Lecture 15 Flashcards
What is self consciousness?
It’s the ability to reflect on oneself but can also be considered as a feeling.
How do we test for when self consciousness emerges?
There’s a test called the mirror self recognition where you put a mark on there face and if they view the mirror then touch their own face then they are acting self consciously. This emerges after about 18 months in children; chimps, magpies and dolphins all pass this test as well.
Discuss Lewis’ concept of self
Children of 18 months have it, allowing them to use personal pronouns and allowing them to match their idea of self with others’ idea of them. It therefore allows one to feel embarrassed, empathetic, proud and jealous. At 3 years of age, these emotions develop from just received attention to internalised standards as you begin understanding social norms.
What are the problems with standard view about concept of self?
There are some arguments that infants feel self conscious affects/emotions which then leads them to have a concept of self. Therefore, some research has explored whether children show self conscious emotions before 18 months. For example, Reddy found that children have shown signs of self conscious emotions at 2 months. Children have been shown to smile and avert their gaze when attention is directed at them. Although the movements are exactly the same as shown in adults but this could be because of reduced physical ability. The child, when feeling embarrassed, will usually smile, throw their head back and raise their arms. This all happens before they are aware of self. There’s also evidence for pride, shown via clapping and vocalisations after a certain behaviour. Therefore, there are contradicting ideas about when infants become aware of others’ attention.
Discuss positive shyness vs showing off
Positive shyness is shown via hiding oneself, coy smiles (2 months), refusal to perform (7 months) etc.
Showing off is seen when infants call loudly (2 months) or preening/self admiring (7 months).
Discuss the development of attention
Attention is discovered when one begins to experience feeling others’ attention rather than just observing it. Additionally over time, one becomes more aware of things that you can attend to. Therefore, attention grows from being aware of other people attending to you (e.g. their response to you clowning) to you attending to objects in your surroundings, e.g. pointing at things which will slowly develop into narratives. There are 4 stages to this: self, self acts, things in space and things in time.
Discuss self consciousness in autism
Children with autism have significantly less or no coy reactions in early stages of childhood (Hobson et al.) Additionally, when looking in the mirror, they give less attention to themselves compared to non-autistic children and they relate to themselves less socially in the mirror. Children with autism also show off a lot less than those with down syndrome, and don’t show much clowning behaviour.
