Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous Development of Self Development of Self The development of self starts at a very young age. When a preschooler is asked how are they different from other children, they usually look at their self concept. Self concept is their identity, of their set of beliefs about what they are like as individuals. Most preschoolers give inaccurate statements about their self concept. They usually overestimate their skills and knowledge. Preschool-age children also begin to develop a view of self that reflects their particular culture considers the self. An example of this would be to look at the different views as self between the Western culture and the Asian culture. Western cultures believe that an individual should seek attention of others by standing out and making one's needs known. The Asian perspective suggest that individuals should attempt to blend in with everyone else. The varying views lead to differences in how children begin to view the self during the preschool years. Asian societies tend to have a collective orientation, promoting the notion of interdependence. Western societies develop an independent view of the self, reflecting an individualistic orientation that emphasizes personal identity and uniqueness of the individual. Preschoolers' self concepts are a result not only of how their parents treat them, but also of their society and their exposure to the philosophy of the culture in which they are being reared. During middle childhood, children continue their efforts to answer the question "Who I am" as they seek to understand the nature of the self. Several changes in children's views of themselves during middle childhood illustrate the quest for self-understanding. Children begin to view themselves less in terms of external, physical attributes and more in terms of psychological traits. The use of the inner traits to determine self-concept results from the child's increasing cognitive skills. Children's views of self become more differentiated. As they get older, children discover that they may be good at some things and not so good at others. Children's self- concepts become divided into personal and academic spheres. During middle childhood children begin social comparison. Social comparison is the desire to evaluate one's own behavior, abilities, expertise, and opinions by comparing them to those of others. During middle childhood children deal with the crisis industry versus inferiority stage. The stage is characterized by a focus on efforts to attain competence in meeting the challenges presented by parents, peers, school, and other complexities of the modern world. This is a time of their life where the child develops a self esteem. Self-esteem in an individual's overall and specific positive and negative self-evaluation. Self concept reflects beliefs and cognitions about the self, self-esteem is more emotionally oriented. The self-esteem of most children tends to increase during middle childhood with a brief decline around age of 12. Some evidence shows that members of minority groups have lower self-esteem then those of the majority group. Children build a sense of self efficacy during their elementary years. Self efficacy refers to learned expectations that one is capable of carrying out a behavior or producing a desired outcome in a particular situation. Self efficacy is critical to children's success because it motivates greater effort and persistence in the face of a challenging task. Issues of identity take importance during adolescence. One reason is because adolescents intellectual capacities become more adult like. They can now understand the importance of establishing their position in society and the need to form a sense of themselves as individuals. Another reason is the dramatic physical changes during puberty which make adolescents acutely aware of their own bodies and the ways others may react to them. During adolescence, children begin to distinguish others' views of themselves through their own perceptions. The view of self becomes more organized and coherent, and they can see various aspects of the self simultaneously. Although adolescents become increasingly accurate in understanding who they are this knowledge does not guarantee that they like themselves. Gender makes a difference in self-esteem. Particularly during adolescence, girls' self-esteem tends to be lower and more vulnerable than boys'. One reason is that, compared to boys, girls are highly concerned about physical appearance and social success in addition to academic achievement. Although boys are also concerned about these things, their attitudes are often more casual. Other factors that influence self-esteem is socio-economic status, race, and ethnicity. During adolescence children go through identity versus identity crisis. Adolescents face dangers such as depression and psychological disorders. Bibliography: Word Count: 781
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