Development During Middle Childhood The Years From Six to Twelve (1984) / Chapter Skim
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4 Self-Understanding and Self-Regulation in Middle Childhood
4 Self-Understanding and Self-Regulation in Middle Childhood
Pages 147-183
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From page 147... ...
Nurius Theoretical work in both psychology and sociology accords self-concept a critical role in organizing past behavior and in directing future behavior. Self-concept is viewed broadly as the meeting ground of the individual and society and represents the individual's efforts to find personal meaning and understanding.
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From page 148... ...
Between the ages of 6 and 12, most children begin having extensive contact with society and must intensify their efforts to come to terms with both their own needs and goals and those of others in their social environments (e.g., parents, teachers, peers)
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From page 149... ...
Depending on the experience of this period, children develop views of themselves as industrious and productive or as inferior and inadequate. Piaget (1952)
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From page 150... ...
As they participate in more activities and settings and as an increased number of people attempt to regulate their behavior, school-age children develop more sophisticated strategies for controlling their own behavior. Increased self~regulation occurs as children work to control their own behavior in whatever domains are available (clothes, eating, hobbies, or freetime activities)
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From page 151... ...
Only by locating children within their relevant social environments can we begin to make reasoned speculations about the processes of self-definition and selfunderstanding and the likely role of the resulting self~concept in regulating behavior. Self Concept Tasks of Middle Childhood As children enter middle childhood and strive to become members of society, they are faced with a number of social tasks or problems.
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From page 152... ...
Moral development, consisting of more advanced moral reasoning and increased motivation to behave morally, is an especially important aspect of the acquisition of standards and expectations for the self. Essential to moral development is the growing ability to "decanter" and to take another's point of view (Flavell, 1975~.
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From page 153... ...
Moreover, it contains one's goals, plans, ruses, and behavioral strategies for meeting personal and social standards. In this sense self-concept can be seen as both a product of past social behavior and an impetus for future social behavior.
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From page 154... ...
Black and Hispanic children attending a school that was predominantly white were much more likely to mention their race or ethnic group than were white students. Although these findings about developmental changes in self-knowledge are plausible, Harter (1983b)
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From page 155... ...
While young children are quite likely to confuse the terms body, self, mind, and brain, the 8-year-old child begins to appreciate that a mind is separate from the body and has control over behavior. When a sense of the subject self is achieved, the child can begin to monitor his or her own thoughts and to develop internal personal standards for behavior.
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From page 156... ...
During middle childhood, they claim, the physical self includes activity~related physical attributes; the active self includes capabilities relative to others; the social self includes activities that are considered in light of others' reactions (approval or disapproval) ; and the psychological self includes knowledge, learned skills, motivation, or activity-related emotional states.
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From page 157... ...
In a study of possible selves, Markus and Nurius (1983) suggested that the development of various competencies and abilities may be fostered by social environments that allow individuals to develop a variety of possible selvesthe capable self, the productive self, the useful self, the nice self, the important self.
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From page 158... ...
The Self-Concept in Information Processing There is consensus in most of the recent research on self-understanding that self-concept is not a unitary, monolithic structure but is a multifaceted phenomenon, some aspects of which are continually changing. In viewing self-concept as an active, dynamic structure that is involved in mediating the social environment, self-concept has been viewed as an organized set of cognitive structures.
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From page 159... ...
How does it influence the way we process information about the social world? Is the self-structure just one of many structures that may be engaged to handle incoming information, or is it unique in some ways?
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From page 160... ...
social reaming theories, (3) cognitive/ behavior modification theories, and (4)
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In their investigation of antecedents leading to individual differences in ego control, Block and Block found considerable evidence of particular parental characteristics and child-rearing techniques associated with lack of impulse control (undercontrollers) and excessive control (overcontrollers)
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The empirical investigation of many ego-centered constructs with children has required adjustments to make them more meaningful and appropriate to various age levels. What is lacking in the ego psychology literature is a thorough analysis of the ways in which ego control, ego resiliency, and other ego-related skills or states may be manifested differently at different developmental stages.
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From page 163... ...
and with children (Craighead et al., 1976) , social reaming theories have expanded to incorporate an emphasis on cognitive mediation.
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From page 164... ...
, influenced the effectiveness of its use. More recent investigations into children's knowledge about the self-control process have suggested that lack of knowledge and lack of a repertoire of relevant strategies partly explain young children's failure to employ effective self-control strategies (Glucksberg et al., 1975; Patterson and Kister, in press)
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From page 165... ...
Nevertheless, these efforts all highlight the cognitive behavior link and emphasize the growing awareness of the need to include such internal and "mediational" constructs as self-concept as well as other cog nitive structures. Component Models of Self Regulation Component models of self-regulation specify the processes that trigger self-regulation and the sequence in which they occur.
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From page 166... ...
; others are too factor or situation specific to be generalizable across circumstances or to be meaningful to theorists of different perspectives. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of selfmanagement and the range of intervening variables, a streamlining and integration of major findings from the fields of self-theory, cognitive psychology, social reaming theory, ego development, and developmental psychology will surely be necessary.
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From page 167... ...
. Differentiating ontogenetic changes within these two realms should provide a more comprehensive understanding of self-observation, self-evaluation, and self-response and of the linkage between self-knowledge and self-management.
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From page 168... ...
Different social environments may be associated with very different self-concepts. Most obviously perhaps, children may differ in the ratio of social-system to self-system sources of regulation that characterize their behavior.
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From page 169... ...
Self-presentation strategies involve individuals shaping their behaviors to create desired impressions of themselves in specific persons within the social environment. These strategies can be of either a self-enhancing or a self-handicapping nature.
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From page 170... ...
Social class is a critical determinant of experiences and expectations. Social class can moderate the content of one's self-understancling; the nature of one's knowledge about the social world; and the content and nature of the particular rules, standards, and strategies that an individual develops in the course of socialization.
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From page 171... ...
Issues surrounding social class may not be as important in middle childhood as they are later in life. This view holds that children of this age are relatively protected from categorizations and judgments based on social-cIass standing, particularly if the child grows up in a relatively homogeneous social environment.
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From page 172... ...
Research in this area, as in that on the effects of social class, needs to focus on the child's perceptions of his or her social environment and go beyond studies that center on self-esteem. While self-esteem may not be influenced by either ethnicity or social class, it is indeed plausible that these factors will be reflected in the content of self-knowledge and in the nature of children's motives, goals, plans, and strategies.
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From page 173... ...
A further point follows from one general limitation of many self-concept theories that have stressed the importance of the individual's internal processes while neglecting other objectively measurable variables. Such variables include the individual's previous experience, his or her objective characteristics/individual differences, and differences in significant features of the social environment (e.g., family configuration)
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From page 174... ...
In middle childhood the development of selfconcept requires that children develop a relatively stable and comprehensive understanding of themselves, that they refine their understanding of how the social world works, that they develop standards and expectations for their own behavior, and that they develop strategies for controlling or managing their behavior. Changes in the child (e.g., cognitive development)
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From page 175... ...
From the work of behaviorists and cognitive behaviorists on self-control, we have some knowledge of how minor changes in a very constrained environment influence behavior. With respect to the larger social environment, much less exists.
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1963 Vicarious reinforcement and imitative reaming. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67:601-607.
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From page 177... ...
Har' tley, eds., Readings in Social Psychology.
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From page 178... ...
Eisler, and P.M. Miller, eds., Progress in Behavior Modification.
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From page 179... ...
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 4(2)
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From page 180... ...
Vallacher, eds., The Se) in Social Psychology.
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From page 181... ...
1976 Trait salience in the spontaneous self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 33:743-754.
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From page 182... ...
Katz, and A.R. Jensen, eds., Social Class, Race, and Psychological Development.
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From page 183... ...
1980 The Self in Social Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
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