A sense of self develops in young children by degrees. The process can usefully be thought of in terms of the gradual emergence

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问题     A sense of self develops in young children by degrees. The process can usefully be thought of in terms of the gradual emergence of two somewhat separate features: the self as a subject, and the self as an object. William James introduced the distinction in 1892, and contemporaries of his, such as Charles Cooley, added to the developing debate. Ever since then psychologists have continued building on the theory.
    According to James, a child’ s first step on the road to self-understanding can be seen as the recognition that he or she exists. This is an aspect of the self that he labelled "self-as-subject", and he gave it various elements. These included an awareness of one’s own agency(i.e. one’ s power to act), and an awareness of one’ s distinctiveness from other people. These features gradually emerge as infants explore their world and interact with caregivers. Cooley(1902)suggested that a sense of the self-as-subject was primarily concerned with being able to exercise power. He proposed that the earliest examples of this are an infant’s attempts to control physical objects, such as toys or his own limbs. This is followed by attempts to affect the behaviour of other people. For example, infants learn that when they cry or smile, someone responds to them.
    Once children have acquired a certain level of self-awareness, they begin to place themselves in whole series of categories, which together play such an important part in defining them uniquely as "themselves". This second step in the development of a full sense of self is what James called the "Self-as-object". This has been seen by many to be the aspect of the self which is most influenced by social elements, since it is made up of social roles(such as student, brother, colleague)and characteristics which derive their meaning from comparison or interaction with other people(such as trustworthiness, shyness, sporting ability).
    Cooley and other researchers suggested a close connection between a person’s own understanding of their identity and other people’s understanding of it. Cooley believed that people build up their sense of identity from the reactions of others to them, and from the view they believe others have of them. He called the self-as-object the "looking-glass self, since people come to see themselves as they are reflected in others. Mead(1934)went even further, and saw the self and the social world as inextricably bound together: "The self is essentially a social structure, and it arises in social experience ... it is impossible to conceive of a self arising outside of social experience."
    Finally, perhaps the most graphic expressions of self-awareness in general can be seen in the displays of rage which are most common from 18 months to 3 years of age. In a longitudinal study of groups of three or four children, Bronson(1975)found that the intensity of the frustration and anger in their disagreements increased sharply between the ages of 1 and 2 years. Often, the children’ s disagreements involved a struggle over a toy that none of them had played with before or after the tug-of-war: the children seemed to be disputing ownership rather than wanting to play with it. Although it may be less marked in other societies, the link between the sense of "self and of "ownership" is a notable feature of childhood in Western societies.
Why do infants try to gain the possession of physical objects?

选项 A、Physical objects, such as toys are attractive to infants.
B、The control of physical objects is a signal for the powerful manipulation, reflecting infants’ sense of self as a subject.
C、Infants have no awareness of any physical objects.
D、It is a signal that infants are aware of the sense of self as an object.

答案B

解析 推断题。根据关键词“physical objects”定位于第二段,“Cooley suggestedthat a sense of the self-as—subject was primarily concerned with being able to exercise power.He proposed that earliest examples of this are an infant’s attempts to controlphysical objects.”意思是,Cooley认为主体自我的意识主要与行使权力有关。他提出,最早的例子是婴儿试图控制实物。由此可知,选项B“控制实物是权力控制的表现”,反应了婴儿的自我主体意识,是正确答案。
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