Abnormal Psychology: Theory Of Mind

Purpose of the Study

Theory of mind, is what gives people the ability to understand that others have different perspectives and beliefs. The purpose of this study was to determine whether increases in ToM is connected to the want that children have to perform in front of others.

Subjects

One hundred and fifty-nine students from the middle-class, different backgrounds and races whom were 3-12 years of age were gathered together in 2011 from eight summer camps. There were 12 to 18 children of the same age placed in the same group each. The study did not use gender as a factor to get results.

The independent variables were ages. After students were split up by age, they were individually interviewed and told that their ages would be studied. The students then took three different tests which established the correlation between ToM, self esteem, the want to perform and age. Thus, the dependent variable was the task each child chose, the answers they thought up for the ToM tests and the results of their self esteem surveys.

Treatment of Data

The subjects were split by age group and given a choice of singing or dancing, circling red shapes on a sheet of paper, or coloring in a square.

The kids were then tasked to do these activities in front of the experimenter and other students. Afterwards, the experimenters used three tests to determine the different levels of ToM within the students by using the Sally and Anne false belief task, the Cookie Box misleading container test, and the Duck and Lion social test. Finally, they used a seven-item self esteem survey scale that used smiley faces to gauge the extent of self-esteem the children had. Through these tests, the experimenters were able to use the results to compare how age correlated to why children may avoid performing infant of

others.

Results
Younger children from 3-4 were most likely to sing or dance, while older children from years 11-12 were less likely to choose the performance tasks. Contrastingly, older children ages 11-12 were much more likely to choose to draw or color instead, while a small percentage of children 3-4 chose those options. These results portrayed that older children don’t choose these options due to liking to draw or color more than singing or dancing. ToM testing came up as the older children scoring higher than the younger, while the self-esteem surveys showed how older children had much less self-esteem than those that were of the 3-4 age ranges. Thus, it can be realized that ToM causes children to have the understanding that their peers or an audience may not watch their public performances in a positive light due to a lower self-esteem. This in turn justifies why older children may attempt to withdraw from the limelight or positions where others can judge them. This change in attitude from willingly performing to avoidance and social awkwardness can begin in a child even starting from the age of 4 years old.

Discussion of Results
While the ToM tests used were able to work with young children as well as older ones, there needs to be more research to develop tests that will be able to connect with a greater range of ages of people. In addition, there needs to be further research on just what parts of self-esteem can cause a decrease in wanting to perform in front of others. Also, other factors, such as the way children may think others view them (negatively) needs to be considered. Furthermore, different kinds of situations in performing, such as being alone or in public should also be looked into and experimented with further.