Young Children's Self‐Concepts Include Representations of Abstract Traits and the Global Self

Abstract

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.

Children’s Intuitive Theories of Academic Performance

“…This theory-change view contrasts with what we might call the continuity view. According to the latter view, the "performance = effort + skill" theory characterizes children's understanding from an early age (e.g., Cimpian, Hammond, Mazza, & Corry, 2017;Heyman & Compton, 2006; for reviews, see Butler, 2005;Cimpian, 2017), and the concepts that children use to understand performance (namely, effort and skill) are largely continuous from preschool on.…”

“…First, several studies have documented that achievement failure can in fact cause negative reactions in children as young as 4 and 5, just as it does in older children (e.g., Butler, 1998;Cimpian et al, 2007Cimpian et al, , 2017Cimpian, Mu & Erickson, 2012;Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992;Kamins & Dweck, 1999;Smiley & Dweck, 1994). These negative, helpless reactions are common when it is made obvious to children that they have failed (e.g., as when a parent or teacher criticizes their performance; Hebert & Dweck, 1985;Heyman, Dweck, & Cain, 1992;Kamins & Dweck, 1999;Smiley & Dweck, 1994) and when the potential link between failure and low skill is highlighted in the experimental context (e.g., via linguistic cues such as generic statements; Cimpian et al, 2007Cimpian et al, , 2012.…”

How Children Construct Views of Themselves: A Social‐Developmental Perspective

“…A common assumption is that young children lack the ability to abstract over their behaviors to evaluate their general traits and overall worth. But Cimpian, Hammond, Mazza, and Corry () discovered that children as young as 4 years old can form such abstractions, even in nuanced, context‐sensitive ways. For example, when children this age fail on a task, they may conclude that they are unworthy, but they do so only when they believe the task is important to adults.…”

“…And this can be achieved without sacrificing children's natural environment or our own experimental control. As articles in this special section have illustrated, laboratory experiments can be designed to mirror children's natural environments (Cimpian et al., ; Lapan & Boseovski, ), and longitudinal studies can include controlled assessments of actual parent–child interactions (Brummelman et al., ; Harris et al., ).…”

Young children infer and manage what others think about them

“…Recent work suggests that by late preschool years, children can evaluate their own abilities after failing on a task yet distinguish such evaluations from global self-worth (Cimpian, Hammond, Mazza, & Corry, 2017). However, understanding what others think of the self and comparing others' beliefs against one's own belief critically requires the ability to represent and reason about others' beliefs, a capacity often referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM; e.g., Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001;Wimmer & Perner, 1983).…”