Childrens Understanding Reputations
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As an adult we understand reputations influence how we interact with each other in society. We gain reputations through our actions and opinions from our peers based on their beliefs, be they false or true. The question is when does a child recognize reputations and fully understand what a reputation is? A childs understanding of a reputation could include knowing the existence of, the origins of, the nature of, and the consequences of reputations. Reputations can affect a childs social adjustment with peers and their psychological state.
The conceptual understandings of social experiences necessary to learn about reputations occur during the early elementary school years. By first grade children understand that individuals may have different beliefs and those beliefs may originate through indirect experience, such as inferences and verbal communication as well as through direct experience. Beginning around first or second grade, reputations occur within childrens peer groups and become a topic of gossip. Also by second or third grade, children also understand personality traits as stable psychological characteristics that influence behavior therefore, child could begin to learn about the occurrence, origins, and effect of reputations at this age.
Before a child is aware that reputations exist they must recognize they share opinions between friends concerning an individuals person (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003; Gottman & Mettetal, 1986; Rogosch & Newcomb, 1989). By the time children are about four or five years of age their beliefs are all different, they are now in school and are experiencing their likes and dislikes among their peers. Progressing from these facts, children between the ages six to eight understand the difference, and may have different views on a persons actions and beliefs to know how one another feels.
Reputations typically concern characteristics like personality traits, abilities, or habitual patterns of behavior. Children age seven or younger do not necessarily think about traits or comprehend what they are doing, but children seven and older understand behavior and the abilities to cause reputation problems whether good or bad, especially gossip. Children experience great social influences by the time they reach preteens. They place reputations on themselves and others (e.g. Coie & Dodge, 1983; Kupersmidt, Buchele, Voegler & Sedikides 1996).
In a study of extended identity the idea that the actions of others may influence and individuals identity, (i.e., Bennett, Yuill, Banerjee and Thomson, 1998) as a first step in exploring development of reputations. We investigated at what age children recognize that there are shared opinions within a peer group and that those opinions can originate directly or indirectly. Developing an understanding of reputations, required specific social experience and cognitive abilities; first, for children to have a concept of reputation, they must have experience with reputations in their peer groups. Until reputations become apparent in the peer group, learning about them and reputations will not yet be an important aspect in childrens lives (Gifford-Smith & Brownell, 2003; Gottman & Mettetal, 1986; Rogosch & Newcomb, 1989). Thus, before children can become aware of the existence of reputations, there must be a shared opinion within childrens peer groups concerning individual peer group members, and discussion of those shared opinions. Reputations are prevalent beliefs within a peer group, to understand the existence of reputations children must have a concept of beliefs. In fact because reputations maybe false or inaccurate, to understand reputations, children must understand that individuals have different beliefs and that some beliefs differ from reality.
In as early as elementary years classmates “nominate” each other into different categories (i.e. popular, athletic, smart, average, rejected, weird, etc.) and they already begin to identify to themselves the characteristic traits each group contains. There have been studies in which the differences in which young children see reputations, though they are not grasping the whole concept. Before we begin lets first give a rough definition on what society now bases a reputation on. We see reputations as a shared opinion by a group or peers about an individual or group of individuals, and then we judge said group by our expectations or beliefs by looking at their personality traits, abilities, behavior and attitude (Berndt Heller, 1985; Yuill, 1992, 1993). Reputations are commonly based on two things: direct experience in when a person witnesses an action or trait and indirect experience in which a person listens to hearsay or gossip that may or may not be accurate. They are also created by the same common beliefs within a peer group that has given said reputations, but we see that not every individual has the same beliefs. Therefore one person may have the reputation of being a hero within one group and another group may have given them the reputation of being ignorant.
Children in their young adulthood fully grasp reputations and use them in a social means such as a “social status” of categorizing each other in groups. You would most likely hear this from your teenage daughter/son or perhaps movies where they have been labeled as jocks, populars, nerds, and so on. Yet children start doing this at a much younger age and are much less dramatic in their categorizing. We start this process in kindergarten. At the estimated age of 3-4-5 we understand that each individual has different sights, tastes, smells, dislikes and likes (Robinson, Mitchell, and Nye, 1995). While young girls may prefer the smell of flowers, boys might prefer the more pungent smell of mud. Children see the difference but do not differentiate each individual in character. As an example, a 4 year old girl might see all boys as “dirty” because her twin brother is constantly playing the mud (Hymel, 1986). Her brother might see all girls as “icky” because she is always clean and playing with dolls. They do not see that next door it is the girl who is playing in the mud and the boy who is always clean. At this age children do not see that their friends do not share the same opinion as them, and have one of their own. They see one bully therefore a child seen with that bully is now a bully as well. While they may see the difference preference at this age they do not base anything on individual characteristics or actions (Gottman & Mettetal, 1986).
At the more specific age of 3-4 children see verbal information as an unreliable source, and mostly rely upon visual experience as their source of information. Gossip to a child at this age will not have an affect of them. For example, a four old girl is being told to clean her room and