Theory of mind concepts in children's literature

Abstract

This study examined whether books that are typically read to preschool children contain theory of mind concepts. The parents of 47 preschool children recorded books read by or to their child over a one-week period. The books were analyzed for theory of mind content. It was found that 78% of the books contained internal state language, 34% contained false beliefs, and 43% contained personality descriptors. Thus, theory of mind concepts appear to be an integral part of the literature read to preschool children. These results are discussed in light of recent work on individual differences in theory of mind development. Bruner (1990) argued that people use narrative as the basic form of human meaning-making and understanding; that is, people use narratives to explain or make sense of the actions of those around them. Bruner claimed that, in these narratives, people make sense of events by appealing to the subjective states of the participants, such as their hopes, desires, beliefs, feelings, etc. In other words, people use a folk psychology or theory of mind in a narrative form to understand others. Furthermore, Bruner proposed that "while we have an 'innate' and primitive predisposition to narrative organization . . . the culture soon equips us with new powers of narration through its tool kit and through the traditions of telling and interpreting in which we soon come to participate" (Bruner, 1990, p. 80).If the narrative form is basic to human meaning-making and if mental state ascription is essentially a part of that, we might expect that the narratives a culture provides its children would be richly endowed in culturally relevant instances that feature mental and emotional referents and explanations. One major source of these narratives for children is children's literature. Narratives read to children may provide important "training" for children in the task of understanding others' behaviors through the ascription of mental states. Therefore, it seems important to investigate systematically the nature of the narratives

Emotional Cognition: Theory of Mind and Face Recognition

“…Through behaviour of social referencing and socio-cognitive development, the child acquires an understanding of emotions (causes and consequences), ToM emotions, and also a knowledge of social rules that allows him or her to determinate which emotion is to express when, towards who and in which circumstance. Social abilities in children are linked with their skills to express, to recognize emotions and to understand others' emotions and intentions (Cassidy et al, 1998;Denham et al, 2003;Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, & Brown, 1986;Fabes et al, 1999). In addition, depending on contexts or situations of interaction, emotional regulation in preschoolers could potentially vary in order to adequately adjust their emotions.…”

Histórias infantis: um recurso para a compreensão dos estados mentais

“…Cassidy et al (1998) identificaram a presença de crença falsa em 34% dos livros analisados, resultado que pode ser corroborado com os do presente estudo, embora a presença de crença falsa nos livros nacionais tenha sido evidenciada com menor freqüência. Esses autores discutem a maior freqüência de referências a estados internos em comparação à ocorrência de crença falsa justificando a possibilidade de ser mais fácil organizar uma narrativa sem crença falsa do que sem referências a estados mentais.…”

“…Estudos internacionais (e.g., Cassidy et al, 1998;Dyer, Shatz, & Wellman, 2000;Ruther, 1997, citado por Dyer, Shatz, & Wellman, 2000 demonstram que os livros de histórias para crianças pequenas, pelo conteúdo do material textual que apresentam, pelo tipo de linguagem que utilizam e por centrarem suas ações e interações em pessoas ou animais personificados, constituem fonte relevante de informações sobre estados internos, podendo ampliar as habilidades infantis no domínio da compreensão das intenções, desejos, crenças, emoções, conhecimento de si próprio e dos outros (Rodrigues, 2004).…”

“…Cassidy et al (1998) analisaram conceitos relativos ao conteúdo da teoria da mente em uma ampla amostra de 371 livros infantis. Os resultados encontrados indicaram que 78% dos livros continham linguagem voltada para os estados internos, 34% continham crenças falsas, e 43% continham descritores de personalidade permitindo concluir que conceitos da teoria da mente são parte integrante da literatura lida para a criança pré-escolar.…”

Cognitive Literary Studies: Current Themes and New Directions

“…Children of age one distinguish biological and inanimate objects, and attribute mental states to others, but they attribute the same mental state as their own, hence cannot predict, and are constantly surprised and frustrated by the inexplicable actions of others. The developmental sequence from the perception of certain patterns of movement in terms of physical causation by the age of one and the perception of behavioral interaction in terms of intention between the ages of two and five appears to be "culturally invariant and relatively independent of the level of intelligence, with little individual variation and a strikingly narrow time window" (Fletcher et al 1995, 110;Cassidy et al 1998). …”