Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

4-25-2025

Keywords

infant, mirror test, self-awareness, self-concept, self-recognition

Disciplines

Child Psychology | Developmental Psychology | Experimental Analysis of Behavior | Theory and Philosophy

Abstract

Our understanding of self, or belief in one’s being as distinct from others, has been a subject of inquiry throughout human history. Discussions of self-concept would not appear in the empirical literature, however, until the mid-19th century. After likening an orangutan’s response to teasing as that of a “naughty child”, Charles Darwin began to question orangutans’ selfconcept by observing reactions to their own mirror images. Darwin’s use of the mirror to gauge self-awareness, a method eventually applied to his own infant son (Darwin, 1877), would remain the most frequently used assessment of self-concept for the next century.

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