Development of sense of self

Self-Recognition

Refers to the sese that individual is distinct from others; essential for social interaction.

• Baby 'roots' more in response to anothers touch rather than its own.
• Prefer to look at videos of others than of themselves
• 'Rouge test'; after 15 months babies will try to rub red dye off nose seen in the mirror (they recognise that the image in the mirror is 'them')
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Theory of Mind

Complex cognitive ability which allows us to understand and empathise with others; allows us to predict the behaviour of others.

Main method of investigating ToM is 'false belief tasks'

• "Maxi hides chocolate in blue cupboard, Mother moves it to the green. Where will Maxi look?" Under 4: green. Over 4: blue.
• Smartie's task; smarties tube containing pencils. Same results

• Baron Cohen: Sally Ann task
• Matched autistic children, 'normal' children, children with Down's on mental age.
• "Sally puts marble in basket, Ann moves marble to box. Where will Sally look? Where is marble really? Where was marble originally?" All groups answered 2nd and 3rd questions (reality + memory questions), Autistic children struggled most with 1st question (belief question)

• Baron-Cohen's study matched Ps on mental age; reduced EVs.
• Language is a massive part of false-belief tasks; possibility phrasing of questions has led to children under 4 failing rather than a deficit.
• Using young and atypically developed children/adults creates issues regarding consent.

Work on ToM has extremely useful applications; provided explanation for Autism:

• Autism symptoms divided into 3 categories (Wing's Triad) Social, Language, Thought & Behaviour. Symptoms vary in severity; spectrum disorder.
• Baron-Cohen thought that Autistic children failed to develop ToM, leading to minimal social interaction, a lack of imaginative play and delayed language development

Perspective taking is a basic element of ToM involving an understanding of the world from the perspective of others. Selman felt this developed in stages;

Undifferentiated perspective taking (3-6 years), Social informational perspective taking (5-9 years), Self-Reflective perspective taking (7-12 years), Third-Party perspective taking (10-15 years) and Societal perspective taking (14+ years).

Evaluating Selman

• Other studies provide support for stages
• Has applications to teaching effectiveness
• Ethnocentric
• Far more complex; requires longtitudinal study
• Social interaction is much more advanced, models like this possibly outdated?