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Three developmental levels in the acquisition of anatomical constancy were identified in a group of children between 2 and 5 years of age on the basis of (a) a reproducible Guttman scale (the Anatomical Constancy Scale) of answers to sets of questions and (b) performance on specific tasks. The three levels that represent operationalized dimensions of the concept of anatomical constancy entail (a) the integration of part images of the body into a whole body image, (b) the establishment of a cohesive and inviolable body image, and (c) the capacity to retain a sense of the body's continuity over time. Transitions from one level to the next reflect advances in the formation of psychic structure.
The results of this study indicate that the body image undergoes systematic changes as it develops into a constant, cohesive and inviolable whole. As children get older or acquire specific cognitive capacities, their body images become increasingly stable, cohesive, and continuous.
Recent years have witnessed an outpouring of psychoanalytic and cognitive development literature on the evolution of a cohesive body image and sense of self. Cognitive developmental theorists have suggested that the development of a constant and cohesive body image is sequential in nature and occurs as a function of cognitive development. Specifically, Kohlberg (1966) claimed that it is the presence of concepts of conservation, an achievement of the concrete operational stage, that enables the child to recognize those aspects of the body that remain invariant and continuous in spite of alterations in its configuration (e.g., size). Still, however, the evidence for this position is only indirect and inferential, and the developmental sequence in the acquisition