TY - JOUR

T1 - Understanding the self in relation to others

T2 - Infants spontaneously map another's face to their own at 16-26 months

AU - Kampis, Dora

AU - Grosse Wiesmann, Charlotte

AU - Koop, Sarah

AU - Southgate, Victoria Helen

PY - 2022/5/1

Y1 - 2022/5/1

N2 - The current study probed whether infants understand themselves in relation to others. Infants aged 16–26 months (n = 102) saw their parent wearing a sticker on their forehead or cheek, depending on experimental condition, placed unwitnessed by the child. Infants then received a sticker themselves, and their spontaneous behavior was coded. Regardless of age, from 16 months, all infants who placed the sticker on their cheek or forehead, placed it on the location on their own face matching their parent's placement. This shows that infants as young as 16 months of age have an internal map of their face in relation to others that they can use to guide their behavior. Whether infants placed the sticker on the matching location was related to other measures associated with self-concept development (the use of their own name and mirror self-recognition), indicating that it may reflect a social aspect of children's developing self-concept, namely their understanding of themselves in relation and comparison to others. About half of the infants placed the sticker on themselves, while others put it elsewhere in the surrounding, indicating an additional motivational component to bring about on themselves the state, which they observed on their parent. Together, infants’ placement of the sticker in our task suggests an ability to compare, and motivation to align, self and others

AB - The current study probed whether infants understand themselves in relation to others. Infants aged 16–26 months (n = 102) saw their parent wearing a sticker on their forehead or cheek, depending on experimental condition, placed unwitnessed by the child. Infants then received a sticker themselves, and their spontaneous behavior was coded. Regardless of age, from 16 months, all infants who placed the sticker on their cheek or forehead, placed it on the location on their own face matching their parent's placement. This shows that infants as young as 16 months of age have an internal map of their face in relation to others that they can use to guide their behavior. Whether infants placed the sticker on the matching location was related to other measures associated with self-concept development (the use of their own name and mirror self-recognition), indicating that it may reflect a social aspect of children's developing self-concept, namely their understanding of themselves in relation and comparison to others. About half of the infants placed the sticker on themselves, while others put it elsewhere in the surrounding, indicating an additional motivational component to bring about on themselves the state, which they observed on their parent. Together, infants’ placement of the sticker in our task suggests an ability to compare, and motivation to align, self and others

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - self-other alignment

KW - self-other comparison

KW - self-other map

KW - self-other relation

KW - social self

KW - sticker task

U2 - 10.1111/desc.13197

DO - 10.1111/desc.13197

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34826359

VL - 25

JO - Developmental Science

JF - Developmental Science

SN - 1363-755X

IS - 3

M1 - e13197

ER -