Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Questions regarding the origins and nature of self-knowledge are arguably the most fundamental in psychology. What is knowledge about oneself made of and where does it come from? The aim of this chapter is to discuss recent progress in infancy research that sheds a new light on these questions. The issue of whether self-knowledge finds its root in language development is first considered. On the basis of recent empirical evidence, I will then assert that self-knowledge does not depend exclusively on language development. Infancy research demonstrates that self-knowledge is expressed at an implicit level long before children become symbolic and competent talkers. The main idea running through the chapter is that at the origin of explicit and conceptual self-knowledge (i.e., self-concept) is an implicit knowledge about the self developing in the preverbal child. My focus is on the nature of early implicit self-knowledge and its link to later emerging explicit self-knowledge. In general, I will try to show that infants from birth, and particularly from 2 months of age, develop two types of implicit self-knowledge. On one hand, infants develop implicit knowledge about their own body via self-exploration and self-produced action on objects. On the other, they develop specific knowledge about their own affective dispositions via interaction and reciprocation with others. The origins ... log in or subscribe to read full text