Uncovering young children's psychological selves: individual and developmental differences.

3 major goals were addressed: (1) to examine whether 3 1/2-7 1/2-year-old children have consistent and meaningful concepts that reflect psychological self-understanding, (2) to uncover individual differences in young children's self-concepts, and (3) to determine whether any observed differences are stable over time. A new method was developed for assessing young children's self-concepts. 180 children between 3 and 8 years of age were presented with pairs of statements representing the high and low end points of 10 psychological dimensions. For example, the statements "It's not fun to scare people" and "It's fun to scare people" represent the low and high ends of the psychological dimension of aggression. Children were then asked to pick the statement that best described themselves. The dimensional scores were factor analyzed and higher-order factor scales were constructed. These factor scales were found to be internally consistent and psychologically meaningful in each age group, indicating that even young children have psychological concepts of themselves. Moreover, substantial individual differences were demonstrated on the scales even among the youngest children. Finally, these differences were found to be moderately stable over a 1-month test-retest.