Why Most Children Think Well of Themselves

Thomaes, Sander; Brummelman, Eddie; Sedikides, Constantine

doi:10.1111/cdev.12937

Cited by 34 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Children's enthusiasm for learning, including strong efficacy beliefs despite challenges, corresponds with evidence of young children's high motivation for learning irrespective of SES (Entwisle & Hayduk, 1978;Howse, Lange, Farran & Boyles, 2003;Stipek & Ryan, 1997;Seefeldt et al, 1997; but see also Zill & West, 2001). Perceptions of elevated ability may reflect a cognitive limitation of early self-concept (Thomaes, Brummelman, & Sedikides, 2017), yet alongside agency, may provide a motivational drive for learning and encourage children to take on challenges via the pleasure they encounter in mastery (Denham & Brown, 2010;Harter, 2008). Areas of concern regarding physical (i.e.…”

Section: Children's Early School Experiences and Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing readiness: Young children’s priorities for their early school adjustment

O’Farrelly

Booth

Tatlow‐Golden

et al. 2020

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

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Young children in communities facing socioeconomic disadvantage are increasingly targeted by school readiness interventions. Interventions are stronger if they address stakeholders' priorities, yet children's priorities for early school adjustment are rarely accounted for in intervention design including selection of outcome measures. The Children's Thoughts about School Study (CTSS) examined young children's accounts of their early school experiences, and their descriptions of what a new school starter would need to know. Mixed-method interviews were conducted with 42 kindergarten children in a socioeconomically deprived suburb of Dublin, Ireland. First, inductive thematic analysis identified 25 priorities across four domains: feeling able and enthusiastic for school; navigating friendships and victimisation; supportive environments with opportunities to play; bridging school and family life. Second, deductive analysis compared children's priorities at item level against a school readiness outcome battery. Children's priorities were assigned to three groups: (1) assessed by outcome measures (core academic competencies, aspects of self-regulation); (2) partially assessed (self-efficacy, social skills for friendship formation and avoiding victimisation, creative thinking, play); and (3) not assessed by outcome measures (school liking, school environment, family-school involvement). This analysis derived from children's own perspectives suggests that readiness interventions aiming to support early school adjustment would benefit from considering factors children consider salient. It offers recommendations for advancing conceptual frameworks, improving assessment, and identifying new targets for supporting children and schools. In doing so we provide a platform for children's priorities to be integrated into the policies and practices that shape their early lives.

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Section: Children's Early School Experiences and Adjustmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing readiness: Young children’s priorities for their early school adjustment

O’Farrelly

Booth

Tatlow‐Golden

et al. 2020

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…But even their self‐evaluations are overwhelmingly positive. Thomaes, Brummelman, and Sedikides () reasoned that older children may evaluate themselves positively, in part, to conform to prevailing social norms that cast favorable self‐evaluations as ideal standards to live up to. WEIRD societies are replete with messages that extol favorable self‐evaluations (Twenge, ).…”

Section: How Social Relationships Shape the Self‐conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individuals from non‐WEIRD countries make up just 3% of our participants, while making up 85% of the world's population (Nielsen et al., ). The special section helps address this limitation by reporting research in non‐WEIRD populations (e.g., Mexican‐American adolescents and their parents; Knight, Carlo, White, & Streit, ) and by calling for systematic research on how children from diverse cultural backgrounds differ in their beliefs about the nature of the self (Haimovitz & Dweck, ; Starmans, ), their views of themselves (Thomaes et al., ), and the socialization experiences that influence their views of themselves (Brummelman et al., ; Harris et al., ).…”

Section: Going Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Children Construct Views of Themselves: A Social‐Developmental Perspective

Brummelman

Thomaes

2017

Child Development

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As they grow up, children construct views of themselves and their place in the world, known as their self-concept. This topic has often been addressed by social psychologists (studying how the self-concept is influenced by social contexts) and developmental psychologists (studying how the self-concept changes over time). Yet, relatively little is known about the origins of the self-concept. This article calls for research that bridges social and developmental psychology to illuminate this important issue. Adopting such a social-developmental approach, the current special section shows that children construct their self-concept based on the social relationships they have, the feedback they receive, the social comparisons they make, and the cultural values they endorse. These findings underline the deeply social nature of self-development.

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“…Even if narcissistic children worry about others' impressions of them, they may not admit this feeling to others. To maintain their grandiose image, they may hide their vulnerabilities (Thomaes, Brummelman, & Sedikides, ). For example, when adult narcissists are ostracized, they show increased activity in the social‐pain area of their brain, yet they claim not feeling distressed (Cascio, Konrath, & Falk, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's in a blush? Physiological blushing reveals narcissistic children's social‐evaluative concerns

2018

Self Cite

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Physiological responses can reveal emotional states that individuals are unwilling to admit to others. Here, we studied what blushing reveals about the emotional states of narcissistic children. Narcissistic children (i.e., those high on the personality trait of narcissism) have a pervasive sense of grandiosity. We theorized that narcissistic children are so invested in their sense of grandiosity that even modest praise can make them feel depreciated. Because narcissistic children may not admit this feeling to others, we measured their physiological blushing: an involuntary reddening of the face that occurs when individuals anticipate being depreciated. Unlike other emotional expressions, blushing cannot be faked. Children (N = 105, ages 7-12) completed the Childhood Narcissism Scale and were then invited to sing a song on stage. They were randomly assigned to receive inflated praise (e.g., "You sang incredibly well!"), modest praise ("You sang well!"), or no praise for their performance. Blushing was recorded using photoplethysmography and temperature sensing. Afterward, children were asked how much they thought they had blushed. As predicted, narcissistic children-unlike nonnarcissistic children-blushed when they received modest praise, not when they received inflated praise. Specifically, they showed increased blood volume pulse (i.e., fast changes in blood volume with each heartbeat). Strikingly, when asked, narcissistic children denied blushing, perhaps to hide their vulnerabilities. Thus, blushing revealed social-evaluative concerns that narcissistic children wished to keep private.

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Why Most Children Think Well of Themselves

Cited by 34 publications

References 38 publications

Reconstructing readiness: Young children’s priorities for their early school adjustment

Reconstructing readiness: Young children’s priorities for their early school adjustment

How Children Construct Views of Themselves: A Social‐Developmental Perspective

What's in a blush? Physiological blushing reveals narcissistic children's social‐evaluative concerns

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