Self and Social Identity, Study Flashcards
Are we born as social beings?
Human brains are only 25% of their adult volume at birth
Humans are dependent on outside experience and others to learn, 75% of our brain develops in the context and of the real world, and specifically in a social context.
- Chimpanzee brains are nearly 50% their adult size at birth
- Macaque monkey brains are about 70% of their adult size at birth
Neural structures of social processes
There are different socially specialized brain regions, no unitary “social brain”
Mentalizing
ToM. Explicit mentalizing is linked to the development of metacognition and is unique to humans.
Prefrontal cortex is crucial for meta-cognition and filtering.
bookmarked slide in class exercise
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Meltzoff (2007): What is the main claim of the article?
Social cognition is built on the skill of perceiving others “like-me”
the distinction between self and other is the foundation of later learning. The conception of self helps us to learn from others.
Meltzoff (2007): Like me in action
14 month old infants are more likely to look at and smile at the adults who are imitating the infant.
Meltzoff (2007): Like me in perception
12, 14, and 18 month old babies all turn their heads towards what an adult is looking towards MORE when the adult’s eyes were open vs when they were closed. Conclusion: babies can identify that eyes are used by others the same way that they themselves use eyes, the generalization of their internal experience to others is what allows them to learn.
Meltzoff (2007): Applicable to me
18 month olds are divided into groups (anger present in adult reacting to another adult playing with a toy, neutral present, anger absent).
Does the kid play with the toy in these different conditions?
The child plays more with the toy in the latter two groups; doesn’t play with toy/ don’t imitate behavior after angry adult reaction because they don’t want to get scolded.
Lewis & Ramsay (2004)
• Addresses the developmental trajectory of identity through the relationship among pronoun usage, social play and visual self-recognition
• 15, 18 and 21 mos
(rouge test–mirror self recognition happens at 18 months).
Basically, all these things are linked.
The moment that children see themselves in the mirror, they are more interactive players, they play WITH instead of parallel to, and they begin to adapt their pronoun use to their own perspective.
They say that it starts around 18 months, but full potential is reached at 21.
Self in a group
In group, out group bias.
Do children have this bias? Do they care about group membership?
Yes: 5 year olds were told stories about their group and the other group, later, their memory was tested. If positive, more likely to remember in group stories. If negative, more likely to remember out group stories.
