you are tied to yet. University in theory is supposed to be a space where you can try out different identities and selves etc.
