ABSTRACT
We are not born with a fully developed sense of who and what we are. Our self-perceptions are based upon a sophisticated knowledge of self that is derived from a cumulative position about our past successes and failures and a knowledge of how others generally interact with us. This body of knowledge appears to evolve sometime during the second year of life and, once developed, results in stable self-perceptions during adulthood that are altered only gradually by developmental events, such as the transition from first-year student nurse to a qualified practitioner, or sometimes more radically, by major life events, such as childbirth, unemployment, bereavement, surgery and clinical depression.
