Child's Theory of Mind: Belief and Desire Distinction
Date
1996
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
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Thesis
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Award
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
The present study investigated the child's theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to other people. This study was based on Fodor's proposal that children use two strategies in solving false belief problems, one focusing on a desire component, and the other on a belief component of mental states. Sixteen three year-olds and 16 four year-olds were presented with four short stories that varied in the desirability of the story topics and the roles of the main characters. They were asked to describe the main character's emotional reaction to the unexpected outcome, and to also recall the false belief of the character. Results supported Fodor's proposal that young children are as capable of false belief comprehension as are older children. However, the manipulations of topic desirability and the main character's roles were not shown to affect children's performance. These findings are discussed in terms of past research and theory concerning the child's theory of mind.