Sense of Self

• Neisser's Five Senses of Self

  Infancy:

  1.Ecological Self

  2.Interpersonal Self

  Early Childhood:

  3. Extended Self

  4. Private Self

  5. Conceptual Self
• Infancy: Ecological Self

  • Sense of where we are as we move through the physical environment
  • Automatic process: emerges after birth
• Infancy Interpersonal Self

  • Sense of ‘I’ versus ‘You’ in social interactions
  • Not unique to humans
  • Emerges shortly after birth
• Early Childhood: Extended Self

  • From around age 4
  • Aware of autobiographic timeline: connection between past, present, and future
• Early Childhood: Private Self

  • From around age 4
  • Understand we have private thoughts, perspectives no one else has
• Early Childhood: Conceptual Self

  • Sense of place in wider sociocultural context
  • From age 4-5, major growth in middle childhood and beyond
• Testing sense of self: The mirror/rouge test

  • Children understand that the mirror image is them
  • Most children pass the test by 2 years, some as early as 18 months
  • More basic forms of self perception may be present from much earlier – birth?

  Very few species pass the mirror test
• Testing sense of self: The mirror/rouge test