Influence of Age on Self-Description Changes

Influence of Age on Self-Description Changes Gemma L Sobah An investigation of self-descriptions in data collected from two children of different ages, and how their age influences the focal point of their self-descriptions using the findings of Rosenberg (1979) Abstract (166 words) This report investigates the self-descriptions of two children in using the findings of Morris Rosenberg (1979). Rosenberg proposed that young children typically describe themselves using physical conditions, and older children/adults tend to use character and relationship qualities. The two participants took part in an semi-structured interview and the interview transcripts were coded and analysed by dividing the answers into the four categories created by Rosenberg. These were physical, character, relationships or inner. The information and data from the two participants were then compared to Rosenbergs findings. The locus of self-knowledge was also investigated briefly, which Rosenberg stated changed from outside to inner relatedness, the older the child gets. From my findings, it appears my data does to some extent agree with the conclusions that Rosenberg came across as with age they do seem to make less physical descriptions, but there did seem to be a change from locus of self -knowledge from the parent to the individual, as the child got older. Introduction (289 words) The subject of identity and how we acknowledge our own has always be a matter of intense debate those in the field of child development. The many aspects of identity require that many outside aspects are considered when looking at the development of ones identity, like religious, social ethnic, cultural. for that reason, in order to develop an identity, young children should be able to consider such aspects. Maccoby (as cited in Ding and Miel 2005 p. 131) suggests that a sense of self occurs slowly and in small steps. William James (1892 as cited in Miel and Ding 2005 pp 131) thought that a sense of self is divided in two stages: the self as a subject of experience and the self as an thing of knowledge (Miel and Ding, 2005 pg. 131). So as children grow up they develop into people more capable at self-awareness and more practically involved in awareness and responses from other people in their lifes. James believed, this development takes place within childhoo d during interactions between cognitive aspects and social experiences as children actively use their received knowledge about themselves to change parts of their environment. The research for this study relates to the research above due to the age of the participants and the means of the interviews. The interviews are all based on who the child sees themselves as. The way they describe themselves will be the main focus of this study. Whether they dwell solely on their physical appearance or if they go through all the categories and if their responses differ between the two ages. Using Rosenbergs categories, we are hoping to get a clear understanding of whether Rosenbergs and others, work is relevant and can be applied generally. Method (414 words) The design of the study was a comparison of self descriptions elicited from two young people, during semi-structured interviews. The interviewers asked two schools in Milton Keynes, one primary and one secondary to take part in the study. A number of children agreed to take part and their parents were approached for consent and consent forms were signed. Kieron Sheehly interviewed the primary school children and Peter Barnes interviewed the older children. One of the participants was a 8 year old female in primary school and the other was a 16 year old female in secondary school. Both interviews were conducted during school hours within their schools. A tape recorder was used to record the interviews and paper and a pen was used for the children to write down their individual statements. A sound recorder and a producer were present during the interviews. Microphones were used during the interviews and these were placed out of the way as to not get in the way of the interview. All chi ldren were informed at the start of the interview what was going to happen and what was being asked of them. They were also informed who would be using the recording and or what purpose. The interviews were paused while the children wrote down their statements and started again when the interviewer wanted to ask them questions. As there was a potential for outside or background noise, when the background noises began to interfere with the interview, the recording was paused and started again when it became quiet enough to carry on. The two interviews were conducted by staff from the Milton Keynes Open university for the purpose of this study. These were watched and their transcripts were coded and analysed according to Rosenbergs method. Self descriptions of participants were categorised by Rosenberg , into four categories (a) physical; (b) character; (c) relationships d) Inner. The childrens statements were divided where a category could be acknowledged from a single statement (see Appendix 1 and 2) and if a statement could be split into more categories this was done. The percentages of each category were then calculated by way of adding up the column, dividing it by the total and this by 100. This was how each categories percentage was worked out for each child and then these results were then put into a table to show which categories had the highest or lowest percentages for each child. These were then compared and results were explained below. Results (275 words) The hypothesis in this research study was as the child got older there would be a gradual change from physical characteristics to inner and relationship characteristics whilst the locus of self-knowledge increasingly shifted from others to the self as child grew older. Self descriptions that came from I statements, were coded and placed into one of the four categories (see appendices 1). Table 1: Self-descriptions by the children. The Categories Percentage for Annie (8 years old) was : Physical -40% Character 40% Relationships -20% Inner 0% . The Categories Percentages for Kirsty (16 years old) was: Physical 20% Character 20% Relationships 20% Inner 40%. Table 1 (see appendices 5) shows us that the responses that Annie gave were quite equally divided across physical and characteristics, whilst Kirstys were evenly spread over all the categories with the highest percentage being on the inner section. . This appears to support the hypothesis as there was a steady change from physi cal descriptive to psychological descriptive the older the children get. Annies answers to the locus of self-knowledge questions were quite mixed. She showed outer locus of self-knowledge; her teacher knows best about her school work and performance and her mother seems to know best about her behaviour. Although this shows support to Rosenbergs theory and hypothesis it was only using 2 participants and because of this cannot be over generalised to the wider population, which in turn limits the use of the results. Also because Annie only completed five statements and Kirsty completed 10 this cold have impacted the percentage of the results due to kirsty having more data to input into the table. Discussion (682 words) In this research study, two children were chosen. One being at primary school and the other at secondary school, although they were both females, although a larger sample would have allowed for a better analysis of the conclusions in relation to the population. Although the results appeared to supported the Rosenbergs findings(Miel et al, 2010, pp. 21-22) no specific conclusion should be made from such a small sample. Piagets theory of cognitive development also shows this, which could suggest that at about the start of the teen years there is a change from the solid process of development into the final stage of official process .This appears to be the stage at which most adolescents start to create an individual identity and are then able to put into their own point of view and social information about what it means to become an adult and reflect with purpose, on their self consciousness. As the children were interviewed by adults, people they did not know, they may have given different answers to what they may have said to a friend who had asked them the same questions or had a adult that they knew. They could have given biased results due to the fact they were aware it was for a study and they knew the purpose of the study. So because of this the results cant be relied upon wholly to be accurate and true. Regardless of this the way a child describes themselves may be different depending on their level of education and upbringing. For example a child of no school education who cannot read and has limited education may not fully certain aspects of what it means to be them and therefore may give limited answers based on their knowledge and education. Also a child who has been abused or had a very negative start in life, may dwell on more emotional lead than physical lead statements due to them being hurt a lot and there state being very emotionally based. Further still, the way in which a child describes themselves may be purely on what appears to be important to them. Kirsty tended to focus on herself as not being able to change her dress size I am not a size 8 (see appendices 4) and not being able to change who she is in general. This focus may be mainly on how she feels she is perceived by others around her or how she views herself, not just due to her age but due to her current circumstances. From this study it shows that Rosenbergs first hypothesis about the locus of self-knowledge has on some accounts been shown as being correct, although the sample size was a lot smaller than Rosenbergs, also the age of the older participant being incompatible, with Rosenbergs research study. My assumption is to suggest that younger children do appear to describe themselves focusing mainly on their physical attributes and less on how they feel and their personality traits while adults concentrate mainly on their forming on relationships and the impact these have on their sense of self, although the change from physical external descriptions of the younger child to the personal and inner feelings of the older child or adult did not appear to prominent in these results. This study has pointed out the difficulty in trying to determine and discover the idea of sense of self and locus of self-knowledge, and can be used for an indicator to their inner feelings and thoughts of an person in th e process of their development. These descriptions are fluid and live within the communication and changes with others and over a period of time. The locus of self-knowledge also changes by age from child to adult self. Even though the original hypothesis has been somewhat proven to be in general in agreement with the findings of Rosenberg, there are a few practical issues connected in the research of existential and definite selves. More in-depth research involving a much bigger and mixed cultural sample with categorizing results from different researchers could help to prevent some of these issues. Conclusion (46 words) In conclusion, children grow and mature at different times. The progress of developing a sense of self relies on many factors (friendship groups, parents, peers, outer society, etc). Regardless is does appear to be clear that there is a development from physical towards psychological self descriptive. 1,872 words References: Miel, D., Ding, S (2005) Childrens Personal And Social Development: The Early Developmet of Identity,. Milton Keynes. The Open University Appendices 1 Category Analysis Form 1 Coded Responses Physical: describing physical appearance, age, and physical qualities like flexible, sporty etc Character: Likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests, personal qualities and basic personality traits eg, I like to relax, Im laid back etc Relationships: friends and family, social mentions, eg I like making friends Inner: Temperaments, moods and feelings. Eg Im a happy person, I can get stressed easily. etc Appendices 2 Category Analysis Form 2 Coded Responses Physical: describing physical appearance, age, and physical qualities like flexible, sporty etc Character: Likes and dislikes, hobbies and interests, personal qualities and basic personality traits eg, I like to relax, Im laid back etc Relationships: friends and family, social mentions, eg I like making friends Inner: Temperaments, moods and feelings. Understanding of self. Eg Im a happy person, I can get stressed easily. Etc Appendices 3 Annies Statements: 1. I like doing harry potter lego, Ive completed the night bus 2. I love rabbits, guinea pigs and dos 3. I think one of my hobbies is using the tv remote control 4. Im really good at maths and get stuck on telling the time 5. Im not very good at remembering Appendices 4 Kirstys statements: I cant change who I am I can only be my best Ive always been an individual I am not size 8 Im pretty plain I get on well with many people Im friendly and my friends are like family I work as hard as I can I may set my goals too high I can only be me and if some people dont like that, I cant apologise anymore Appendices 5 Table of Results 1

Summary of “Campus Crusade for Guys”

In â€Å"The Campus Crusade for Guys† Sarah Karnasiewicz introduces Michael Thompson, a child psychologist who supports the life of American boys. Thompson is a bestselling author of â€Å"Raising Cain† and is an educational speaker on television for troubled boys. Although he supports American boys he has a daughter of his own, so he does not agree that boys should be given a better opportunity getting into colleges. Despite Thompson’s opinion on the opportunity for boys this is what is happening in colleges today (909).Statistics have changed over the years, showing that now more women apply to college and stick with it. In the early days of coeducation the ratio of men and women on campus revealed that more men were attending college. Men nowadays don’t even apply for college, and the ones that do apply don’t stay long or they do poorly in school (909). If decisions were to be based on gender it would be considered political, but it is very likel y for a battle to be brought up about this topic. Politicians are putting in the news and public media that boys have been abandoned by their schools and communities. Also you can read this summary –  Protecting Freedom of Expression on the CampusTalk show host have also jumped in on this and accused schools of isolating boys. On this topic Thompson says that the education for boys has actually improved and not worsened. Writers from different news articles have stated many opinions on this topic. Starting off the argument one said that years from now women are going to have a hard time finding husbands with all their education. In response to that a women said that years earlier when she was in school and men made up the majority no one was worried about them finding wives, so what’s the difference (910)?Karnasiewicz states that the gender gap is not news; it has been going on for multiple years. A lawsuit was filed about fourteen years ago against the University of Georgia in Athens for trying to equal out the genders on campus. A gender based case where the school was giving male applications better scores when applying because they wanted to even out gender. When this case was brought to the district court the judge wasn’t swayed that the University was only trying to help the minority (910). The University of Georgia’s gender based case has completely stopped favorable action for men.Thompson believes there are already enough favorable actions for men out there; and that it is very likely there is a girl out there that has not got accepted into college because the administration was trying to even out the proportion. With these actions in place already people set out to study the admissions of college students. During their study they took data from thirteen schools and over fifty percent was women acceptance (911). The study that took place at these thirteen colleges showed that gender inequity was most severe at schools that were once single-sex.This study proved that males were more statistically had a better chance of getting accepted. The study also showed that once the application sta rted to weigh more towards the women’s side an affirmative action steps in for men (911). A common ratio at colleges is forty to sixty. This ratio is not just common at previous single-sex schools this is common throughout the nation. Colleges keep track of that ratio and look forward to it becoming a tighter ratio in years to come. Now is not the time for colleges to play a role in gender equality on campus (912).Colleges are changes applications and getting sports that appeal to men to get more men to be accepted into college. People say that there is no difference between the mind of a female and the mind of a male but the advertising business has no doubt there is. At conferences and internal marketing at colleges have a recruiter just for men to make sure they have things that will attract men to that college (912). Boys are normally attracted to technology, so school play up the technological aspect and show men what college looks like in a way they’ve never seen .Other schools find it fit to put pictures of happy, muscular men in their catalog to attract men to their campus. College campus’ are without a doubt trying to advertise themselves to men now instead of women. Even when boys are accepted and go to college they are not as focused as women are; women seem to think that there will be a negative consequence if they don’t do well in college (913). A study shows that the gender gap is related to economics. Women are more concerned with getting a higher education because with a bachelor’s degree women would get paid more than women without.Men on the other hand are not as concerned because there is no significant difference in pay whether he has a bachelor’s degree or not (913). Another opinion is that the careers that are growing now are healthcare, education, leisure and travel, and the services. All the fields are what women are good at and not men so if men want a good job for the future then they need to g et an education. Problems that are arising are that women are replacing children with education and careers. This meaning that not enough children are being born and the population is going down with the increase of women enrolled in college (914).The problem with boys all starts in primary school; female students are more successful then male students in an early age. When it comes to college the administration looks back on everything you have done before then. The better opportunities for boys need to come sooner than college. Thompson said that his mission is to get people to see and think about boys in the vision as they do for girls (915). Work Cited Lunsford, Andrea A. , John J. Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. â€Å"The Campus Crusade for Guys. † Everything's an Argument: With Readings. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007. 909-15. Print.

Aging And Negative Stereotypes Of Aging - 1960 Words

Generally, modern society reinforces negative perceptions of the process of aging, and it is often portrayed in society as being a lonely and depressing experience. These perceptions are important because elderly individuals that have a positive outlook on aging have been linked to better health and psychological well-being. This study explores the impact of negative and positive perceptions of aging, held by society, and how they influence aging individuals. Although, some positive stereotypes exist that are associated with the process of aging they are outweighed by negative stereotypes. â€Å"Labeling Theory† suggests that when older individuals are presented with negative stereotypes they themselves will assimilate these ideas, and will preform worse in age related tasks (Kotter-Grà ¼hn Hess, 2012). 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Cost-Benefit Analysis and Ethics Analysis Free Essay Example, 1250 words

The use of indirect methods is because many public services do not have equivalents in the private sector. In the public health policy, human health data statistical models and laboratory experiments play a significant role. Some crucial public health protection needs can only be met effectively through government action and cost-benefit analysis provides guidance to these actions. Cost-benefit analysis is used as a channel to effective public health policies where there is the issue of inefficient market within the private sector depending on how their actions affect the health of the public. In using cost-benefit analysis in the public health policy, regulations maintenance includes those that demonstrate benefits exceeding the costs. Because of this, the regulations will ease the burden on the business and consumers that are out of proportion to gains in health, which leads to more considerations of mechanisms of achieving desirable health2. However, cost-benefit analysis is often viewed as an inconsistent procedure and should not be emphasized on public policy decisions. Cost-benefit analysis has several problems that range from deep ethical and logical contradictions and partisan abuse. It could be detrimental when cost-benefit does not define the important benefits, in monetary terms. We will write a custom essay sample on Cost-Benefit Analysis and Ethics Analysis or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Cost-benefit analysis is very costly and time-consuming because of the resources needed for a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis process. It is not advisable to use cost-benefit analysis because costs and benefits are difficult and in some instances impossible to measure. Cost-benefit analysis may cause problems when there is a difficulty in predicting the technical innovations required in the public health policy that will reduce long-term compliance costs which often leads to an overstatement of costs relative to benefits. The cost-benefit regulatory process has indirect costs, which include or are because of uncertainty delay or inflexibility in the implementation that cannot be included in the range of analysis3. There is a need for ethical analysis of regulatory policy in public health policy issue because public health decisions are marred with conflicting and ambiguous ethical principles. The health sector has an obligation to consider ethical perspectives as major determinants of health. Ethics involves finding justifiable grounds for distinguishing between what is right of wrong. It involves social perspectives, justice, rights, and human dignity. Health policy ethics involves organizing financing and delivering health care that caters for all people of different social classes in society.