By 18 months, remarkable emotional competence emerges.
Toddlers begin to exhibit what scholars call “self–conscious emotions,” emotions associated with awareness of a “self” that is judged by others (e.g., guilt, shame, and embarrassment).
For example, in one experiment, researchers asked mothers to place rouge on the nose of their toddlers and place them in front of a mirror.
Toddlers younger than 18 months seemed to have no emotional response.
However, by about 18 months, the toddlers became upset when looking at themselves in the mirror.
Although they didn’t know the word, they were experiencing embarrassment.
By 18 months, children are also beginning to develop the ability to feel empathy for the emotional states of others.
This level of development is evident when a 2–year–old offers a hug to another child who is crying, as if to say, “I feel better when mom hugs me so I will hug you.”