Others' actions can reflect on the self: a developmental study of extended identity

This study was an investigation of children's understanding that others' judgments of the self can be based on the actions of another person with whom one is associated. Five-, 8-, and 11-year-old children in Scotland were presented with hypothetical scenarios that indicated that they were responsible for a toddler who breached normative expectations of behavior. The children were required to make a variety of judgments, most notably concerning their likely emotion and its causes, and what others would think of them. The majority recognized that others would make negative judgments of the self. However, emotional self-attributions indicated that only among the 11-year-olds was there a widespread tendency to be self-punitive-that is, to attribute reflexive emotions such as embarrassment. Particularly among the 5-year-olds, punitive responses (e.g., anger) were directed only at the norm-violating toddler, implying that, unlike the oldest children, they did not view the toddler as constituting part of their extended identity. Eight-year-olds appeared to represent an intermediate step between the younger and older groups. In the light of these findings it is suggested that a mature form of extended identity may be a relatively late development.