title: Cultural differences in self-recognition: the early development of autonomous and related selves?
abstract: Fifteen- to 18-month-old infants from three nationalities were observed interacting with their mothers and during two self-recognition tasks. Scottish interactions were characterized by distal contact, Zambian interactions by proximal contact, and Turkish interactions by a mixture of contact strategies. These culturally distinct experiences may scaffold different perspectives on self. In support, Scottish infants performed best in a task requiring recognition of the self in an individualistic context (mirror self-recognition), whereas Zambian infants performed best in a task requiring recognition of the self in a less individualistic context (body-as-obstacle task). Turkish infants performed similarly to Zambian infants on the body-as-obstacle task, but outperformed Zambians on the mirror self-recognition task. Verbal contact (a distal strategy) was positively related to mirror self-recognition and negatively related to passing the body-as-obstacle task. Directive action and speech (proximal strategies) were negatively related to mirror self-recognition. Self-awareness performance was best predicted by cultural context; autonomous settings predicted success in mirror self-recognition, and related settings predicted success in the body-as-obstacle task. These novel data substantiate the idea that cultural factors may play a role in the early expression of self-awareness. More broadly, the results highlight the importance of moving beyond the mark test, and designing culturally sensitive tests of self-awareness.
authors.affiliation: Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland.
authors.forename: Josephine
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Chester, UK.
authors.forename: Mandy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
authors.affiliation: Wolf Science Centre, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dale
authors.affiliation: Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland.
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cassidy
authors.affiliation: Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland.
authors.forename: Iraz
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yildirim
authors.affiliation: Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzanne Zeedyk
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012606:Scotland; D012649:Self Concept; D014421:Turkey; D015030:Zimbabwe