Article summary with How Children Construct Views of Themselves: A Social-Developmental Perspective by Thomaes & Brummelman - 2017

What is this article about?

This article addresses the question of how children form their self-concept over time and emphasizes the lack of understanding regarding the origins of individual differences in self-concept. The historical study of self-concept has been divided between social psychology, which examines the influence of social contexts, and developmental psychology, which studies changes over time. The authors advocate for a social-developmental approach, which bridges these fields to uncover the processes through which social relationships shape children's self-views. 

A scientific definition of the concept of the self is difficult due to the varied interpretations. This article focuses on children's self-concept, the representations and evaluations of themselves. The self-concept is defined as a dynamic cognitive construction, operating like a theory that individuals construct about themselves, guiding their behaviour. It exists at different levels of abstraction, from concrete behaviours to general traits and overall worth. Contrary to the assumption that young children cannot abstractly evaluate themselves, research indicates that even 4-year-olds can form nuanced, context-sensitive abstractions of their self-concept.

What is a social-developmental approach to the self-concept?

Despite its importance, empirical research on the origins of children's self-concept has been limited, possibly due to the insularity of social and developmental psychology. Social psychologists focus on controlled experiments with adults, while developmental psychologists study children's self-concept changes over time in real-world settings. Therefore, the authors propose a social-developmental approach to bridge these fields, combining social psychology's focus on specific social contexts with developmental psychology's emphasis on long-term development. This fusion incorporates social psychology's utilization of controlled laboratory experiments to identify causal processes and developmental psychology's application of longitudinal field studies to reveal the emergence and progression of these processes in real-world settings over time. Through this approach comprehensive understanding of how social relationships shape children's self-views throughout development can be gained. 

How do social relationships shape self-concept?

What is the role of self-esteem?

Self-esteem is defined as a global evaluation of oneself as a person and its development is impacted by parental praise. While parents often aim to boost self-esteem through inflated praise, research suggests that this approach may have unintended consequences, potentially leading to a downward spiral in self-esteem. Research suggests that warm bonds and support from parents, rather than direct praise, may be more effective in fostering self-esteem in children. Additionally, supportive relationships contributing to a clearer and more confident understanding of oneself in adolescence, also known as self-concept clarity.

What is the role of self-compassion?

Self-compassion is defined as an orientation to care for oneself as a person and is influenced by early attachment relationships. Self-compassion contrasts two responses to challenges: (1) a kind, nonjudgmental attitude and (2) a harsh, critical one. The study by Peter and Gazelle (2017) is the first longitudinal research on the origins of self-compassion in youth. Drawing from attachment theory, the study suggests that children with secure attachments, marked by consistent care from parents, tend to develop higher self-compassion. Specifically, among children with anxious solitude, those with secure attachments show sustained self-compassion. Children with secure attachments to both parents exhibit even higher levels of self-compassion, indicating the impact of parental care on this trait.

What is the role of mindsets?

Children with growth mindsets believe that abilities can develop through effort and children with fixed mindsets believe that abilities are unchangeable. Previous research suggests that parents influence their children's mindsets through praise and responses to success and failure. Parents who emphasize a child's effort in praise tend to foster a growth mindset, while those focusing on innate abilities may contribute to a fixed mindset. Moreover, parents' beliefs about failure impact their responses, with some viewing failure as enhancing learning and growth and others as debilitating. Encouraging children to see success and failure as part of a continuous learning process can help foster a growth mindset.

What is the role of self-perceived ability?

Self-perceived ability is defined as the understanding of a child's own abilities by evaluating the social comparison of their abilities to the abilities of others. Despite their capacity for social comparison, young children maintain unrealistically positive self-evaluations when outperformed. This may stem from their limited understanding of peers' skills. While older children show more realistic evaluations, their overwhelmingly positive self-perceptions may align with societal norms that encourage favourable self-evaluations. Exposing children to such norms increases favourable self-evaluations, indicating a potential tendency to conceal unfavourable self-perceptions to meet social expectations.

What should future research focus on?

There is growing research on children's self-concept at the intersection of social and developmental psychology and there is a shift towards more experimental and longitudinal studies to understand the precise social processes influencing self-concept development. The authors suggest three priorities for future research:

1. Understanding how children interpret their social experiences,
2. Expanding methodological approaches, and
3. Examining the origins of self-concept across cultures to address the limited focus on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) populations.

Additionally, future research should be of a cross-cultural nature, aiming to establish generalizability and to shed light on cultural variations in psychological processes, the intricate interplay between cultural beliefs and parenting practices, which influence children's self-perception.