psychology
... 15% of younger children were likely to rely on another person as the reference point for judging themselves compared with 50% of older children. Rosenberg’s self-reflective sense of self ties in well theories suggested by Cooley and G.H. Mead who developed this suggestion of a close connection between the understanding of the self and others, this is known as the looking glass self. Others provide a social mirror with which people see themselves. Mead claimed that the self and the social world are inextricable bound together, that the self is a social structure, and it arises out of social experience, he believed that through the use of language and games and play, young children take on the perspectives of other people towards themselves cited by Woodhead et al (1995) p. 195 Significantly, emotional expression can vary very much between cultures, individual differences, and roles. It is governed by display rules, which children learn at an early age, play may be a big factor in how much a child will attribute importance to the physical worlds. This will vary according to the child’s ability to use their imagination whilst engaged in play, some children will play only with other children whilst others spend time with animals or spend time in creative solitary activities. These concepts will be discussed and linked to a theoretical framework that has set out to establish developmental trends in the concept of the self where it starts and does it ever end? Method Design – this study is a replication of Rosenberg’s study which set out to explore two of Rosenberg’s main hypotheses, one that there is a shift with age from physical descriptions and mainly observable features and behaviours to more private and internal descriptions and two that there is a shift with age in the locus of self-knowledge from important others, particularly parents and self. Two semi-structured interviews were carried out. Participants – were chosen between the ages of 14 and 17, both were female. They are the youngest sisters and children of a very large family of nine children. Parental consent was obtained and explanation of the purpose of the practical was made, it was made clear that the interviews were entirely confidential and were for college purposes only. Apparatus/ materials, questionnaires provided by the OU. Procedure Both were interviewed on the same day in a private room in their own home. A brief discussion took place before and after the interviews to clarify the importance of being as truthful as possible and to feel assured that the interview as entirely confidential. Results Results were analysed and graphed with the used of a pie chart. Results did not correlated with Rosenberg’s finding. The younger teenager demonstrated a much strong sense of inner thought and character than her older sister. Whilst the older teenager demonstrated strong physical attributions placing little emphasis upon her character and relationships. Results will be analysed and discussed. Discussion Rosenberg’s findings suggested that children as they grew older used character traits to define the ‘self’ and he also found greater reference to relationships, the older children got the less the attributed importance to the physical world and the more they made attributions about the inner world. Results did not correlate with Rosenberg’s finding. The younger teenager demonstrated a much strong sense of inner thought and character than her older sister. Whilst the older teenager demonstrated strong physical attributions placing little emphasis upon her character and relationships. These results indicate a number of issues, firstly they need to be considered in the context of the modern world where teenagers increasingly place a very strong emphasis upon the physical world, this is a as a result of increasing consumerism and materialism and may not have been such a consideration when Rosenberg was conducting his study. Many parents would argue that children do not demonstrate greater understanding of the inner states as they age, in fact they demonstrate less, especially throughout their teenage years Secondly, they need to be considered in the context of individual differences, participant A by her own personality traits may have a strong sense of her own inner self, the reasons for this could be the result of many factors. Her interests suggest that she is a more solitary type and does not have the quite the same ambitious temperament as her older sister. Thirdly, the context of family needs to be considered, Dunn (1988) claimed that it is the emotional power of close relationships that drives a child towards social understanding, cited in Woodhead et al (1995) p.221 he found that children are profoundly interested in and affected by the feelings expressed by their parents and siblings and they used this understanding in order to negotiate their position in these key relationships. Dunn’s claim may be evident in participant A who is the youngest child she demonstrates strong bonds with her mother and by her own admission prefers adult company, this may be due to the fact there are twenty years between her and her oldest sister and she has spent extensive time with adults. The other aspect of self-development that interested Rosenberg was what is known as the ‘locus of self-knowledge’ this was is about how far children have develop and independent, self-reflective sense of self, separate from others, notably their attachment figures. The youngest participant seems to demonstrate the highest ‘locus of self-knowledge’, she realises that she is happiest when she does well in school as opposed to poorly and she is not concerned that others around her are not vegetarians, she is also aware that she is not outgoing. She very clearly demonstrates high inner knowledge. Mead claimed that the self and the social world are inextricable bound together, that the self is a social structure, and it arises out of social experience, he believed that through the use of language and games and play, young children take on the perspectives of other people towards the...