Children and Young People Self Identity - Essay Example

? Practical Report on Children and Young People’s Self Identity Children and young people exhibit differences in the way they behave and how they relate with other people, which constitute their personality and individual character traits. This largely involves how children develop a sense of identity in the way they see themselves and how other people view them. This sense of identity develops and changes through a period of time along their childhood. Every person has a unique gradual development of a sense of autonomous and individuality which is relatively different from other people. This concerns the child’s social behavior and his own view about how people relate with him or her depending on the expectations of people and the way the child understands his/her self. This research involved a consultative interview carried out to two children and recorded on audio at their school during the holiday. One of the students was eight years and the other 16 years, who represented both the younger and older children. The interview involved some questions on certain themes which included self description, self evaluation, self and others, ideal self and the locus of knowledge of the children. Introduction A sense of self usually developed by certain levels of measure that involve gradual appearance with explicit salient features of the self as a subject of experience and as an object of one’s knowledge is critical. In realizing that a child establishes the existence of personal identity, it’s a show that he or she could be acquainted with his/her existence. The term self as a subject is explained by four elements which constitutes the awareness of one’s own agency, the awareness of the uniqueness of one’s own experience and distinctiveness nature from other people, the continuity of one’s identity and the awareness of one’s own ability to reflect. All these features emerge gradually in a child as they explore and make interactions with their peers, parents and the society at large. Children use their own knowledge that they have developed overtime as they discover who they are. Children understanding of their self as active agents continue to emerge and develop in their attempts to cooperate with other members of their society in various settings. These interactions critically help the children in defining and understanding who they are and the degree of identity varies with age and the level of exposure and interactions of the child (Rosenberg, 1979). Later developments of the full sense of self is a reference and acquisition of “me’ or the self as a subject which concerns the features that define a person such as gender, name, size and how such an individual relates to others. Children right from their tender age build their sense of identity from other people’s reactions towards them and from the views that they believe other people have about them. This binds together the sense of self and the social world of interaction as an important aspect of self realization as a social structure that arise from the social structure. To be able to realize the sense of self among young children, they must be part of a community where they interact with other people, hence deducing concepts about themselves as they learn to communicate and relate with them. Method The study involved an interview conducted to two young children to try and generate a comparison of their personal descriptions on various themes such as personal identity, which constituted semi-structures interview questions. Kirsty, one of the respondents was sixteen years old and a female in that school that was sampled for purposes of this research. She represented the older children who are in their teen ages. Annie, a female represented the young children and at her tender age at eight was able to give a self description and the way she views her identity with relation to other people. The study was not an experimental one but it was intended to draw a contrast between the young children at their different ages of developments to see how they articulate issues relating to their view of this, regarding themselves with relationship to other people within and outside their cocoon. Interview procedure The interview involved two schools; a primary and a secondary in Milton Keynes area where the students talked about themselves in a series of interview questions through the use of an audio-recording method of interview data collection. The interviews were conducted at their schools by two members of the module; Keiron Sheehy and Peter Barnes to both an eight year old and sixteen year old children. They took place in an interview room and it also involved a written exercise before the interview started. The interviewees were informed that they were free to request for recording suspensions whenever they found themselves talking about issues they would not wish to go recorded. The interview questions were based on certain themes which included the following: A. Self-description: These were based on those used by Harter (1983) and Rosenberg (1979) in their investigations on defining children’s features on self descriptions. The participants were asked to give a personal description based on their choice with a description labeled “Who am I” B. Self-evaluation: These questions were related to personal evaluations on points of pride and shame based on Rosenberg. C. Self and others: This sought to give more insight on Rosenberg’s theme of people’s feelings of distinctiveeness and as separate individuals. D. Ideal self: Took reference to Rosenberg’s investigation of the type of person children wish to become in future as adults. E. Locus of self-knowledge. Annie was recorded and it took 20mins for the whole interview session with Kirsty taking 25 minutes for the same interview recording to address all the themes presented in the interview questions. The data collection was intended to comply with the British Psychological Society’s Code of Human Research Ethics. Results The two respondents in this study gave their own views depending on the interview questions based on the themes. Kirsty is aware of her sense of individuality, being different from other people. She describes herself as a person who tries her best in her undertakings. She is supportive and generally a good person who commits mistakes but deals with them as they appear. Being best for her means achieving what other people cannot reach after putting all their effort. She presents herself in an easy way since she always wants to be on the right to make herself and everyone happier. She believes even when she can’t conform to the crowd, it means that she retains her individuality, making people recognize her as who she is (Sharon & Karen, 2005). In evaluating herself, Kirsty feels that the issue of size eight bothers her since she has given it a try to being non-conforming to a size eight but just pretty plain. Kirsty hopes to live with her values and be more secure and settled in her own life when she gets old having achieved her goals right for school and pursue other important things in life and gain more confidence. Annie likes Harry Porter Lego film as a source of her entertainment because she normally can’t entertain herself. She likes being scared. She likes guinea pigs, rabbits and dogs and is important to her as pets. She describes herself being slow in memory and her sister has to remind her to feed the pets. She appreciates and understands that she and her sister are different depending on what each like to do. She just likes relaxing with the likes of watching TV. She enjoys Maths even if it’s hard. She is not good at remembering all that she has to do (Murphy, 1947). In her personal evaluations, she is never proud of her ears due to frequent infections whenever she puts on earrings. This is her weaker point because it really hurts. Her legs also hurt and she has to do a lot of exercises. She also thinks she is the same as her classmates who love what she loves. She appreciates the differences in people since it makes someone special. She likes doing things out of her free own will. Annie would like to become an actress or an archeologist when she grows older, but she thinks the latter suits her best since she likes things about the past (Bannister & Agnew, 1977). Discussion A sense of being self develops when a child grows from tender age to his or her teen age, which is subject to the knowledge base that the child is exposed to. Kirsty feels that she is one and own individual in what she believes in herself and in what she does. Kirsty has a sense of who she is due to the fact that no matter how people would want to view her as a different person, she would remain herself since one can’t change that she/he is with a view to meeting certain expectations. She feels that she is quite different from other people and her values differ much since she is much able to distinguish what she wants to achieve. In trying to get along with other members of the society, children try to develop their own identities that make them look and remain themselves (Harter, 1983). This gradually emerges as the child continues to grow. At old age in children, they tend to discuss issues relating to physical characteristics and activities compared to young ones like Annie, who discuses more about physiological issues such as the film which relates to her hence develop her identity and the sense of being self. Children build their sense from the reactions of the people who they relate with. For the case of Annie, she believes she is just similar to her classmates who love Maths and doing other things that she likes in school. What her mum tells her make her encouraged about appreciating her likes and abilities in school hence shaping her identity. The social world binds children with their senses of being self. For instance, Kirsty believes that how people see her as not being size eight and pretty plain is shaped by the relations with other people in the society. She lacked the confidence due to the feeling of fitting in a certain group of individuals. She feels that despite the feeling of differences among people she gets along with them, she believes that she would ever remain herself in her abilities and ideologies. Issues of concern relating to this method of data collection relate to the fact that recording could capture sensitive and most personal information that respondents would not wish to give. Also, the method was limited and affected by challenges such as noise and disruptions from other participants and the surrounding due to the venue of the data collection. Conclusion Children continue to evolve to complexity in understanding themselves as they continue to think how other people perceive and do evaluate them. Children describe their sense of being self in relation to their immediate surrounding situations and how they make relations with other people. As a child continues to grow from tender age to an older youth, they consider most issues of physical characteristics and activities which constitute to shaping their identities. References Bannister, D., and Agnew, J. (1977). The child’s construing of self. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Harter, S. (1983). Developmental perspectives on the self-system. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Murphy, G. (1947). Personality. New York: Harper and Row. Rosenberg, M. (1979). Conceiving the Self. New York: Basic Books. Sharon, D., & Karen, L. (2005). Children’s Personal and Social Development. New York: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Read More