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Young Children's Self‐Concepts Include Representations of Abstract Traits and the Global Self
Author(s) -
Cimpian Andrei,
Hammond Matthew D.,
Mazza Giulia,
Corry Grace
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12925
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , context (archaeology) , self concept , task (project management) , self , childhood development , child development , cognitive psychology , social psychology , paleontology , management , economics , biology
There is debate about the abstractness of young children's self‐concepts—specifically, whether they include representations of (a) general traits and abilities and (b) the global self. Four studies ( N = 176 children aged 4–7) suggested these representations are indeed part of early self‐concepts. Studies 1 and 2 reexamined prior evidence that young children cannot represent traits and abilities. The results suggested that children's seemingly immature judgments in previous studies were due to peculiarities of the task context not the inadequacy of children's self‐concepts. Similarly, Studies 3 and 4 revealed that, contrary to claims of immaturity in reasoning about the global self, young children update their global self‐evaluations in flexible, context‐sensitive ways. This evidence suggests continuity in the structure of self‐concepts across childhood.