SELF-AWARENESS, SELF-ESTEEM, AND RESPECT FOR OTHERS
The Genetic Perspective (In Memoriam Jean Piaget, 1896-1980)
Keywords:
Adualism, Cooperation, Decentration, Egocentrism, Self-Awareness, Respect, Social Interaction, Stage Theory in PiagetAbstract
The image of myself, the way how I view others and how they view me, profoundly influence each other. Their interaction is an essential basis for mutual respect. I’ll investigate their genesis from the perspective of Developmental Psychology, because it gives an overview over the intellectual and emotional prerequisites for social understanding and an insight into the underlying development principles. The analysis is based on the work of Jean Piaget, a 20th century giant in Developmental Psychology. Special emphasis is given to his considerations on egocentrism and its dissolution – decentration. It will be shown how and why between birth and adulthood the images of self and others undergo profound changes. What initially was a “me” becomes a person and then a personality.
References
Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder, De la logique de l’enfant à la logique de l’adolescent, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1955, 345.
Jean Piaget, La construction du réel chez l’enfant, Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé 1937, Introduction.
Martin L. Hoffman, Empathy and Moral Development: Implication for Caring and Justice, Cambridge: University Press 2000, 64 ff.
Jean Piaget, L’équilibration des structures cognitives. Études d’épistemologie génétique XXXIII, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1975.
Jean Piaget, Intelligence and Affectivity: Their Relationship During Child Development, Palo Alto: Annual Reviews Inc., 1981, 8.
Jean Piaget, The naissance de l’intelligence chez l’enfant, Neuchâtel : delachaux et Niestlé 1936, 133; Piaget, L’équlibration, 28.
Thomas Kesselring and Ulrich Müller, ”The Concept of Egocentrism in the Context of Piaget’s Theory,” New Ideas in Psychology, 29, no. 3, 2011, 327-345, 335.
Jean Piaget, La naissance, 24, 137, 189. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phänomenologie des Geistes, Hamburg: Meiner 1962, 74.
Jean Piaget, L’épistémologie génétique, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1970, chap. I.3, first paragraph.
Piaget’s stage theory: Thomas Kesselring, "The Mind’s Staircase Revised," in The Cambridge Companion to Piaget, Ulrich Müller, Jeremy Carpendale, Leslie Smith, eds., Cambridge: University Press 2009, 371-399, 383.
Jean Piaget, Recherches sur l’abstraction réfléchissante, 2 vols., Études d’épistémologie génétique, 34 and 35, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1977.
Jean Piaget, La représentation du monde chez l’enfant, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1926, 112.
Daniel Stern, Diary of a Baby, New York: Basic Books, 1990, first chapter.
Hans-Jürgen Lang, Die ersten Lebensjahre: Psychoanalytische Entwicklungspsychologie und empirische Forschungsergebnisse, München: Profil, 1988, 114.
Michael Tomasello, Origins of Human Communication, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 2008, 74, 78, 179ff., 194f.
Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976, 12.
Jean Piaget, The naissance de l’intelligence chez l’enfant, Neuchâtel : delachaux et Niestlé 1936, observation, 122-126.
Jean Piaget, La construction du réel chez l’enfant, Neuchâtel: Delachaux et Niestlé 1937, chapter 1.5.
Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder: La psychologie de l’enfant, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1966, 4th chap. V., 116.
Piaget, L’épistémologie génétique, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France 1970, chap. I.1.
Jean Piaget, La formation du symbole chez l’enfant – Imitation, jeu et rêve, Neuchâtel : Delachaux et Niestlé 1945, observation, 107.
Paul Harris, Children and Emotion: The Development of Psychological Understanding, Oxford/New York: Basil Blackwell, 1989, 69f.
Jean Piaget, Le jugement et le raisonnement chez l’enfant, Neuchâtel, Delachaux et Niestlé 1924, 3rd chap., § 4 ; Jean Piaget and Bärbel Inhelder, La représentation de l’espace chez l’enfant, Paris : Presses Universitaires de France 1948, 14th chap., 1.
Jean Piaget, Le jugement moral chez l‘enfante, Paris: Presse universitaires de France 1932, 281, 303.
Tomasello, Warum wir kooperieren, Berlin: Suhrkamp 2010, 46; analogous 41ff..
David Hume: “the minds of men are mirrors to one another”, David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Oxford: University Press 1978, II.ii.5.
Tugendhat, Selbstbewusstsein und Selbstbestimmung, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1979, 252.
Gertrud Nunner-Winkler, "Moralisches Wissen – moralische Motivation – moralisches Handeln,“ in Kinder und Kindheit: Soziokulturelle Muster – Sozialisationstheoretische Perspektiven, M. S. Honig, H. R. Leu, and U. Nissen, eds., München, 1996, 129-156.
Judith Smetana, "Social Cognitive Domain Theory: Consistencies and Variations in Children's Moral and Social Judgments” in Handbook of Moral Development, M. Killen and J. Smetana, eds., Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006, 119–153.
Lawrence Kohlberg, “Moral and Moralization: The CognitiveDevelopmental Approach”, in L. Kohlberg, Essay on Moral Development. Vol. II: The Psychology of Moral Development, San Francisco: Harper & Row 1984, 170-205, stage 3 in Table I.
Jerome Kagan, The Nature of the Child, New York: Basic Books, 1984, 196.
Bärbel Inhelder and Jean Piaget, The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence, London: Routledge 1958 [orig. 1955], 340.
Lawrence Kohlberg, The Meaning and Measurement of Moral Development, Worcester, Mass.: Clark University Press 1979.
Thomas Kesselring, “Dialogue and Ethics: Can the Study of Dialogue Teach us Something about Ethics?” Journal of Dharma 42.3, 2017, 311-334.
Joseph Chacko Chennattuserry, "Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara: A Christian Humanist in Dialogue with Society," Journal of Dharma, 42.4, 457-474.
Jean Piaget, "Éducation internationale, une introduction psychologique,“ in Jean Piaget, De la pédagogie, Paris : Odile Jacob, 1998, 104-117, 114.
Jean Piaget and Anne-Marie Weil, “Le développement, chez l’enfant, de l’idée de patrie et des relations avec l’étranger,“ in Jean Piaget, Études sociologiques, 3rd extended edition, Geneva: Droz 1977, 283-306, 284.
Jean-Claude Bringuier, Conversations libres avec Jean Piaget, Paris: Robert Laffont 1977, 91f., 196.
