blog




  • Essay / The Role of Age in Children's Theory of Mind

    There are many aspects that go into a child's development into true adults. Around the age of four or five, important socio-cognitive behavior occurs that allows the child to no longer think egocentrically but to think from the point of view of others. They are then able to decipher different emotions, understand the beliefs of others, and know what someone other than themselves may be feeling using environmental context cues known as theory of mind. . This is very crucial for development, as social skills practiced from a young child will help the child establish reliable connections with those around them. Being able to understand needs, feelings, wants and ways of thinking is very instrumental in how that child will mature in life. The play that young children engage in daily will help them read situations involving others they play with by communicating and receiving feedback about others' thoughts and feelings. Overall, children of a certain age, usually under the age of four, will be presented with a false belief task. This task is defined when a child does not understand that his reality differs from that of others around him. Additionally, the false belief task is a frequently used methodology for examining theory of mind. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In an article on theory of mind, it is defined as the ability to impute mental states to oneself and others. The ability to make inferences about what others think is the case in a given situation allows one to predict what they will do (Leekam). Thus, we studied the paradigm that can be used with very young children, based on the case where the child's own belief is different from that of someone else. (Baron-Cohen). Analyzing these theories and tasks allows researchers to understand why children do what they do and, furthermore, can help understand why people are the way they are. The most famous empirical finding... three-year-olds tend to fail in a certain false belief task while four-year-olds tend to succeed in the task which will be explained in more depth later in this article. There have been experiments that show if and when a child acquires the ability not to think selfishly and to take into account the point of view of those around him. Digging deeper, it is suggested that girls will more quickly develop their theory of mind and respond correctly when presented with a false belief task. It has been found that girls orient towards the faces of others earlier than boys. Such selective attention, which directs women toward increased social connections with a view to preparing them for later gender roles, may also serve to promote increased perspective-taking. Overall, children who are older and more experienced in practicing social interactions will understand those around them better and demonstrate greater understanding. more theory of mind examples. Those who are younger will continue to think selfishly and will not see the point of view of others. Additionally, those who are girls will have more playful practice understanding other people's thoughts, because girls are more social, leading them to see other people's points of view more quickly. Finally, by bringing together all the information collected, if a child is a girl and is older (over 4 years old),. (1987)., 125-137.