Utrecht University.
Stanford University.
Child Dev. 2017 Nov;88(6):1873-1884. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12937. Epub 2017 Aug 21.
This research aimed to examine whether and why children hold favorable self-conceptions (total N = 882 Dutch children, ages 8-12). Surveys (Studies 1-2) showed that children report strongly favorable self-conceptions. For example, when describing themselves on an open-ended measure, children mainly provided positive self-conceptions-about four times more than neutral self-conceptions, and about 11 times more than negative self-conceptions. Experiments (Studies 3-4) demonstrated that children report favorable self-conceptions, in part, to live up to social norms idealizing such self-conceptions, and to avoid seeing or presenting themselves negatively. These findings advance understanding of the developing self-concept and its valence: In middle and late childhood, children's self-conceptions are robustly favorable and influenced by both external (social norms) and internal (self-motives) forces.
本研究旨在探讨儿童是否持有积极的自我概念，以及原因是什么（总样本为 882 名荷兰儿童，年龄在 8-12 岁之间）。调查（研究 1-2）表明，儿童报告的自我概念非常积极。例如，在开放式自我描述中，儿童主要提供积极的自我概念，是中性自我概念的四倍多，是消极自我概念的 11 倍多。实验（研究 3-4）表明，儿童报告积极的自我概念，部分原因是为了符合理想化这种自我概念的社会规范，避免看到或呈现自己的负面形象。这些发现增进了对发展中的自我概念及其效价的理解：在儿童中期和后期，儿童的自我概念非常积极，受到外部（社会规范）和内部（自我动机）力量的影响。
