Development of the

Self and Social

Cognition
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 Lecture Overview
▪ Development of the Self-Concept

▪ Self-Esteem: The Evaluative Component of Self

▪ Development of Achievement Motivation and

Academic Self-Concept

▪ The Other Side of Cognition: Knowing about Others

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 Development of the Self-Concept
▪ Early self-concept
– Proprioceptive feedback
– Personal agency
– Self-recognition
• Rouge test
• Present self and extended self
• Contribution of cognitive development
• Contribution of secure attachment
• Parenting style

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 Development of the Self-Concept
▪ Contributions to early self-concept
– Contribution of cognitive development
– Contribution of secure attachment
– Parenting style
• Autobiographical memories
• Extended self
– Cultural differences

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 Development of the Self-Concept
▪ Who am I?
– The categorical self—classification along social
dimensions such as age, sex, race
– Preschoolers’ self-concepts concrete and physical,
but rudimentary psychological awareness
– Middle-schoolers’ self-concepts include more
“inner” qualities.

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 Development of the Self-Concept
▪ Self-concept is multidimensional
– Shaped by many components
• Physical
• Academic
• Social
• Biology
• Environment
• Culture

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 Development of the Self-Concept
▪ Individualistic ▪ Collectivistic (communal)
▪ Value ▪ Value
– Competition – Cooperation
– Individual initiative and – Interdependence
accomplishments – Social harmony
– Emphasize differences – Identity tied to groups to
which they belong

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 Self-Esteem: The Evaluative
Component of the Self
▪ Self-esteem
– One’s evaluation of one’s worth as a person
– Based on assessment of qualities identified in self-concept
– By 4 to 5 years: securely attached children → higher
self-esteem

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 Self-Esteem: The Evaluative
Component of the Self
▪ Susan Harter: hierarchical model of childhood
self-esteem
▪ Five domains
– Scholastic competence
– Social acceptance
– Physical appearance
– Athletic competence
– Behavioural conduct

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Figure 13.2 A multidimensional and hierarchical model of self-esteem
Source: Adapted from “Historical Roots in Contemporary Issues Involving Self Concept,” by S. Harter, 1996, in B.A. Braken (Ed.), Handbook of
Self-concept: Developmental, Social, and Clinical Considerations. New York: Wiley.

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 Self-Esteem: The Evaluative
Component of the Self
▪ How do children rate themselves?
– Ages 4 to 7: positive in all domains
– Age 8: ratings similar to others’ evaluations
▪ Suggests that self-knowledge and self-esteem are related
to how others perceive and relate to the child’s behaviour

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 Self-Esteem: The Evaluative
Component of the Self
▪ Crocker and Wolfe: Contingencies of
Self-Worth Scale
– Assesses seven sources of self-esteem
▪ Suggests that domain-specific evaluations are
important only if child’s self-esteem is
contingent on that domain

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 Self-Esteem: The Evaluative
Component of the Self
▪ Correlates of self-worth/self-esteem
– Positive body image (fitness and BMI)
– Bullying related to lower self-worth
– Social emotional learning
– Parenting style
– Social comparison

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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ What is achievement motivation?
– Willingness to strive to succeed at challenging tasks and to
meet high standards of accomplishment
▪ Humans are motivated to master their environments
(mastery motive)

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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ Development of achievement motivation
– Early phases
1. Joy in mastery (infancy to age 2)

2. Approval-seeking (age 2)

3. Use of standards (age 3 and older)

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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ Influences in the home
– Attachment quality
– Stimulation in home environment
• Intrinsic orientation to achievement
– Authoritative parenting style
▪ Peers
▪ Culture
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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ To what do children attribute success and
failure? Locus of Causality
Internal External

Stable Ability Task difficulty

Stability of
attribution
Unstable Effort Luck

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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ Expectancy-value theory (EVT)
– Children’s choice, persistence, and performance are
predicted by
• expectancy of success
• valuation of activity
– Contextual features such as previous experiences of
achievement
– Used to measure teacher, parent, child expectancy of
success across many domains

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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ How do children view ability?
– Move from an incremental view (growth mindset) of
ability to an entity view (fixed mindset) of ability

▪ Mastery orientation

▪ Learned-helplessness orientation

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Figure 13.5 Characteristics of the mastery-oriented and learned-helplessness
achievement orientations
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 Development of Achievement
Motivation and Academic Self-Concept
▪ Attribution retraining
– Intervention designed to see failure due to lack of
effort, not ability

▪ Person praise leads to performance goals

▪ Process-oriented praise leads to learning goals

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 The Other Side of Social Cognition:
Knowing about Others
▪ Person perception
– Ability to attribute characteristics to others

▪ Age trends: follow those used to describe the

self
• But even 3- to 4-year-old children can make trait
inferences about basic behaviour.

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 The Other Side of Social Cognition:
Knowing about Others
▪ How do children attribute traits to others?
– Under age 7 or 8, use concrete terms, but aware
of behavioural consistencies
– Older children rely more on psychological
descriptors and recognize socially desirable
responses.
• Dispositional and situational factors

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The Other Side of Social Cognition:
Knowing about Others
Figure 13.6 Percentages of descriptive
statements classified as behavioural
comparisons, psychological (trait-like)
constructs, and psychological
comparisons for children between the
ages of 6 and 11
Source: From “The Development of Person Perception in
Childhood and Adolescence: From Behavioral Comparison
to Psychological Constructs to Psychological
Comparisons,” by C. Barenboim, 1981, Child
Development, 52, pp. 129–144. Copyright © 1981 by The
Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. Reprinted
by permission.

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 Social Cognition
▪ Thinking about others
– Shift from concrete attributes to psychological descriptors
• Behavioural comparisons
• Psychological constructs
• Psychological comparisons

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 Theories of
Social Cognitive Development
▪ Cognitive-developmental
– Parallels cognition in Piaget’s stages

▪ Selman’s role-taking theory

– Ability to understand other person’s perspective develops (from approx.
age 3 through 15)
– Presented interpersonal dilemmas with multiple characters to children

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 Selman’s Stages
▪ Egocentric or undifferentiated
▪ Social-informational role-taking
▪ Self-reflective role-taking
▪ Mutual role-taking
▪ Societal role-taking

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 Social Cognition
▪ Role-taking skills improve as social cognition develops.
– Changes relationships

▪ Role-taking skills are related to IQ.

▪ Role-taking skills are related to social experience.

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