That is, until an infant realizes that she is looking at herself in the mirror rather than another baby, the concept of self cannot begin to form (Johnston, 1996). As children mature, the link between cognition and self-concept becomes more illuminated. In older children, part of the maturation process is the ability to solve problems and process information (Siegler and Alibali, 2004). The fact that children use a variety of strategies and behave differently when overcoming obstacles to reach a common goal reflects differences not only in their cognitive abilities but also how they see themselves -- "I don't give up easily; I always try my best; I learn well; I don't like myself," etc. (Measelle et al., 2005).
If, as earlier suggested, by five to seven years of age, children are able to give accurate self-descriptions of themselves, then the precursors of self-concept clearly evolve around the toddler and pre-school years. If this is so, then the child's immediate environment and primary caregivers have an important role in the development of self. While it is generally accepted that a child's temperament -- presumably the baseline where self-concept builds upon -- is largely inherent, there are some empirical evidence to suggest that temperament and toddler self-control can be moderated by mother-child relationship quality.
In particular, it is hypothesized that "mother-infant synchrony is an antecedent of the emergence of self-control" (Feldman, Greenbaum, and Yirmiya, 1999). Longitudinal studies show that the experience of mutual synchrony during the first year is important in helping infants with difficult temperaments achieve self-control at two years (Feldman, Greenbaum, and Yirmiya, 1999). The experience of mutual synchrony is characterized by the ability of a mother to match a response to her child's mood change; share control over interaction with her child; and maintain visual contact during face-to-face interactions (Feldman, Greenbaum, and Yirmiya, 1999). Self-control marks the first expression of internalised socialization and is manifested by a child's obedience to parents' instructions and ability to wait when asked (Emde et al., 1991 in Feldman, Greenbaum, and Yirmiya, 1999). As such, it can be said that parents, especially mothers, are important agents of socialization.
Social behavior is but one of many dimensions that can be used to evaluate self-view among children. Dimensions may be positive like achievement and well-being or negative like aggression and alienation (Bird and Reese, 2006). When a child says about herself, "I am happiest when I am close to people," it indicates social closeness, while if she says, "People always say mean things to me," it may suggest alienation (Bird and Reese, 2006). For children to be able to view themselves as such, they must have connected that self-view to a concrete past event/events in their lives (Bird and Reese, 2006). In other words, a personal...
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