CHAPTER 11

LECTURE EXTENSION

Young Children's Use of Social and Temporal Comparison for Self-Appraisal
The text discusses that the emergence of social comparisons causes children's self-perceptions to become more realistic with age. In addition to comparing outcomes with those of others (social comparison), children also compare outcomes over time (temporal comparison). However, the age at which each of these two abilities emerges has been a source of debate. A number of researchers have proposed that the use of temporal comparison emerges at a younger age than does the use of social comparison (e.g., Dweck & Elliot, 1983). To examine this issue, Butler (1998) studied 4- to 8-year-old children's performance and ability appraisals and their self-evaluative strategies on simple tasks such as tracing and mazes.

The results showed that the use of social comparison for self-appraisal emerges at an earlier age than does the use of temporal comparison. The author suggests that this developmental trend occurs because use of a systematic comparative strategy during self-appraisal depends at least in part on the complexity of the comparison task, which is considered to be cognitively greater for typical temporal comparison than social comparison situations. This is because temporal comparison involves remembering an outcome that may have occurred in the past, whereas social comparison does not. Even 4- and 5-year-olds assessed themselves more favorably after doing better versus worse than another and were no less likely than the older children to explain their ratings in terms of social comparison. The findings also indicated that young children attend mainly to their last outcome. In particular, children at ages 4 and 5 in temporal comparison conditions attended only to their last outcome, and comparisons between current and prior outcomes increased with age. Thus, the author concludes that these findings do not support the proposal that young children are more likely to focus on temporal, intrapersonal comparisons than on social, interpersonal comparisons. Rather, these findings indicate that children use social comparison for self-evaluation at a younger age than they use temporal comparison.

Butler, R. (1998). Age trends in the use of social and temporal comparison for self-evaluation: Examination of a novel developmental hypothesis. Child Development, 69, 1054 -1073.

Dweck, C. S., & Elliot, E. S. (1983). Achievement motivation. In E. M. Hetherington (Ed.), P. H. Mussen (Series Ed.)., Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Social and personality development (pp. 643-691). New York: Wiley.

LEARNING ACTIVITY

Interviewing Children About Friendship
This activity involves exploring children's social-cognitive understanding of friendship using Piaget's flexible, open-ended clinical interviewing technique. Ask students to find three participants to interview about their understanding of friendship: (1) a 3- to 5-year-old, (2) an 8- to 10-year-old, and (3) an 11- to 15-year-old. Next, students should prepare a list of questions to ask, including: What is a friend? Why is it nice to have a friend? How can you tell that someone is a best friend? Each participant should be interviewed separately, and the children should be assured that their answers will be confidential. Instruct students to use a tape recorder or to take careful notes.

Once the interviews have been completed, responses can be examined for age and gender differences. Younger children tend to associate friends with playtime and toy-sharing activities. School-age children begin to understand the importance of trust in friendships, and adolescents desire intimacy in a friendship. From the data gathered by students, what appears to be the basis for younger children's friendships? What are the characteristics of friendships in each age group? Is there an important feature for middle childhood friendships that is not apparent in younger children's friendships? Do adolescents express more sensitivity for their friends' characteristics, needs, and concerns?