Participants in this study were 190 children in three age groups
(ages 9-11, 12-14, and 15-16) from three school groups of different
socioeconomic status (SES) (low, middle, high) who wrote responses
to the question, "How would you describe yourself to yourself?"
Content analyses were conducted to identify references to others in
children's self-descriptions. Both function and person identity of
references to others were coded. References to others were most
frequent for children from low SES, and mention of others overall
became more generic and depersonalized with increasing age. Girls
mentioned qualities of their relationships with others more than boys
did. Results indicate that self-construals vary considerably within
culture as well as by social class, age, and gender.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bolger, N., Caspi, A., Downey, G., & Moorehouse, M. (1988). Development in context: Research perspectives. In N. Bolger, A. Caspi, G. Downey, & M. Moorehouse (Eds.), Persons in context: Developmental processes (pp. 1-24). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Brewer, M.B., & Gardner, W. (1996). Who is this "we"? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 83-93.
3.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
4.
Cousins, S.D. (1989). Culture and self-perception in Japan and United States. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 124-131.
5.
Damon, W., & Hart, D. (1982). The development of self-understanding from infancy to adolescence. Child Development, 53, 841-864.
6.
Damon, W., & Hart, D. (1992). Self-understanding and its role in social and moral development. In M. H. Bornstein & M. L. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental psychology. An advanced textbook (3rd ed., pp. 421-464). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
7.
Dhawan, R., & Lal, J.N. (1987). A study of the development of person conception childhood and adolescence. Indian Journal of Behauior, 11, 11-16.
8.
Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton.
9.
Hart, D., & Edelstein, W. (1992). The relationship of self-understanding in childhood to social class, community type, and teacher-rated intellectual and social competence. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23, 353-365.
10.
Harter, S. (1990). Self and identity. In S. S. Feldman & G. R. Ellicot (Eds.), At the threshold: The developing adolescent (pp. 352-387). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
11.
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
12.
Kitayama, S., Markus, H.R., & Lieberman, C. (1995). The collective construction of self-esteem. Implications for culture, self, and emotion. In J. A. Russell , J. Fernandez-Dols, A.S.R. Manstead, & J.C. Wellenkamp (Eds.), Everyday conceptions of emotion: An Introduction to the psychology, anthropology, and linguistics of emotion (pp. 523-550). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic.
13.
Kohn, M.L. (1969). Class and conformity. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.
14.
Lalljee, M., & Angelova, R. (1995). Person description in India, Britain, and Bulgaria . Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26, 645-657.
15.
Lee, B., Wertsch, J.V., & Stone, A. (1983). Towards a Vygotskian theory of the self. In B. Lee & G. C. Noam (Eds.), Developmental approaches to the self (pp. 309-341). New York: Plenum.
16.
Markus, H., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
17.
McGuire, W.J., & McGuire, C.V. (1987). Developmental trends and gender differences in the subjective experience of self. In T. Honess & K. Yardley (Eds.), Self and identity: Perspectives across the life span (pp. 134-146). London: Routledge Kegan Paul.
18.
McGuire, W.J., & McGuire, C.V. (1988). Content and process in the experience of self . In L. Berkowitz (Vol. Ed.), Advances in Experimental Psychology: Vol. 21. Social psychological studies of the self: Perspectives and programs (pp. 97-144). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
19.
Mead, G.H. (1934). Self. In A. Strauss (Ed.), George Herbert Mead: On social psychology (pp. 199-246). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
Miller, J.G. (1997). Theoretical issues in cultural psychology. In J. W. Berry, Y. H. Poortinga, & J. Pandey (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology: Vol. 1. Theory and method (pp. 85-128). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
21.
Montemayor, R., & Eisen, M. (1977). The development of self-conceptions from childhood to adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 13, 314-319.
22.
Reddy, R., & Gibbons, J.L. (1995, February). Socio-economic contexts and adolescent identity development in India. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Cross-Cultural Research, Savannah, Georgia.
23.
Rhee, E., Uleman, J.S., Lee, H.K., & Roman, R.J. (1995). Spontaneous self-descriptions and ethnic identities in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 142-152.
24.
Roland, A. (1984). The self in India and America: Toward a psychoanalysis of social and cultural contexts. In V. Kavolis (Ed.), Designs of selfhood (pp. 123-130). Rutherford, NJ: Associated University Press.
25.
Rosaldo, M.Z. (1984). Toward an anthropology of self and feeling. In R. A. Shweder & R. A. Levine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 137-157). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
26.
Saraswathi, T.S., & Dutta, R. (1987). Cross-cultural research in developmental psychology: Retrospect and prospects in India. In C. Kagitcibasi (Ed.), Growth and progress in cross-cultural psychology (pp. 148-158). Lisse, Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
27.
Shweder, R.A., & Bourne, E. (1984). Does the concept of the person vary cross-culturally ? In R. A. Shweder & R. A. LeVine (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self and emotion (pp. 158-199). New York: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Sinha, D., & Naidu, D. (1994). Multilayered hierarchical structure of self and not-self: The Indian perspective. In A. Bouvy , F.J.R. Van de Vijver, P. Boski, & P. Schmitz (Eds.), Journeys into cross-cultural psychology (pp. 41-49). Lisse, Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
29.
Stem, L. (1990). Conceptions of connection and separation in female adolescents. In C. Gilligan, N. P. Lyons, & T. J. Hanmer (Eds.), Making connections: The relational worlds of adolescent girls at Emma Willard School (pp. 73-87). Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
30.
Trafimow, D., Triandis, H.C., & Goto, S.G. (1991). Some tests of the distinction between the private self and the collective self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 649-655.
31.
Triandis, H.C. (1989). The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts. Psychological Review, 96, 506-520.
32.
Triandis, H.C. (1993). Collectivism and individualism as cultural syndromes . Cross-Cultural Research, 27, 155-180.
33.
Whiting, B. (1976). The problem of the packaged variable. In K. F. Riegel & J. A. Meacham (Eds.), The developing individual in a changing world: Vol. 1. Historical and cultural issues (pp. 303-309). Chicago: Aldine .
