Chapter Two
2.5 The self in context in middle childhood
Given that in Gardner’s theory experience of school is crucial in the development of musical abilities, alongside other ‘intelligences’, appealing to his ideas could be regarded as one way of resolving tensions about teaching music to all pupils. An alternative view would be to rely on the notion that teaching music could change children’s conception of self. In claiming that music education is beneficial for self-concepts, Brandt (1980) and Martin (1983) assumed that differences in accomplishment do not prevent music education from encouraging positive views of the self.
However, such claims are problematic since there are age-graded changes in the way children conceive of themselves in middle childhood.
During middle childhood, self-concepts become differentiated, mainly because children’s abilities change at different rates in different areas of achievement. Changes within children, whether in musical or other kinds of abilities, arise from person-context relations with their social environments. Accounts of such changes divide social contexts into the immediate networks of contacts, or more proximal influences and wider or more distal influences, such as kind o f institution and widespread cultural assumptions. Harter (1988: 61) claimed that:
th e ability to observe, evaluate and criticise the self must develop through a series of stages that begin with an awareness that others are evaluating the self and with the ability to compare oneself to one’s social reference group’.
Harter (1999) regarded middle childhood as the time when a further stage in the self-concept develops. Much younger children are able to observe others but unable to recognise that those in their immediate network of contacts may be observing them in the same way. At a second stage of progression, children are able to understand that others are evaluating and observing them and, with this realisation, come to rely on the judgm ents of others as validation of the self rather than making direct appraisals o f themselves. At a third stage, around eight years of age, observations of others become internalised or incorporated into self
perceptions and children begin to compare themselves to each other, simultaneously observing others and themselves.
The importance of the middle childhood age range in Harter’s theory is, then, that within this age range, new abilities, including musical abilities, are paralleled by children’s attempts at self-definition. Components of the self concept, such as beliefs about one’s abilities, are reflections not only of what one can do but also internalisations of feedback from significant others in the immediate network o f contacts. References to athletic ability and physical appearance also appear, although, more importantly 'children often indicate the process through which they arrive at such a generalization' (Harter 1988: 49), that is to say, attributions start to be made. Harter (1988) used the example of ‘smartness’, which is inferred from past performance. ‘Self-attributes become logically organized, integrated within domains which are differentiated from each other’ and such attributes are found to be stable over time. Although stable, Harter
(1982, 1985, 1988, 1999) has always insisted upon the self-concept having multiple dimensions, allowing individuals to evaluate the self differently within different domains of their lives. This also involves a notion of ‘global self worth’ - how happy children feel about their ways of doing things and the kinds of people they are becoming. This may or may not accompany positive or negative self-evaluations in other domains, such as athletic prowess or behaviour.
Differentiation of the self-concept in middle childhood means that more than one dimension underlying the construct has to be assessed after any length of time in a primary school. Harter’s research concerns five domains for middle childhood - physical appearance, athletic prowess, how well one does in studies (scholastic self-concept), how well one behaves and how well one relates to peers. Longitudinal studies of middle childhood, such as that of Cole, Maxwell, Martin, Peeke, Seroczynski, Tram, Hoffman, Ruiz, Jacquez and Maschman, (2001) confirm the importance of considering multiple domains, as well as Harter’s assumptions about age-graded changes. Between Grades 3 and 6 (7-8 and 10-11 years old), age-graded changes tend to be in the direction of more positive self-evaluations for scholastic domains, peer relations and athletic prowess. Cole et al. explain these changes by assuming strong influences from the immediate network of peer contacts.
The changes reflect social processes, such as selective social comparison and strategic association with others whose successes yield vicarious benefits. In the domains of physical appearance and
behavioural conduct, very different patterns emerge. Self perceived physical attractiveness declines for females but not for males. For both girls and boys, perceptions of their conduct decline and to a lower level for boys. Cole et al. (2001) attributed such changes to the more distal social context. As primary school children approach the transition to secondary school, punishment for misbehaviour tends to outpace reward for good behaviour. Gender difference in perceived physical attractiveness is attributed to the widest or most distal social context - cultural expectations about fem ale beauty. Such explanations of changes in conceptions of the self are consistent with Lemer’s (1991) advocacy of a developmental contextual perspective.