Conflicting goals in self-evaluative information seeking: developmental and ability level analyses

• Published in: Child development Vol. 59; no. 1; pp. 97 - 106
• Main Authors: Ruble, D.N, Flett, G.L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA University of Chicago Press 01.02.1988; Blackwell; University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: 4-H Youth Development Program; age differences; Aptitude; Arithmetic; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Development; Children; Children & youth; competence assessment; conflict; Developmental psychology; elementary education; elementary school children; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Information search and retrieval; Interpersonal Relations; Male; Mastery motivation; mathematics and statistics; Motivation research; objectives; Observational research; Peer Group; Psychology & psychologists; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; school children; Self Concept; self evaluation; Self perception; social cognition; Social comparison; Social Perception; Social psychology; Toys; youth development; Ontario; Human; Preschool age; Intellectual development; Intellectual level; Information retrieval; Strategy; Self perception; Child; Arithmetic
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.2307/1130392

Developmental changes in the resolution of conflicting goals involved in self-evaluation were examined in children entering second, fourth, and sixth grades representing high, medium, and low ability levels in arithmetic. Children completed a series of arithmetic tasks and were given an opportunity to evaluate themselves in terms of social comparison or autonomous comparison. As expected, overall, high-ability children engaged in the most self-evaluative information seeking, whereas low-ability children engaged in the least information seeking. Moreover, with increasing age, high-ability children were more likely to engage in autonomous comparison, whereas low- and medium-ability children maintained an interest in social comparison. In addition, greater interest in social comparison, particularly among older children, was associated with relative uncertainty about one's own ability but perceptions of ability as constant in others. The results are discussed in terms of strategies for balancing self-assessment with self-enhancement needs and the impact of such strategies for task mastery.