The development of self-awareness and shifts of Locus of self Knowledge

This theatre of operations examines the theoretical framework of developmental sequences and ego verbal descriptions and its proposed estimate that childrens intellect of ego change as they c all on sometime(a) and to a greater extent commensurate to take into account the information about themselves available from opposite sources much(prenominal) as their social surround. A small-scale investigation into the ways children translate egotism-importance-descriptions and how the characteristics of these change with get along was conducted by comparison of short hearings with twain actors time-honored 8 and 16 old age following a standardised methodology to Rosenbergs (1979) poll of ego description.Analysis of the material show that and so there is evidence that older children race to give accounts of themselves by victimisation more(prenominal) upcountry characteristics and emotional traits then younger children providing support to alert research in the su bject.IntroductionThe subject of development of personal identity element has been a topic of intense debate amongst scholars in the eye socket of child development. The multidimensionality of identity imposes that many out-of-door aspects argon involved in its development care religious, cultural, social ethnic, therefore in order to develop and identity children must(prenominal) be able to take into account such aspects. Maccoby (as cited in Miel and ding 2005 p. 131) proposes that for that reason, as sense of egotism happens by degrees. William James (1892 as cited in Miel and Ding 2005 pp 131) introduced the vagary that a sense of ego is divided in devil stages the self as a subject of experience and the self as an object of acquaintance (Miel and Ding, 2005 pg. 131).This representation that as children get older, they become more competent at self-awareness and more realistically involved in perception and responses of others in their lives. According to James, thi s development occurs during childhood by means of interactions between cognitive aspects and Social experiences where children actively accustom their incoming comeledge about themselves to make a going away in their environment. Subsequently, as children draw in increasing levels of self awareness, a second stage emerges defined as the self as an object or categorical self (James 1961 as cited in Miel and Ding 2005 pg. 133) where children begin to be categorized by others and themselves in defining roles in order.Cooley and Mead (1935) further underpinned the importance of social influences upon the development of an identity by coining the term looking glass self and the development of the conjecture of symbolic interactionism where they stress that a sense of identity emerges from reactions of others in the environment to us and the impressions we make informalize of these judgments (Mead 1934, as cited in Miell and Ding, 2005, pp. 134-136.More recently, developmental Psyc hologists such as Harter (1983) and Rosenberg (1979) have used methods of semi-structured interviews and self report measures to canvas childrens developmental sequences in the formation of the self. In Her analysis of interviews with children of confused ages, Harter (1983, as cited in Miell and Ding, 2005, pp.128-129) framed a developmental sequence where younger children show tendency to attract behavior and objective facts procrastinatingly fault from traits of somatic aspects and ultimately to interpersonal traits.Rosenbergs findings suggest that younger children tend to bank on physical aspects and character traits observable by others to describe their sense of self whereas older children make more use of sexual qualities and emotions only known to them. Rosenberg was interested beyond simple aspects of self description and added to his perplexitys, topics that explored the childrens categorical self and what he defines as venue of self knowledge.This speculate aim s to investigate childrens accounts in their self concept by using pre magnetic disced semi-structured interviews with two participants aged 8 and 16 geezerhood and applying Rosenbergs categories of self description, self evaluation, self and others, Ideal self and venue of self knowledge in slightly altered forms. With view on the relevant theories to the context of this study, the research question in focus is Do children acquire a progressive sense of self as they uprise older and interact with their social environment?MethodDesignThe radiation diagram of this study consists in a comparison of the self-descriptions given by two young people, during semi-structured interviews.ParticipantsThe participants that took slip in this study were selected from two schools ( star primary and one secondary) in the surrounding areas of Milton Keynes. Anne aged 8 yeas and go ages 16 years were randomly selected and given informed consent as rise as their parents to participate in this research.Materias and procedureThe material for this study was collected by the course team of ED209 Child Development at Open University and all(prenominal) step has been taken to ascertain its compliance with the British Psychological unions ethical guidelines for research with human participants. In order to record the interviews, a microphone was strategically placed in a non interfering location near the participant. An A4 sheet of paper was used for the participants to complete their self description (I statements) and a recorder was used to record the interviews. The interviews took place during the day in May 2005. The locations of the interviews were in places familiar to the children.The younger participant (Annie) was interviewed by a member of the module team Kieron Sheehy and Peter Barnes conducted the interview with the older participant (Adam). some(prenominal) children were informed prior to the start of their ripe to withdraw from the interview at any time as well as to have any data deleted should they feel something was said that they do not want in recording. None of them did so. Care was taken to ensure the best possible quality to the recordings which required such to be stop at times when background noise was too inconvenient.Near the author of the interview the participants were asked to write down a description of themselves on a sheet of A4 paper. At the top were the words Who am I and at a lower place that were ten numbered lines, each beginning I The recording was paused while the children accurate these descriptions. Subsequently, the participants were asked questions base on Rosenbergs questions of self evaluation, self and others and ideal self as well as on the concept of Locus of self knowledge.ResultsSelf descriptionsThe research question proposed by this study is that younger children rely on physical and character traits when giving accounts of themselves and this should progressively reposition with age as they make more use of inner traits for self description. The categories proposed by Rosenberg and used in this study and the results in percentage of the accounts of the two participants are as seen in table 1 bellow.Percentages were rounded to the nearest unimportantThe results above clearly show that the younger participant (Annie) relies solely on physical and character traits to describe herself whereas the older participant (Adam) makes much more use of inner characteristics and relationship connections supporting the hypothesis proposed by this study.Locus of Self KnowledgeAnnie shows internal and external locus when she suggests that both her and her pose would know better about her Maths, acknowledging that her mother might not know that she is getting better every day. Nevertheless in the question of behavior she placed the locus externally saying that her mom would be catch up with.Adam, the older participant was clear saying that his mother would be correct if asked what su bjects he is better at school and about his behavior at home.Self evaluationWhen describing her weak and strong points Annie pointed out solely to physical traits of herself my ears and legs (1106) and observable characteristics Ive got lots of friends (913). Adam equally relied heavily on character traits to describe his strong and weak points, however with a difference that his accounts were mostly related to internal (not necessarily observable) traits I ideate im approachable b anyoneI suppose that my personality like just universe a relaxed person (2002)Ideal selfThe older participant (Annie) relied on external factors to describe her ideal self like jobs for my job I would like to be an actress (1342) making no account of any inner characteristic. Adam (16 years) on the other hand showed a capability to project his future in terms of interpersonal traits Id be like a leader, like a leader or something with provide, because I like to think that Id been really strong as a le aderSelf and othersAnnie made comparisons of herself to others in terms of similar or different she is regarding her physical characteristics Im the same as Naomi as we both like Maths(1124). Nevertheless, she shows an ability to reflect on internal aspects of herself and the importance of her uniqueness as a person Because if all the people are the same as me then I wouldnt feel special (1323).Most of Adams comparisons to others were described in terms of the quality of inner similarities that enables relationships to form and be maintained weve more or less got the same viewpoints (2321) and his inner drives that differentiates him from others I like to think that Im not going to spend the rest of my flavor working in a shop like some of my friends (2500) discussionThe purpose of this study was to investigate by means of comparison of interviews with two young participants (Annie aged 8 and Adam aged 16), the idea draw in current research that development of identity occurs prog ressively from an experiential self to a categorical self and childrens self descriptions shift gradually from predominantly physical traits in younger children to more interpersonal characteristics in older ones. Equally it aimed to analyze Rosenbergs suggestion that a transfer in the locus of self knowledge from external to internal occurs as age progresses.In the self description task, Annie made use exclusively of physical and character traits to provide a description of herself where Adam showed a fluent ability to understand himself as an abstract cosmos and use interpersonal and emotional traits when talking about himself. This is consistent with the idea of James (1892 as cited in Miel and Ding 2005 pp 131) that a sense of self emerges gradually.In detailed analysis of the questions related to the locus of self knowledge, Both Annie and Adam place emphasis on the other rather than the self contradicting Rosenbergs findings that a shift occurs to the self as children grow ol der (Rosenberg 1979 as cited in the Open University 2012 assessment guide). However this could be so for reasons related to the methodology of research itself. For instance both participants did not front to grasp the meaning of the questions initially, or perhaps confounding variables like power imbalance between researcher and participant could have played a role.On this topic it is therefore impossible to draw a irrefutable or negative conclusion based only on this warning size. Cooley (1902 as cited in Miel and Ding 2005 pg 134) suggests the idea of the self as a looking glass where the person develops a sense of self by gradually undertaking others views and reactions of them. This theory can be supported by the findings of this study regarding the locus of self-knowledge where both children seem to see their own selves through the looking glass of others.The responses given in the other themes (ideal self, self and others and self evaluation) provide a strong support to Ha rter (1983 as cited in Open University 2012 assessment guide) and Rosenbergs theory of a doctrine on physical activities and aspects by younger children and a shift to more inner traits and relation to others in older participants.It is important to note that this study relies on a precedent size too small to throw in its results to be universalized. Also the context of the interviews and the participants were selected in a Western society where emphasis is strong on individuality and independence (Tobin et al 1989 as cited in Miell and Ding 2005 pp130). Therefore this study should only be construe within the limits of its settings however it gives interest to the possibility of further research with a broader cross-cultural selection of participants.Briefly, some methodological issues came up in the homework of questions that could perhaps have had an impact however small on the results of this study At times, both participants showed confusion regarding the questions asked. Pe rhaps a different verbalism would have been more appropriate.ConclusionThis study supports ongoing theories of a gradual development of self awareness proving the initial research question suggested and the idea that identity is shaped by an interaction of cognitive factors with various external aspects like social, peer, religion etc Due to methodological issues and small sample size it is impossible to offer conclusive support to the theory of Locus-of-self knowledge. In future, the field of developmental psychology could benefit from further research involving larger sample sizes of varied cultures as this study can only account for children based in the scope of western society