568 vI. SELF‑ AND S OCIAL P ROCESSES
clearly communicate what they are thinking 
and feeling. Instead, researchers must infer 
the presence of a self from three forms of 
evidence (Hart & Karmel, 1996): linguistic 
markers, cognitive-  behavioral markers, and 
emotional markers.
Linguistic markers  include self-  referencing 
(e.g., use of personal pronouns such as “my 
toy”) and similarly for narrative language 
use (e.g., reference to events of personal sig -
nificance that happened in the past, “I was 
happy when I got the toy”). These behaviors 
signify an emerging sense of self and typi -
cally begin around 18–24 months.
Cognitive-  behavioral markers  include 
mirror self-  recognition, imitation, and role 
taking. Mirror self-  recognition is often as -
sessed in young children with the “Rouge 
Test,” in which a spot of rouge is covertly 
placed on a child’s nose while he or she is 
playing. The child is then placed in front of 
a mirror, and his or her behavior is recorded. 
Starting at around age 2, children respond to 
their reflected image by pointing to the spot 
of rouge on their nose (instead of pointing 
to the mirror). This behavior suggests that 
the “I” in the child’s mind can recognize 
the “Me” in the mirror, and understand, at 
some level, the distinction between the two. 
Interestingly, Priel and de Schonen (1986) 
found that Bedouin children without previ -
ous exposure to mirrors showed mirror self- 
recognition at the same age as children ha -
bitually exposed to mirrors, suggesting that 
it is more than simply a learned response.
Emotional markers  include empathy and 
self- conscious emotions. Children exhibit 
empathy as early as 18 months, display -
ing helping behaviors in the absence of an 
explicit reward (Warneken & Tomasello, 
2006). Soon after, children begin to exhib -
it self-  conscious emotions such as shame, 
pride, guilt, and embarrassment, all of which 
require a sense of self. Pride, for example, 
occurs when individuals construe a positive 
outcome as relevant to their personal goals 
and aspirations (i.e., relevant to their iden -
tity) and as caused by their own actions or 
attributes (Robins & Schriber, 2009; Tracy 
& Robins, 2004, 2014; Tracy & Weidman, 
Chapter 23, this volume). Thus, to feel a sense 
of pride (or, conversely, shame), a child must 
have stable self-  representations that include 
knowledge of his or her goals and identity concerns, and the capacity to make internal 
attributions (e.g., to understand that “some -
thing about me or my actions caused that to 
happen”). These capacities seem to emerge 
around age 2 or 3 (Lagattuta & Thompson, 
2007; Stipek, Recchia, & McClintic, 1992). 
For example, 3-year-olds express pride after 
success on a difficult (but not an easy) task 
and shame after failing to complete an easy 
(but not a difficult) task (Lewis, Alessandri, 
& Sullivan, 1992).
Together, these three forms of evidence— 
linguistic, cognitive-  behavioral, and emo -
tional markers—  suggest that there is a time -
table for the emergence of self-  awareness, 
beginning around 18 months and continu -
ing through early childhood.
Development of the Self‑Concept (the “Me”)
The emergence of self-  awareness sets the 
stage for the development of the self-  concept, 
as the “I” gazes at the “Me” and begins to 
form stable representations of the self. Just 
like the development of self-  awareness, our 
self- representations become increasingly 
complex over time. By the age of 3, children 
can describe who they are using concrete de -
scriptors. These descriptors include beliefs 
about their physical appearance, interests, 
and abilities (e.g., “I am a boy”; “I am good 
at soccer”). Although these self-  descriptive 
statements provide clear evidence of a psy -
chological self-  concept, each representa -
tion is made in isolation of the others, with 
no coherence or organization to the self- 
concept. These self-  descriptions also tend to 
be positively biased, because young children 
have difficulty distinguishing between their 
actual and desired ability.
Improvements in episodic memory during 
early and middle childhood contribute to 
changes in self-  concept structure and con -
tent between ages 3 and 8 years (Coughlin, 
Robins, & Ghetti, 2019; Lee, Wendelken, 
Bunge, & Ghetti, 2016). As episodic mem -
ory improves, so does the child’s ability 
to form autobiographical memories (e.g., 
“I ran fast and won a medal at the race”) 
that can be incorporated into his or her 
self- concept. In addition, reminiscing about 
these memories helps the child develop a 
sense of self that is extended in time. For 
example, discussing a past experience with 