Childhood

I entered the concrete operational stage at around age 7, when I learned about conservation*. In this stage, I became less egocentric. As a result, my theory of mind developed, and I became and more empathetic.

While as a child I had a rather terrible temperament, in the concrete operational stage I became much more mellow. This meant my parents left me to my own devices more often, which made me more independent.

I used this new understanding of conservation to get out of eating all my dinner. I discovered that if I spread my food around my plate, it would appear as if I had eaten more than I actually had. Of course, my parents caught on, and punished me. I had to finish my dinner after that because I had preconventional morality, which made me obey because of a fear of punishment. Later, I obeyed because I wanted the reward of eating dessert.