Development of the Self

Question 1

what does cognitive neuroscience suggest about body representations?

Answer 1

body representations are multisensory perceptions involving the integration of a range of different sensory inputs.

these are crucial for perceiving the self and the environment

Question 2

what is touch?

Answer 2

the first, and most bodily sense

Question 3

when can responses to touch be seen?

Answer 3

before 7w gestation

understanding the development of tactile perception is crucial to understanding the development of the bodily self

Question 4

how does gallagher (2005) use evidence to suggest there are innate body representations

Answer 4

evidence of phantom limbs in congenital aplasia. however, we should look earlier in development, as this is rare and controversial

Question 5

meltzoff (1977) and neonatal imitation

Answer 5

infants have ‘active intermodal mapping’

• uses multisensory maps to match tactile facial configurations to their own movement

Question 6

issues with using neonatal imitation as evidence of innate body representations

Answer 6

replications of neonatal imitation for gestures other than tongue protrusion are not reliable, as even tongue protrusion occurs under a range of circumstances, e.g., arousal.

Question 7

what does newborns’ ability for hand-mouth coordinaton suggest?

Answer 7

there is an “innate” bodily self, however this does not consider their prenatal environment.

evidence of newborns responding differently to self-touch vs. touch by others at 1m is very weak.

Question 8

when are somatotopic cortical responses present?

Answer 8

at 30w gestation, but it is unclear whether this adds to understanding of body representations or just somatosensory responses to touch

Question 9

where is clear evidence that infants have body representations at birth?

Answer 9

young infants are sensitive to multisensory visual-tactile correspondences and audio-tactile colocations by 4m

Question 10

when does tactile enhancement of visual limb processing develop?

Answer 10

between 4-8m (rigato, 2014)

Question 11

what did bremner (2008) find about developing body representations?

Answer 11

infants cannot demonstrate the ability to locate touch in external space until 6m.

they continue to develop the ability to localise touch on the body by coordinating eye movements,
and track their limbs across changes in posture by 10m vs 6.5m

Question 12

what does the rubber hand illusion show?

Answer 12

shows how body representations are fine-tuned during childhood, as children demonstrated a stronger RHI than adults between 4-9y (Botvinick and Cohen, 1998).

Question 13

why did infants display a stronger RHI than adults?

Answer 13

is because they rely more heavily than adults on the visual sense of the body

Question 14

when did adults show a greater RHI drift?

Answer 14

during synchronous stroking vs asynchronous stroking

Question 15

when can early origins of the interpersonal self be seen?

Answer 15

in periodicity in infant-parent protoconversations, and possibly also early imitation.

however, there are doubts whether this reflects self-awareness

Question 16

what does the mirror rouge test measure?

Answer 16

self-recognition and self-awareness

makes clear there is more to self-awareness than perceiving one’s own body

Question 17

findings of the mirror rouge test

Answer 17

before18m, they will touch the rouge in the mirror rather than on their face (Amsterdam, 1972).

this supports both constructionist and maturational accounts of the developing self.

Question 18

what kinds of self-awareness did neisser (1995) find?

Answer 18

• ecological self (innate)
• interpersonal self (innate)
• conceptual self (from 2y)
• temporally extended self (from 4y)
• private self (unclear origin)

Question 19

ecological self (innate)

Answer 19

individual situated in their environment

Question 20

interpersonal self (innate)

Answer 20

individual situated in social interaction

Question 21

conceptual self (from 2y)

Answer 21

awareness of permanent characteristics

Question 22

temporally extended self (from 4y)

Answer 22

episodic life story

Question 23

private self (unclear origin)

Answer 23

valuing private conscious experience

Question 24

what does imitation demonstrate?

Answer 24

the ability for babies to connect with each other via the ‘like-me’ hypothesis, which provides them with access to others’ perspectives on the world.

Question 25

evidence of imitation

Answer 25

neonatal imitation of facial features (Meltzoff 1977)

alongside rational imitation in 14m infants (Gergely, 2002), which is a pedagogical adaptation implying interpersonal awareness

Question 26

how can the temporally extended self be measured?

Answer 26

via the sticker test (Povinelli, 1996) as an extension of the mirror test

Question 27

findings of the sticker test

Answer 27

before 5y, children will only locate the sticker when the video is in real time.

consists of the ability to represent one’s own changing state, emergence of self-awareness and memory

Question 28

what is metarepresentation a key part of?

Answer 28

of self-awareness, and these abilities are available early in infancy

Question 29

neural evidence of meta-representation and self-awareness at 18m…

Answer 29

error-related negativity (Goupil, 2016)

and fronto-temporoparietal connectivity in the default mode network (Bulgarelli, 2019), which is associated with success on the mirror rouge test – maturational view

Question 30

what is self-concept?

Answer 30

the capacity to symbolically represent past attributes, values, feelings, and goals

Question 31

what is self-esteem?

Answer 31

affective and evaluative appraisal of the self

Question 32

baumeister and the developmental origins of self-esteem

Answer 32

developmental origins of self-esteem to be attributed to parenting styles

Question 33

what did milevsky (2007) find about positive self-esteem?

Answer 33

positive self-esteem was associated with authoritative maternal parenting

Question 34

what does behavioural genetics and other studies indicate about self-esteem?

Answer 34

may be influenced by empathy and prosocial behaviour, particular for female adolescents (Liable, 2004).

believed attachment influences self-esteem via shared genetic factors and non-shared environmental factors

Question 35

what does social psychology emphasise?

Answer 35

rooted in looking glass self/symbolic interactionism

emphasised the role of the outside social world in forming the self.

Question 36

what does cognitive and experimental psychology emphasise?

Answer 36

has tended to consider the means by which the internal construction of the self can affect behaviour and perceptions of our social environment