Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 62, Issue -, Pages 50-57Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2015.09.015
Keywords
Self-esteem; Gender attitudes; In-group attitudes; Gender identity; Balanced identity; Preschool children; Implicit measures; Implicit association test
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [SMA-0835854]
- Ready Mind Project
- Implicit Cognition Research Fund
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Self-esteem is one of social psychology's central constructs. Despite the wide endorsement of the importance of self-esteem, there remains substantial variation in theoretical conceptions of how self-esteem functions. To help address this point, 234 5-year-old children were tested in 3 studies that used a new implicit measure, the Preschool Implicit Association Test (PSIAT). The PSIAT assessed associations of (a) me with good (self-esteem), (b) me with boy or girl (gender identity), and (c) boy or girl with good (gender attitude). The results documented self-esteem in 5-year-olds, as well as own-gender identity and gender in-group preferences. Interestingly, children who had high self-esteem and strong own-gender identity displayed strong gender in-group preferences, supporting balanced identity theory's theoretical expectations that implicit self-esteem serves an identity-maintenance function, even for young children. By preschool age, children display fundamental properties of adult implicit social cognition that relate to maintenance and functioning of group identities. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc All rights reserved.
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