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Lecture notes Developmental Psychology
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Does children’s developing of other people’s minds emerge gradually over many years?The question of whether children gradually develop the minds of others over many years is
one of major interest in the field of developmental psychology. This essay will examine
different perspectives on the theory of mind. This refers to understanding the differences
and similarities between a child's own thoughts and the thoughts of others. Having a theory
of mind allows us to engage in everyday social interactions through helping us understand
that others have unique beliefs and desires that are different from our own (Premack &
Woodruff, 1978). It has also sparked much debate among theorists as to whether children
develop the minds of others gradually over many years. Empirical theorists suggest that the
theory of mind exists at an early stage of development and that social and environmental
influences may help it gradually mature during childhood. In contrast, Nativists claim that
‘children are born with substantial knowledge of evolutionarily important domains’ (Spelke
& Kinzler, 2007). They also argue that theory of mind development undergoes a rapid
conceptual shift around the age of four. Nevertheless, most research is consistent with the
empiricist view that children’s development of other people’s minds occurs gradually over
many years, instead of being stage-like.
An experiment conducted by Perner, Leekam and Wimmer (1987) is consistent with the
possibility that children’s developing of other people’s mind is stage-like. They did this by
presenting the children with the problem of false beliefs that others believe that what the
child knows is true. The question was whether the child thought that others would act
according to their false beliefs or whether they would act according to the child's correct
understanding of the situation. They did this through developing a new test known as the
‘deceptive box task’. Infants were shown a box that had a picture of a type of chocolate-
‘Smarties’. The experimenters then asked the infants what they thought was inside the box.
As you would assume, they said ‘Smarties’. Next, the experimenter opened the box showing
that it contained pencils. Most 5-year-olds laughed or smiled, admitting their surprise. When
they were asked what another child would say if put in the same position as them, they said
that the child would answer ‘Smarties’. However, this was not the case for many three-year-
olds as most of them claimed that they always knew what was inside the box. They also
predicted that if another child was shown the box, that child would also believe that the box
Word count: 1498
, contained pencils. Thus, the results show that children over the age of 5 have acquired a
basic understanding of the mind. They can then predict behaviour based on their
assessment of that person's beliefs. However, a three-year-old has a hard time
understanding that others are acting on their beliefs, even if those beliefs are different from
what the child already knows. Additionally, this finding is substantiated by a review of 178
studies of children’s understanding of false beliefs which presented similar results with
different forms of the problem, different questions, and different societies (Wellman, Cross,
& Watson, 2001). This allows researchers to generalise their results amongst the population,
increasing its population validity and making the study representative. This is further
supported by another cross-cultural study where children in Canada, India, Peru, Thailand,
and Samoa were presented with false belief problems. The results revealed that children’s
accuracy in all societies aged between 3 and 5, greatly improved. Accuracy increased from
14% correct for 3 years old to 85% correct for 5 years old. No country had more than 25%
correct answers for 3-year-olds, and no country had less than 73% correct answers for 5-
year-olds (Callaghan et al., 2005). Consequently, implying that a new concept of belief is
acquired at around the age of 4, which is consistent with the view that children’s developing
of other people’s minds is stage-like and does not gradually emerge over many years.
There is, however, compelling evidence to suggest that there is more to a child’s theory of
mind than passing the false belief task. Some researchers believe that the task is too hard
for 1-and 2-year-olds, as they ‘lack sufficient attentional and linguistic resources to cope
with the experiment’ (Baron-Cohen et al, 1985). Therefore, numerous investigators have
modified the false belief task. For instance, investigators made the questions simpler
(Gopnik & Astington, 1988), gave children a memory aid (German & Leslie, 2000) and so on.
As a result of these studies, they revealed that such altered false belief tasks were
frequently passed by 3-year-olds. Therefore, this acknowledges the claim that children
under the age of 4 have complex conceptual abilities to understand that beliefs may be
false, but that this ability is distorted by inefficient processing power. This highlights the fact
that there are probably no drastic conceptual changes around the age of four, and the
development of the minds of others in children is gradual over many years.
Word count: 1498
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