Development of the Character Constancy Concept: Self and Others

아동의 항상성개념 발달에 관한 연구 - 자신 및 타인의 개인특성을 중심으로 -

The purpose of the present research was to investigate (I) the acquisition of character constancy of self and others as a function of age; (2) the pattern of acquisition of character constancy, and (3) the relationships between character constancy and conservation of number and mass. The subjects of this study were 160 children, 20 boys and 20 girls at each grade level, kindergarter through grade 3. The Character Constancy Tasks devised bi Rotenberg (1982) and conservation task of number and mass were administered to each child. Chi square, Guttman Scale analysis and Pearson's Correlation were used for the statistical analysis of data. The findings showed that there was increase with age in character constancy of others and of sell in that there was increase with age in children's belief that the characteristics of another person are stable across time and consistent despite changes in a person's appearance. Character constancy of others and of self were acquired in the developmental stages of identity, stability, and consistency. Character constancy of others and self correlated with the conservation of number and mass.