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Self-Identity 279

evolves into a complex, multifaceted portrait that ceaselessly shapes how people think, act, and feel. Aspects of Self LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.21 Distinguish among the different selves in one’s identity. The many characteristics you use to describe yourself illustrate the conceptual self , “me,” or “objective self”—the organized set of propositions that form a complex web of who you are ( FIGURE 7.24 ) (Neisser, 1991, p. 198). But, even when you are not reflecting on who you are, you are aware of yourself as a living, breathing human. In fact, the subjective self —the “I” of the self—represents an important but often overlooked aspect of the self. The subjective self is experienced in the moment: It reflects your sense of being alive as you act in and on the environment and differentiate your body from the world around you.

Self concept

Objective self

Subjective self

Ecological self

Interpersonal self

Recognition Contemplation

FIGURE 7.24 Self concept. Self concept divides into the subjective self (which comprises an ecological self and interpersonal self) and objective self. Infants show evidence of ecological and interpersonal selves, but it takes time for a conceptual self to develop. (After U. Neisser. 1991. Dev Rev 11: 197–209.)

The subjective self further divides into the ecological self and interpersonal self. The ecological self refers to the perception of one’s body in relation to the physical environment (Neisser, 1991). You rarely look at your limbs as you move through space, yet you are aware of where they are and what they are doing. Right now, for example you might feel yourself seated on a chair or lay- ing across a bed, holding a textbook or tablet and flipping through the pages. The interpersonal self refers to the perception of self in relation to other people, including experiences involved in eye contact and the back-and-forth exchanges of social interactions. You do not consciously time the intervals between when you talk relative to others, and vice versa, or gauge where others are looking during conversations, but you would find it disconcerting if another person paused for overly long periods before responding to you or looked at someone else in the room while you were talking. You would be perturbed because a certain degree of responsiveness is anticipated in social exchanges, and people expect and desire others to take interest in what they say. Each of these aspects of the self follows a unique developmental path that is shaped by experiences. As we will see, infancy is the starting point for the development of self. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING 7.21 1. Define and give examples for the (a) conceptual self; (b) subjective self; (c) ecological self; and (d) interpersonal self. The Ecological and Interpersonal Selves LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.22 Describe the methods that researchers use to study infants’ ecological and interpersonal selves, and what they reveal. Margaret Mahler (1897–1985), a Hungarian physician who later became a cen- tral figure in psychoanalysis, presented one of the first theories about how infants develop a sense of self as separate from others. Mahler proposed that in the first months of life infants do not yet have a sense of individuality, but rather regard self and other (with other being “mother”) as one. Then, at around 5 months, infants differentiate self from mother and enter a world of human connection. But, does it truly take infants until the middle of the first year to become aware of the boundaries between them and other people? Developmentalists Philippe Rochat and Susan Hespos (1997) designed a clever method—the single-touch and double-touch experiment —to inves- tigate whether very young infants can distinguish their own actions from the actions of others. In their experiment, they observed the responses of newborns ✓ PROPERTY OF OXFORD conceptual self The characteristics a person uses to describe oneself, also referred to as the “me” or “objective self” subjective self The characteristics a person uses to describe oneself, also referred to as the “I” of the self; a person’s sense of acting in the environment as a unique entity ecological self The perception of one’s body in relation to the physical environment interpersonal self The perception of oneself in relation to other people, including experiences with eye- contact and back-and-forth exchanges with others single-touch and double-touch experiment An experiment to test infant self-awareness; researchers ask whether very young infants can distinguish between an experimenter touching the infant’s cheek (single- touch; other-stimulation) and the infant’s own touch of the cheek (double-touch; self-stimulation)

Tamis-LeMonda Child Development: Context, Culture, and Cascades 1E Sinauer Associates/OUP Morales Studio TL1e_07.24 01-28-21

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