The existential self is what Lewis (1990) argued was the first step in the development of the self. It is when a baby realises that he or she is separate from other people and something that hurts another person won’t also hurt them. The categorical self Lewis said was the second step in the development of the self; it is when a child learns to define him/herself as a boy or a girl, their name and so on, they also learn to define the characteristics of their personality, whether they are shy or confident etcetera.

Self - awareness is recognising your self in either a picture or in the mirror. It is being aware of yourself and that you are there.

Explain how a child’s self – awareness changes with age.

Lewis and Brooks carried out a studied called the rouge test, where by they placed a baby in front of a mirror and allowed them to sit there for a few minutes, they found that most babies between the ages of nine and twelve months tried to interact with their reflections by making faces at it and so on. After a few minutes the researcher puts a spot of rouge on the baby’s nose and the test is whether they realise that the ro

One of the reasons that there may be a difference in the type of definition of self given by different ages maybe that that there is a language barrier, and the younger children may not have the language acquisition to express such feelings and characteristics.

Coopersmith’s results showed that the mothers, who were more confident and had a positive outlook, were more likely to have a child with high self-esteem. The consequences he found were that the a child with high self-esteem were confident, sociable, better at school and more willing to try out new things, whereas the children with low self-esteem were withdrawn, did poorly at school and were less willing to try new things.

Schaffer believed that children with high self-esteem are satisfied with the way in which they perceive themselves and therefore recognise their strong points as well as being able to acknowledge their weaknesses and feel very positive about themselves. Whereas children with low self-esteem see themselves in a less favourable light and they focus more on the inadequacies they perceive themselves to have rather then any strengths that they have. This shows a gap a gap between the ideal self (who the child would like to be) and the self-image (their own perception of themselves).

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