Infant's Emerging Sensitivity to Others' Evaluation Open Access

Abstract

By four years of age, children, like adults, strategically modify their behavior in the presence of an observer as a means for self-presentation. While this is evidence of an evaluative audience perception (i.e., sensitivity to others' potential social evaluation), the ontogeny of this phenomenon remains underspecified. Two studies capture the emergence of an evaluative audience perception in late infancy. In a first study 14-24 month old infants (N=49) are shown to display differential engagement towards a novel toy, as well as enhanced expression of embarrassment when the experimenter was attentive toward them. Passing as well as the way the child passed the classic Mirror Mark Test predicted such audience effect. In a second study 20 month-old infants (N=51), were tested in a situation where the Experimenter previously modelled both a positive and a negative outcome on a mechanical toy via a remote control device. Results show that infants become strategic in choosing to reproduce more positive outcomes when the Experimenter is attentive as opposed to inattentive toward them. Controlling for age, passing the Mirror Mark Test did not predict such self-evaluative audience perception. We interpret these data as confirming that an evaluative audience perception emerges by 24 months. Results are discussed in relation to an emergent self-concept that is heavily shaped by how others perceive us.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION 3

Self-Evaluation in Infancy 5

The Current Study 9

STUDY 1 11

METHOD 11

Participants 11

Materials 12

Procedure 13

Coding 14

RESULTS 15

Robot Task 15

Emotion 16

Mirror Mark Test 16

DISCUSSION 17

STUDY 2 20

METHOD 20

Participants 20

Materials 20

Procedure 20

Coding 22

RESULTS 22

Robot Task 22

Temperament 23

Emotion 23

DISCUSSION 23

GENERAL DISCUSSION 25

CONCLUSION 28

REFERENCES 30

FIGURE 1a 34

FIGURE 1b 35

FIGURE 1c 36

FIGURE 2a 37

FIGURE 3a 38

FIGURE 3b 38

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Psychology
Degree	MA
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Cognitive
Keyword	social cognition self-consciousness
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Rochat, Philippe, Emory University
Committee Members	Brennan, Patricia, Emory University Fivush, Robyn, Emory University

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