Self in relation to other: Preschoolers' verbal social comparisons within narrative discourse

Abstract

Many theories of the ontogeny of selfhood share the assumption that our concepts of who we are as individuals develop in the context of social relationships. Despite a rich tradition of thought that highlights the self as a relational entity, research in child development has historically reflected a highly individualistic notion of the child's emerging understanding of self. More recently, the theoretical concern with the socially embedded nature of self has generated several methodological innovations aimed at capturing development in interpersonal contexts. The field of social cognition reflects this emphasis on relationality and has extended its focus beyond the individual child to encompass the social interactions in which notions of self and other develop (Damon and Hart, 1988; Dunn, 1988;and Stem, 1985). Despite the current interest in the relationship between self and social understanding, most empirical investigations of this process continue to treat these ideas as separate conceptual systems from a developmental standpoint.The notion that language provides a link between individual minds and social contexts has gained considerable prominence in developmental studies within the last decade. Stern (1985) has claimed that language generates an "intersubjective" understanding of self, and he offers "a new way of being related to others (who may be present or absent) by sharing personal world knowledge with them, coming together in the domain of verbal relatedness" (p. 173). Language permits the young child a means to reflect on, represent, and communicate about herself to other people. It offers a new interactional context within which the child can experience herself and participate in her NEW DIRECIIONS FOR CHILD DRmOPhlP3T. no. 69, Fall 1995 0 JOSXy-BSS Publbhen 61 62 YOUNG CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS OF SELF AND OTHER

Missing persons: Young children's talk about absent members of their social network

“…Indeed, during the preschool years, one key component of parent–child reminiscing is discussion of other people's emotions and mental lives (Fivush, Haden & Reese, 2006; Kuebli, Butler & Fivush, 1995; Rudek & Haden, 2005), discussion that may help them to adopt a more mentalistic stance (Fivush & Nelson, 2006; Harris, de Rosnay & Pons, 2005). By age five, children's accounts of personal experiences during naturalistic parent–child conversations are richly interpersonal, involving not only family members but also peers and others outside the family (Miller, Mintz, Fung, Hoogstra & Potts, 1992; Mintz, 1995). Research on children's talk about others in the preschool setting documents a similar developmental pattern (Engel & Li, 2004).…”