Self-Perceptions

Early Childhood

Childhood should not be viewed as a singular-developmental period, given that there are changes in how the self is described in early, middle, and later childhood. Young children (Table 1) can form self-evaluations in the domains of cognitive, physical, and social competence and can report on their appearance as well as their behavioral conduct. However, the descriptions of their characteristics are quite concrete. For example, cognitive skills may be described as “I know my A, B, C’s” and “I can count to 100.” Perceived physical competence might lead to self-affirmations, such as “I can run fast” and “I can climb high.” Social competence might be described as “I am nice.” Behavioral conduct may be reduced to “I don’t hit my brother very often.” Such self-descriptions are often endearing; however, they are typically very positive and therefore not very realistic. Young children, ages 3–7, give glowing accounts of their virtuosity. Developmentally, they do not yet have the cognitive abilities to distinguish between their actual characteristics and ideal talents.

Middle-to-Late Childhood

As children move through middle childhood into later childhood, their descriptions become more generalized. For example, they may describe themselves as smart at their schoolwork, good at sports, popular, or well-behaved. They also become more capable of negative self-evaluations; they no longer believe that they are virtuous in [Page 1935]every domain. For example, they may think that they are smart at their schoolwork but not very athletic. So, we see a profile of perceived competence or adequacy across the domains of the self-concept. Contributing to this more realistic self-portrait is the emergence of the ability to engage in social comparison. Children can now employ comparisons with peers as a barometer of their skills. This newfound ability is a double-edged sword. In each domain, children can observe whether they measure up to standards set by the peer group. They can determine where they might fall short, which leads to more negative self-evaluations.

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