Understanding the Way Our Mind Works in the Theory of Mind

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...

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... 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.