Dear qpet-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
As you probably already know, with regard to child development, we, as
adults expect to see certain milestones emerge at various stages in
the child’s life. In time, we expect babies to babble and experiment
with their vocal capabilities. We anticipate the utterance of
intelligible words from about 9 months of age and beyond, and we
expect them to become sensible sentences of expression between about
18 months and 2 ½ years. Adults expect a child to sit up before the
age of 1, crawl between 9-15 months and walk by the time they have
reached 18 months, or perhaps a bit later. You can clearly by these
examples that developmental milestones are not assigned certain time
parameters (stages), rather they normally fall within reasonable
windows of growth. Even after these milestones are reached, the
formation and techniques of these motor skills continue to be tested
and perfected, and so it is with the development cognitive
capabilities.
As a general rule, assuming that you are interested in when a child
FIRST develops a sense of “self”, a normal child first begins to
reason with the concept of self at about 18 months of age. They come
to the realization that that are separate from others (usually their
parents or siblings), but still have no awareness of the fact that
this will remain so throughout their lives. When a child first
discovers it is a separate being, and that everything and everyone
else exists outside the Self, the child begins to understand the
meaning of Desire. Desire, in the psychological sense, is the need to
bridge the distance and create connectivity between the Self and
others. Language, which we first see at about 18 months, is the means
by which the emerging self attempts to manipulate others to fulfill
his own desires. Upon realizing that “others” are different from
“self” the child begins to communicate his thoughts in order to
achieve results. Therefore, it is commonly accepted that the first
awareness of self is largely commensurate with the development of
language and comes at about 18 months to 2 years old.
After reaching the age of about 5-7 years old, a child recognizes that
he/she is a separate AND unique individual and that he/she will remain
so “permanently”. This is a much more advanced recognition of self.
Prior to this, between the ages of first recognition (18 months) until
advanced recognition (5-7 years of age) it is not uncommon to hear a
child say something like, “When I become a boy/girl…” or “When I’m a
baby again…”, indicating that he/she has no advanced concept that what
one’s “self” currently is, one’s “self” will always be. This concept
of permanency comes only with the advanced recognition of self, beyond
5 years of age or so.
Jean Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss scholar, who developed his THEORY OF
DEVELOPMENT, confirmed this school of thought, by summarizing many of
the normal expectations of developmental milestones. In particular,
Piaget asserted his theory with regard to how children first learn to
separate “self” from the rest of the world, according to their own
perspective. Though this study focused primarily on operational
skills, you will note that he readily refers to a point when a child
first learns the “importance” of self and begins experimenting with
ego:
“Piaget's Stage Theory of Development”
PreOperational Thought (2 to 6 or 7 years)
“At this age, according to Piaget, children acquire representational
skills in the areas mental imagery, and especially language. They are
very self-oriented, and have an egocentric view; that is,
preoperational children can use these representational skills only to
view the world from their own perspective.”
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/OldDictionary/P/piaget's_stages.html
I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If
you have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
“Developmental Psychology”
http://www.u.arizona.edu/ic/indv101/greenberg/devlect.htm
“NATIONAL NETWORK FOR CHILDCARE”
GROWING TOGETHER: PRESCHOOLER DEVELOPMENT
http://www.nncc.org/Child.Dev/grow.preschool.html
“PIAGET’S STAGE THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT”
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/OldDictionary/P/piaget's_stages.html
JEAN PIAGET SOCIETY
“SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT”
“A Short Biography of Jean Piaget”
http://www.piaget.org/biography/biog.html
WORDS OF DESIRE
http://voyager.dvc.edu/~bmckinney/olse.html
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
‘JEAN PIAGET”
CHILD DEVELOPMENT "SELF-CONCEPT"
DEVELOPMENT "SENSE OF SELF"
PIAGET'S COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT "SENSE OF SELF"
PIAGET'S STAGE THEORY of COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
CHILD DEVELOPMENT STAGE “SENSE OF SELF”
DEVELOPMENT “DEVELOP A SENSE OF SELF”
“DEVELOP A SENSE OF SELF”
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE "SENSE OF SELF"
“DISCOVERY OF SELF”
EARLIEST “DISCOVERY OF SELF” |
Clarification of Answer by
tutuzdad-ga
on
09 Jan 2003 19:11 PST
Dear qpet-ga;
With regard to your amended question and your request for continued
research: I am sory to have taken so long, but I have carefully read a
number of studies on this matter since we last spoke and in almost
every instance I was brought back to the following research I have
compiled for you:
Adolescence is, in essence, the beginning of the second decade of
life. It is a time when a child matures to a point to where he (for
the sake of simplicity I am using the masculine) begins to move from
childhood to adulthood. To better understand adolescence, some
psychologists prefer to break it down into various individual stages:
Early adolescence - 10-13 yrs of age
Mid adolescence – 14-18 yrs of age
Late adolescence – 19-23 yrs of age
For the purposes of this research, we shall also assume this
simplistic way of viewing adolescence and later, as you will see, it
will be broken down still further into even clearer terms.
Since we are already rather familiar with the work of Jean Piaget, let
us return briefly to his theory:
http://www.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/OldDictionary/P/piaget's_stages.html
Piaget’s theory is that the period of adolescence, when taken as a
whole, is the most important and meaningful period of life in terms of
awareness. He asserted that although these children would still have
an obvious need to increase their overall knowledge base, their
“method” of thinking was as powerful as it would ever be. While some
modern psychologists dispute his assertion and refer to studies which
reveal that some adolescents never reach the “late adolescent” stage,
many do agree with his basic logic. I mention this to indicate again
that not all children develop at the same rate (or occasionally, not
at all, in the case of late adolescence). There are periods of
anticipated maturity, which not everyone reaches at the same
chronological point in his life.
One of the people who shared Piaget’s idea that adolescence is the
critical stage of the development of one’s identity was Erik Erikson
(1902-1994). Erickson, a highly regarded scholar who studied under
Anna Freud at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute, had a much broader
theory though, that didn’t deal exclusively with early milestones, as
did Piaget’s, but with what he called the “psychosocial stages” of
lifelong development. Erickson believed that nature determines the
sequence of the stages and sets the limits within which nurture
operates. He theorized that each stage was characterized by a common
crisis and one’s ability to move (i.e., develop, progress) beyond each
stage is dependent upon one’s ability to effectively handle the crisis
that each stage presents. In order to categorize these stages, he too
broke his theory down into eight more easily recognizable periods and
identified each by its crisis.
Stage 1: Infancy -- Age 0 to 1
Crisis: Trust vs. Mistrust
Stage 2: Toddler -- Age 1 to 2
Crisis: Autonomy (Independence) vs. Doubt (or Shame)
Stage 3: Early Childhood -- Age 2 to 6
Crisis: Initiative vs. Guilt
Stage 4: Elementary and Middle School Years -- Age 6 to 12
Crisis: Competence (aka. "Industry") vs. Inferiority
Stage 5: Adolescence -- Age 12 to 18
Crisis: Identity vs. Role Confusion
Stage 6: Young Adulthood -- Age 19 to 40
Crisis: Intimacy vs. Isolation
Stage 7: Middle Adulthood -- Age 40 to 65
Crisis: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Stage 8: Late Adulthood -- Age 65 to death
Crisis: Integrity vs. Despair Important
It is important to see these various stages so you will know where we
are in the discussion. In order to better understand a child’s
fundamental self-recognition we will concentrate on stage five, (age
12-18) when the crisis, according to Erickson, is “Identity vs. Role
Confusion”.
Erickson believed that this stage, where one experiences his “identity
crisis”, is the single most significant conflict a person must face in
his lifetime. Ideally, if the adolescent solves this conflict
successfully, he will progress from this point in his life with a
strong identity, and be well prepared to plan for the future. In the
worst-case scenario, however, if the adolescent fails to resolve the
conflict he will likely suffer from a sense of confusion and be
undecided or uncertain of choices. This is especially true for
decisions regarding vocation, sexual orientation, and his role in life
in general. This confusion and indecisiveness may very well have an
impact on his future development throughout the remainder of his life.
As you can see, this can be catastrophic, as the very next phases
include love, intimacy and relationships. By failing to successfully
confront the identity crisis, one is one is not necessarily doomed,
but certainly at risk of facing the worst-case scenarios in the
forthcoming psychosocial stages.
http://psychology.about.com/library/weekly/aa091500a.htm
Clearly then, we can see that the FORMATION of identity falls within
the developmental stages of adolescence (Erickson, Stage 5: Age 12 to
18), and in fact, reaches a climax before the stage is over. This is
the period in which we establish our early values, accept certain
belief, associate ourselves with ethnicity and culture and migrate
toward those who either share a common bond (cliques, groups, circle
of friends) or choose rather to identify more with those with whom we
are quite different (other races, religions, genders or schools of
thought). It is here that learn the boundaries of our accepted
identity and our “purpose” as we perceive it – we learn where we fit
in, and/or where we don’t fit in. If this stage of growth and
development is interrupted or retarded in any way (i.e., through our
own failure to overcome the crisis), the future is indeed bleak in
terms of ever developing a healthy perspective of self in predictable
and productive manner.
I hope that this provides you with the information you need. I have
provided you with some very informative sources below to help you
along the way in your future research of this truly interesting
subject matter. Again, I appreciate your patience and your generosity
and I hope our forum has been a positive experience for you.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
ERICK ERICKSON AND PHYSCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
http://azaz.essortment.com/psychosocialdev_rijk.htm
ERICKSON’S EIGHT STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
http://psychology.about.com/library/weekly/aa091500a.htm
ADOLESCENCE
http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d46/psy/dev/adolescence/
PHYSCHOLOGY HISTORY
“Biography: Erik Erikson”
http://fates.cns.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/erikson.htm
“Erickson’s Theory”
http://fates.cns.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/erikson.htm#Theory
“Educational Psychology Interactive: Socioemotional Development”
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/affsys/erikson.html
ERICKSON TUTORIAL
“Erik Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development”
http://facultyweb.cortland.edu/~ANDERSMD/ERIK/welcome.HTML
QUOTE
"Human personality in principle develops according to steps
predetermined in the growing person's readiness to be driven toward,
to be aware of and to interact with a widening social radius."
--- Erik Erikson
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE/READING
“ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY: INTERNET RESOURCES (by Topic)”
Dr. Marcia J. McKinley-Pace
Spring, 2001
http://users.erols.com/mcpace/teaching/2001/AdolescentPsychology/internetresources-topic.html
(this link leads to hundreds of development oriented resources and
studies by various scholars)
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
“ERIK ERICKSON”
“ERIK ERICKSON” DEVELOPMENT
IDENTITY FORMATION TEENS DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
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