Sections
Emergence of Objective Self-Awareness | Continued Development of Conceptual Thinking
Excerpt
At age 18 months, due to maturation of cognitive capacities, toddlers
rather suddenly become able to be objective and to observe themselves
as separate people in a world of others. At this point, the child's objective
self is born (i.e., a self-representation is constructed),
and with it appears a beginning understanding of the concepts I,
you, and we. This
objective self-awareness is in contrast to the infant's
(before 18 months) subjective, or entirely self-absorbed, self-awareness
(Stechler 1982).