Categorical Self
Over the weekend I was riding in the car with my niece and nephew. My niece is 4 months old and my nephew is 3 years old. My mother was sitting next to my niece and nephew and talking to both of them. While carrying on a conversation with my nephew about his baby sister, my mother asked him “isn’t she pretty”? My nephew replied, “she is a girl” and “she is a baby”. As I sat in the back seat observing this conversation I thought this was funny because he described her with a physical characteristic of her sex and age instead of something such as being pretty. He was describing her with a category. After this he decided to start describing himself as a boy and as 3. I knew that we had discussed this type of description of self in class and it was interesting to watch my nephew do this. I am sure he refers to himself in categories; I just never paid close attention before.
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