Understanding the Way Our Mind Works in the Theory of Mind

1534 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theory of mind mechanism

The study of children’s theory of mind has grown tremendously attractive to many developmental psychologists in the past few decades. The reason for this being because having a theory of mind is one of the quintessential skills that define us as being human and because having this ability plays a major role in our social functioning. To have a theory of mind is to be able to reflect on the categorical contents of one’s own mind, such as dreams, memories, imaginations, and beliefs, which all provide a basic foundation to understand how someone else may think and why they may behave in the manner that they do (Bjorklund, p.199). It is the development of one’s concepts of mental activity; their ability to understand that they think things that others do not and that their thoughts are theirs alone, as well as understanding that other peoples’ minds work in the same way, in which they too, have their own individual thoughts. Our theory of mind grants us ability to navigate our personal and social world by explaining past behavior, and anticipating and predicting future actions (Moore & Frye, 1991).
The skills typically required to development a theory of mind are minimal. It is important that a child first acquires the ability to view oneself and others as intentional agents, or individuals who cause things to happen to reach a desired goal, so that they can then be able to take the perspective of others and understand what their intentions are (Bjorklund, p.200). Now, although infants are not born with these abilities, they do develop them over time. How children come to appreciate that other people have beliefs and desires, often different from their own, that motivate their behavior, is assessed through what is known as the false-b...

... middle of paper ...

... know to be true. It is at this age that a child develops the ability to make a split between peoples minds and the world, and can think about people’s minds and manipulate the world around it so they can come to believe certain things about it. Children younger than the age of four have a hard time understanding that they themselves, as well as other people, act in order to achieve some type of goal, which makes it hard for them to take the perspectives of others. My hypothesis about a theory of mind not beginning to develop in children until about four or five years of age was correct and was supported by the false-belief tests that I performed on three different children as well as evidence found by Charlie Lewis and Amanda Osborne, and Heinz Wimmer and Josef Perner (1983) in their study’s with the false-belief task and children’s acquisition of a theory of mind.

Show More
Related

  • In The Magic Of The Mind Summary

    75 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the magic of the mind author Dr. Elizabeth loftus explains how a witness’s perception of an accident or crime is not always correct because people's memories are often imperfect. “Are we aware of our minds distortions of our past experiences? In most cases, the answer is no.” our minds can change the way we remember what we have seen or heard without realizing it uncertain witnesses “often identify the person who best matches recollection

    Read More

  • Brain And Mind Essay

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    The relation between brain and mind is disputed over a long time. The debate is whether mind and brain are separate entities or not and if the mind is a separate entity, then how are mental properties, functions and consciousness in relation with the brain, being things which are non-physical. Consciousness helps to understand the relation between the brain and mind, by contemplating the reason or the source of it, if it’s a manifestation of the mind or just a by-product of brain activity. The existence of mind and mental states can be explained through a more philosophical perspective rather than a scientific one. The core of science is philosophy based on empirical evidence, mind being metaphysical cannot be studied empirically.

    Read More

  • Jean Piaget's Development

    1790 Words  | 4 Pages

    Piaget is most commonly recognised for his work in forming a theory explaining how children’s thinking evolves to become more complex with age (Passer & Smith, 2012). For more than fifty years, Piaget researched the area of child thought processes, proposing a step-wise sequence of child mental development involving four distinct stages (Passer & Smith, 2012, p. 422). According to Passer and Smith (2012), a core belief of Piaget’s was that “cognitive development results from an interaction of the brain’s biological maturation and personal experiences” (p. 422). Piaget’s research has since received considerable attention and debate as to its validity. Many assessments of his work detail a greater level of criticism than praise; this criticism presumably being in place to support recent scientific discoveries and assist in the evolution of particular elements of his theories to what is regarded as relevant today (Flavell, 1996). Despite those who doubt his work, many sympathetic theorists (labelled neo-Piagetians) have opted to adopt and

    Read More

  • Dweck Vs Isaacson

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    Dweck finds that children with a fixed mindset “see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego.” (Dweck 3). This leads to children focusing too much on other people’s opinions instead

    Read More

  • Compare and Contrast Two Theories of Gender Role Development

    1366 Words  | 3 Pages

    Björklund, D. F. (2000). Children‘s thinking: Developmental function and individual differences (3rd. Ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth.

    Read More

  • The Mind-Independent Conception

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    A mind-independent conception implies that no matter what thoughts a person has on a certain topic, this topic possesses a value on itself. The value is independent of the mind and evaluative attitudes that the person might have.

    Read More

  • Other Minds?

    3059 Words  | 7 Pages

    Russell explains this notion with the example of mother and her thoughts. "We find ourselves believing in them when we first begin to reflect; the thought that Mother may be angry or pleased is one which rises in early infancy" (Russell 90).

    Read More

  • The Extent to Which an Acquisition of a Theory of Mind is Essential for the Typical Development of the Child

    2925 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Extent to Which an Acquisition of a Theory of Mind is Essential for the Typical Development of the Child

    Read More

  • Radical Conceptual Shift

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    A part of being a grown-up is knowing how to interact with people, how to make them happy or simply knowing how to empathize with a person feelings and intentions, which is a rather more complex process than it might seem at a first sight. For instance, in order for a child to be able to perform all of above need to acquire the concept of the theory of mind, as defined by Hala (1997): “A framework for predicting and explaining what people think and do”.

    Read More

  • Erik Piaget's Theory Of Psychosocial Development

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jean Piaget was a Swiss phycologist who became especially interested in the development of children. His research lead to many great discoveries about children’s thought process, how they learn, when they learn, what things they learn quickly, how they adapt to different environments, and how they are self-accommodating in the way that they constantly revise their own knowledge. Piaget breaks down the ages in a slightly different way than Erikson. Piaget’s theory is broken down into 4 stages as opposed to Erikson’s eight stages of development. Piaget’s goes like this: First, the Sensorimotor Period (birth to 2 years), Second, Preoperational Thought (2 to 7 years), third, Concrete Operations (6 to 12 years), and last, Formal Operations (11 years to adult). During the Sensorimotor Period children learn that their actions make things happen, and that even things that cannot be seen still exist. During the Preoperational Thought stage children are learning how to interpret words and make something out of the pictures they look at. However, in her article, A Summary of Piaget’s Stages, Kendra Cherry states that “while they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very concrete terms.” (Cherry, 2016). This means that they may still need to be told the same thing multiple times or be reassured when they are doing the right thing. Next, the Concrete Operational stage, the time in which children’s characteristics drastically change and they begin to use logic and reason. The last stage which continues all the way to adulthood, starts as adolescents who are beginning to have abstract thought process, they become concerned with philosophical, ethical, moral, and political issues which is carried with them to adulthood. Like Erikson’s theory of developmental stages, Piaget’s also can be equated with classroom behavior. Like Erikson’s theory of developmental stages,

    Read More

  • The Nature Of The Mind: The Computational Theory Of Mind

    1237 Words  | 3 Pages

    For years philosophers have enquired into the nature of the mind, and specifically the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. (O’Brien 2017) One of these mysteries is how a material object, the brain, can produce thoughts and rational reasoning. The Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) was devised in response to this problem, and suggests that the brain is quite literally a computer, and that thinking is essentially computation. (BOOK) This idea was first theorised by philosopher Hilary Putnam, but was later developed by Jerry Fodor, and continues to be further investigated today as cognitive science, modern computers, and artificial intelligence continue to advance. [REF] Computer processing machines ‘think’ by recognising information

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Piaget And Vygotsky

    1571 Words  | 4 Pages

    To understand how we are able to become such complex and multifaceted individuals, we must grasp the idea of cognitive development. Cognitive development is defined as “the ability to think and reason” (University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, 2006). The two main contributors of this topic within psychology, are Piaget and Vygotsky. They are also both the main competitors in terms of contrasting theories, however, do still have many similarities between them. Piaget’s main theories include stages of development; sensorimotor (senses, reflexes and object permanence) preoperational egocentric speech, use of

    Read More

  • Philosophy of the Mind

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Physicalism of the human mind is a doctrine that states that the world is ‘entirely physical’, and can be described in various ways. One way it can be described is that minds, mental properties and mental processes are visibly not physical phenomena. Terms such as “mind,” “thinking,” and “feeling” do not play in the theories of fundamental physics. For example, in this slim sense of “physical,” a lung is not a physical object, inhalation is not a physical property and diffusion is not a physical process; as in the terms “lung,” “inhalation,” and “diffusion” do not have a role in the theories of fundamental physics. Acknowledging that mental phenomena are not physical in this slim sense is not vastly acknowledging. However, certainly there is an open sense of the word “physical” in which a lung, inhalation, and diffusion are certainly physical phenomena. Physicalism of the human mind proclaims that human minds, mental properties and mental processes are physical in this open sense of “physical.” A clear open sense of “physical” is contentious in the philosophy of the mind. A common view is: “An individual item (e.g., object, property-instance, or process) is physical in the broad sense if, and only if, it meets either of two conditions: (1) it’s an item of a kind that can in principle be defined in the distinctive vocabulary of fundamental physics; or (2) it’s a physically realized item of a functional kind.” The first condition is straight forward, but the second condition evidently demands clarification. Accordingly, a “functional” kind of thing is one in which its existence entails in the actuality of “something or other” that encounters a convinced measurement where the structure and functioning of the “something or other” does not matter as long as it encounters the functioning in request. For instance, a lung is a functional kind of object in my sense. Therefore,

    Read More

  • Piaget's Theory

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is at the beginning of this stage that children start tobecome able to have complex logical thoughts and are able to focus on more than one part of aproblem at a time. These logical thoughts, however, are limited to real world objects and personal experiences or events. This limited thinking makes it very difficult for children in thisstage to understand and logically answer hypothetical situations or abstract ideas.The fourth and final stage of Piaget’s theory, beginning around early teens and continuing on all through adulthood, is the formal operational stage. Unlike the previous stage, adolescentsin this stage are able to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts and think about multiple variables to consider possibilities (WebMD.com). Although formal operational thought starts at the beginning of this stage, it always continues to increase in sophistication as a persongets older. It is for this reason why some people are better at thinking about hypothetical questions and ideas than others.Although Piaget’s theory has been used as a basis for many research studies, there are aspects of it that have been challenged. Some of the most criticized points of the theory is thatPiaget underestimated both the cognitive abilities of young children and the impact that socialenvironments and culture has on cognitive development. It is also

    Read More

  • The Theories of Piaget and Kohlberg

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    The child has a hard time realizing that though there are many other people and things in their world, none of them are more important than the child himself. The child believes that his point of view is the only point of view of the world. This is caused by his inability to put himself in someone’s else’s shoes (Smith). The concrete operational period, spanning between the ages of 7 and 11, is marked by the onset of logic in the young mind. The child is able to mentally manipulate objects and events.

    Read More

More about Understanding the Way Our Mind Works in the Theory of Mind

Open Document