The Emerging Self

1. The Emerging Self • First 6 months: Discover physical self • Joint attention – 9 months • Difference in perceptions can be shared • Self-recognition – 18 months • Categorical self (age, sex) - 18 – 24 months • Based on cognitive development • Requires social experience • The looking-glass self: a “reflection”

2. Some core concepts in the study of the self • Self-concept • A person’s conception and evaluation of one’s self, including physical and psychological characteristics and skills. At its most basic, this involves knowledge of the self, as reflected in toddlers’ by visual self-recognition. • Identity formation • A self-portrait of the different pieces of the self in a coherent and integrated mode (including, for example, physical, sexual, ideological, intellectual, relational, vocational, and cultural/ethnic aspects). Erik Erikson believed that adolescents grapple with their developing adult identity, asking seriously “Who am I?” and “What do I want to be?” for the first time.

3. Self-efficacy • The extent to which a person views him- or herself as an effective individual. Self-efficacy develops with experience, but young children believe that they are more competent (efficacious) than they actually are, frequently overestimating their abilities. • Self-esteem • The judgments people make of their general self-worth and the feelings associated with those judgments. Researchers have identified at least five areas of self-esteem: scholastic competence, social competence, behavioral conduct, athletic competence, and physical appearance

4. What I am Like with Different People”: Multiple selves of a prototypical 15-year-old girl (adapted from Harter, 1999)

5. The multidimensional nature of self-esteem (adapted from Harter, 1996

6. Emotional Development • Primary Emotions • Emerge during first year of life • distress, disgust, interest, surprise, contentment, joy, anger, sadness, fear • Secondary (self-conscious) emotions • Emerge during second year of life and depend on self-awareness and symbolic representation • shame, embarrassment, coyness, shyness, empathy, guilt, jealousy, envy, pride, contempt

7. Milestones in emotional development: expression, recognition, understanding and self-regulation Emotional expression • 1st year: Primary Emotions • - at birth: distress, interest, disgust • - about 1-3 months: joy • - about 3-6 months: anger, sadness, surprise • - about 6-8 months: fear • 2nd year: Secondary (Self-conscious) Emotions • - about 18-24 months: empathy, envy (jealousy), • - about 30-36 months: pride, guilt, shame, hubris

8. Infants and children display a wide range of facial expressions associated with specific emotions. Can you identify each emotion the children in the photographs are expressing?

11. Emotional recognition • - about 3 months: sensitivity to abrupt emotional caregiver changes • - about 6 months: (implicit) recognition of all basic emotions • - about 12 months: social referencing (modeling own emotional reactions on the basis of the recognition of other people’s emotional reactions)

12. Emotional understanding • -about 3-5 years old: Understanding important public aspects of emotions • - (explicit) recognition and naming of emotional expressions • - how external causes affect others’ emotions • - the impact of reminders on emotions • -about 7 years old: Understanding the mentalistic nature of emotions • - the role of desire and belief in emotions • - the discrepancy between expressed and felt emotions • -about 9-11 years old: Understanding complexity of individual emotional behavior • - the mixed nature of emotions • - the relation between morality and emotions • - the role of cognition in emotional regulation

13. Emotional self-regulation • - about 1st year: ability to regulate some disturbing input • - about 3rd year: ability to hide real emotions • - about 5-11 years: increasing ability to self-regulate emotional states

14. Adolescent depression and maternal rejection: The incidence of clinical depression in a group of adolescents who experienced low versus high degrees of maternal rejection as a function of which combination of alleles they possessed for a gene that influenced dopamine transport. As you can see, only adolescents who possessed one combination of alleles (TT) experienced significantly greater levels of clinical depression as a result of high level of maternal rejection (from Haeffel et al., 2008).

15. Children’s stress hormones as a function of maternal depression and medical risk. Cortisol levels at 18 months of age as a function of early medical risk and maternal depression. Only high-risk toddlers of depressed mothers had elevated levels of cortisol (adapted from Bugental et al., 2006).

16. Temperament • Seen in infancy • Genetically based • Tendencies to respond in predictable ways • Building blocks of personality • Goodness of fit (Thomas & Chess) • Parenting techniques • Learning to interpret cues • Sensitive responding

19. Gender Differences • Verbal: Females slightly higher • Spatial: Males higher • Math: Males highest and lowest • Aggression and riskiness: males • Compliant, tactful, cooperative: females • Nurturant, empathic, anxious: females • Play style • Interest in infants • Vulnerability: males

20. Cognitive Theories Kohlberg: self socialization Stage-like changes Gender identity: ages 2-3 Label themselves correctly Gender stability: ages 3-4 Stable over time Gender consistency: ages 5-7 Stable across situations

21. Adulthood Gender roles over the life-span At marriage: greater differentiation Birth of child: it increases more Parental imperative Middle age and older: Androgyny Shift - does not mean switch

24. Hunting-gatherering hypothesis and the origin of sex differences in spatial cognition: Silverman & Eals • Hunting (male) fostered eye-hand coordination, better navigation skills, mental rotation. • Gathering (female) fostered enhanced object-location memory

28. Males > Females: space relations & mental rotation Females > males: object & location memory

29. Infancy • Differential treatment • Differential expectations • By 18 mo: categorical self • By 21/2 yr: gender identity • 18-24 mo: gender toy preference

30. Childhood • 3 yrs: gender stereotypes acquired • Gender rigidity until age 6 • Gender constancy: by ages 4-6 • Gender typed behavior by age 2 1/2 • Greater by age 6 • Stronger rules for boys

31. A model of phase changes in the rigidity of children’s gender stereotypes as a function of age. As children first learn about gender characteristics as preschoolers they become increasingly rigid in their stereotypes, with rigidity peaking as their gender knowledge becomes consolidated between 5 and 7 years old. Children become less rigid in their stereotypes until adolescence, when they increase again (not shown in figure) (from Martin & Ruble, 2004)

32. Adolescence • Gender intensification • Pubertal hormonal changes • Preparation for reproductive activities • Gender and peer conformity • Later adolescence more flexible thinking

33. Name:____________ • Grading Sheet for Assignment 4: Changes in Grandparenting • Scores in all 3 areas are totaled to give a final score from 1-10 • I.   Content • 3 people interviewed (one over 60 and one under 30) • nature of relationship with grandparents described for each person • author’s interpretation of how changes in geographic mobility, daycare, and divorce have contributed to the quality of grandparent/grandchild relationships • 1   2   3   4   5 6 • II.   Organization • clear, specific introduction that explains the purpose of the paper • thoughtful conclusion that goes beyond repetition of main points • effective topic sentences • fully developed, unified paragraphs • 1   2     • Grammar and Mechanics • consistent/appropriate use of present and past tenses • avoidance of sentence fragments and run-on sentences • proper subject-verb agreement • correct punctuation • correct spelling • appropriate integration of quotations • 1 2  • Total Score =

34. Social-role Hypothesis (Eagly) • Roles create stereotypes • Context and culture important • Changes occurring today • Psychological differences • Few and small • Important • Differential roles continue

35. Biosocial Theory • Money and Ehrhardt • Biological development • Presence of Y chromosome • Testosterone masculinizes brain and nervous system • Social influences and labeling at birth • Gender behavior through social interaction

36. Origins of Sexual Orientation • No evidence for Freudian interpretations (e.g., strong mother, weak father) • Prenatal hormones influence adult sexual orientation • Homosexual parents as likely to have heterosexual children as heterosexual parents.

38. A classification of children’s sex-related behaviors. (Adapted from the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory [Friedrich et al., 1991] and Kaeser, DiSalvio & Moglia’s [2000]) Communicative Behaviors • - Verbal: for example, “Talks about sexual acts” • - Nonverbal: for example, “Shy about undressing” Exhibition and Voyeur Behaviors • for example, “Shows sex (private) parts to adults” • for example, “Tries to look at people when they are nude or undressing” Modeling Behaviors - Sexually implicit: for example, “Playing doctor-games” • - Sexually explicit: for example, “Imitates sexual behavior with dolls or stuffed animals” Self-touching Behaviors • for example, “Touches sex (private) parts at home” • for example, “Masturbate with hand” Touching-others Behaviors • - Direct: for example, “Touches other people’s sex (private) parts” • - Indirect: for example, “Hug adults he/she does not know well”

41. Parental Investment Theory (Robert Trivers, 1972) • There is a conflict for both males and females in how much time, effort, and resources to invest in mating versus parenting • In most mammalian species: • Females invest more than males (female investment is obligatory) • Gamete size (egg larger than sperm) • Internal fertilization and gestation • Nursing • Childcare • Ancestral men and women faced different adaptive problems and evolved different adaptive mechanisms (this is true for the sexes of most animals)

42. Sexuality Over the Life Span • Infant sexuality: CNS arousal • Childhood • Learn about reproduction • Curiosity and exploration • Sexual abuse: like PTSD • Adolescence: sexual identity, orientation • Double standard: decline?

43. Adult Sexuality • Most are married • Gradual declines • Individual differences • Married have more sex • Male sexual peak: age 18 • Female sexual peak: age 38

44. Men have greater sex drive than women (controversial) • Men engage in more sexual daydreaming than women • Men report experiencing more spontaneous sexual desire than women • Gay men report having sex more frequently than lesbians • Men report initiating sex more than women • Men masturbate more than women • Women report higher frequency of low libido than men • Men more likely to pay money or present gifts for sex than women

46. Older Adults • Stereotype: Asexuality • Reality: decline • Diseases and disabilities • Social attitudes • Lack of a partner • Physiologically able in old age

48. Incest Avoidance • Westermark (childhood familiarity results in incest avoidance) versus Freud (Oedipal and Electra complexes) • Wolf: “minor marriages” in Taiwan • Compared to “major marriages,” minor • produced 40% fewer children • had three times higher divorce rate • wives more likely to admit to extramarital affairs • Shepher: Israeli kibbutzim • Of 2869 couples from 211 kibbutzim, no marriages between members from the same kibbutz.

49. Post-adoption incest and genetic sexual attraction • highly intense, sexual attraction, often leading to incestuous relations, experienced by close kin who have been separated at or soon after birth and reunited as adults. • Most data on this phenomenon are anecdotal • Greenberg and Littlewood’s (1995) survey of post-adoption counselors in London indicated that about 50% of clients who had been reunited with kin as adults experienced, “strong, sexual feelings.”

50. Mechanisms for Westermark effect • Olfaction • Evidence of the functions of pheromones in animals and humans for both kin recognition and sexual attraction • Parents can distinguish between the odors of their biological children, except in the case of identical twins • Mothers cannot identify stepchildren by odor • Preadolescent children can identify their full sibs but not half sibs or stepsibs by odor • Olfactory cues may mediate favoritism of blood relatives