THE TEN YEAR OLD'S CONSTRUCTION OF SELF-IMAGE I

According to Markus and Nuris (1984), one's sense of self develops continuously from infancy onward. However, by around age ten years, the self-concept, often termed the self-image is said to become particularly important in terms of having strong associations with personality and social development. Thus, developmental theories discussing how children construct their notions of self in and around the age of ten years can be said to have an especially important significance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine several developmental models of the construction of the self image during this developmental stage. This examination is followed by a discussion of the validity of each model in terms of its ability to explain how children this age build their self-image; this discussion is, in turn, followed by a series of conclusions about the construction of self-image at this developmental stage.

Erikson's Theory of Developmental Identity

There are, today, several theorists who view the development and construction of the self-image or concept as a "social" phenomenon. Almost without exception these theories use, as their conceptual foundation, Erik Erikson's stage theory of psychosocial development (see: Erikson, 1950, 1968, 1973). This

theory of development, while psychodynamic in nature, re-focused attention away from the traditional psychodynamic focus which was upon the child's instinctual respon

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denial, repression) to compare the perceived self to the ideal self and perceive a good fit. The ages of 10 to 12 years are said to be crucial to the development of a favorable self-concept or self-image in Rogerian theory in that the child is finally at a developmental stage where he can make a reasonably sound logical comparison between the perceived and ideal self. However, the extent to which the child makes a reasonably sound comparison is said to depend on his/her degree of need for positive regard and the degree to which this need appears to require distortion, denial and repression of self expression. The degree of need for positive regard from others is said to be derived from the child's interactions with parents. According to Rogers (1977), the child will develop a positive self-image only if he or she feels free to express personal feelings and thoughts and well accepted by his/her parents. Indeed, parental interactions at both earlier developmental stage and at this stage are said to be crucial for the development of the child's self-concept in Rogerian theory. One study supportive of both Rogerian and Eriksonian notions of how the self-image is build was conducted by Coopersmith (1967) using a sample of 85 t
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Approximate Word count = 3240
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)