Theory of Mind:
Psychosocial
effects
Introduction
 Overview for today
 Reminders
 Important notice
Reminders
 Essay: 1,500 words on the SECTION you
presented in your group presentation.
 Email me your presentation slides once
your presentation is over
Readings for this week:
 Shakoor, S., Jaffee, S. R., Bowes, L., Ouellet-Morin, I.,
Andreou, P., Happé, F., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (2012). A
prospective longitudinal study of children’s theory of
mind and adolescent involvement in bullying. Journal
of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(3), 254–61.
doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02488.x
 Slaughter, V., Dennis, M. J., & Pritchard, M. (2002).
Theory of mind and peer acceptance in preschool
children. British Journal of Developmental
Psychology, 20(4), 545–564.
doi:10.1348/026151002760390945
Theory of Mind:
Understanding that other people hold
different thoughts and beliefs that are
separate from our own and that these
beliefs may not reflect reality
…so that we can PREDICT their behaviour.
Talwar, V., Gordon, H. M., & Lee, K. (2008). Lying in the
elementary school years. Developmental Psychology,
43(3), 804–810.
Theory of mind understanding plays an important role
in children’s ability to lie consistently.
Lying refers to the act by which one deliberately
makes a false statement with intent to instill false
beliefs into the mind of the statement’s recipient (Lee,
2000).
 n-= 172, aged 6-11 years, North America
 When do children start to lie?
Art of Lying
 Assessment of own and other mental states
 construct and produce false statements that differ
from their true beliefs about the state of affairs.
 false statements must be carefully constructed such
that they will not arouse suspicion in the recipient
(must match verbal and nonverbal behaviours)
 consistent with the false statement but inconsistent
with their true beliefs
 and to conceal verbal and nonverbal behaviors
that are consistent with their true beliefs but
incongruent with the false statement.
First order or second order ToM?
Experiment
 Wanted to find out the relation between verbal
deception and second order false belief
 Talwar, V., Gordon, H. M., & Lee, K. (2008). Lying in
the elementary school years. Developmental
Psychology, 43(3), 804–810.
The experiment
 Trivia questions
“which explorer discovered Tunisia?
Tells children NOT to peek at answer cards
Experimenter left room leaves last question card on
table for 60 seconds.
Returns and asks if they peeked & asks last question
Entrapment questions
Results
 Children’s ability to maintain consistency between
their initial lie and subsequent verbal statements
increased with age.
 This ability is also positively correlated with children’s
2nd-order belief scores, suggesting that theory of
mind understanding plays an important role in
children’s ability to lie consistently.
ToM in Preschool Social
Acceptance
Slaughter, V., Dennis, M. J., & Pritchard, M. (2002). Theory of
mind and peer acceptance in preschool children. British
Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20(4), 545–564.
Hypothesis: preschool children's ToM is
related to their peer social acceptance
N= 78, aged 4-6 years
Australia
Suggestion on how it is linked?
 Better level of insight: recognise and
appreciate the desires, perspectives and
emotions of their peers thus leading to
interpersonal sensitivity
 Adequate interactions with peers forms
the context in which children develop
ToM (more advanced skills because they
enjoy more opportunities to interact with
their peers.
MethodAll
children within the peer group made both
positive and negative peer nominations.
Children were then requested to nominate
the three children they liked to play with the
most (Like Most—LM) and the three children
they did not like to play with very much (Like
Least—LL).
Categories
 Popular
 Controversial
 Average
 neglected or
 rejected within their peer groups.
 Also given 4 ToM tests
RESULTS
Peer status influenced by:
COGNITIVE and BEHAVIOURAL factors.
 Cognitive factors: intelligence, language
ability, perspective taking
 Behavioural factors: aggression and
prosocial behaviour (greater difference
between rejected and popular children).
N= 92
Summary of findings:
Impact of theory of mind ability on peer acceptance
is modest but increases with children’s age.
Individual differences in social–cognitive abilities may
impact more strongly on peer acceptance as
children get older.
ToM best predictor for peer acceptance
 Findings: bright, verbally adept children tend to be
relatively popular among their peers
 For younger children, behaviour was a more
important predictor for peer acceptance
So far, we have talked about:
 Lying: false statements
 Peer social acceptance
What is bullying?
 Emotional/ psychological
 Physical
 Monetary
ToM & Bullying
Shakoor, S., Jaffee, S. R., Bowes, L., Ouellet-Morin, I., Andreou, P., Happé,
F., Moffitt, T. E., et al. (2012). A prospective longitudinal study of
children’s theory of mind and adolescent involvement in bullying.
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(3), 254–61.
Question: mechanisms which lead children to be
involved in bullying:
Longitudinal study with 2,232
(twins) children in the UK (England
and Wales) seen at ages:
5, 7, 10 and 12.
ToM & Bullying
ToM needed for decoding social cues and for
adjusting behaviours accordingly. ToM skills underpins
everyday social interactions.
Bullying is a negative social experience involving
on average 27% of children and adolescents every
year worldwide as victims, bullies or bully-victims
(children who have been bullied and have bullied
others) (Craig et al., 2009).
3 ways
 Inability or poor ability to detect unspoken cues
such as non-reciprocal social interaction = potential
for exploitation and victimisation
 Affects ability to negotiate conflicts or to stand up
for themselves = easy targets for threats and abuse
 May be biased when processing social cues and
wrongly interpret ambiguous situations as hostile.
At age 5
ToM tested using 8 ToM
tests
IQ measures using the
Weschler Preschool and
Primary Scale of
Intelligence (short form)
Parents and teachers
were interviewed to get
information on the
children’s emotional and
behavioural problems
(again measured at age
7 and 10)
At age 7
Interviews with
mothers and
teachers on child’s
involvement in
bullying
At age 12
Assessed bullying-
victimisation
(mothers and
children’s report)
By age 7 (between 5-7 years):
 Victims: (N = 273, 13%),
 Bullies (N = 381, 17%)
 Bullies-victims (N = 138, 6%)
By age 12
• Non bullies, non-victims and non- bully-victims: (N = 971; 45%).
• Bullies (N = 167; 8%) - children who have only bullied others
• Bully victims (N = 304; 14%) are children who have been
bullied and have bullied others.
• Victims (N = 704; 33%) are children who have been victimized
but who have not bullied others
By age 12
 Non bullies, victims or bully-victims:
(N = 971; 45%).
 Bullies (N = 167; 8%) - children who
have only bullied others
 Bully victims (N = 304; 14%) are
children who have been bullied
and have bullied others.
 Victims (N = 704; 33%) are children
who have been victimized but who
have not bullied others
Lower ToM at age
5, compared to
non involvement
Among the
three, bullyvictims
scored
the lowest
Overall findings
a. Poor ToM in early childhood- leads to an
increased risk of being a victim of bullying in
adolescence
b. Associations found between SES, child
maltreatment and bullying- for children with
poor ToM, these factors play a role in the
development of becoming a bully
Conclusion
 Lying requires false beliefs (second-order)
for successful deceit. Verbal consistency
in lying becomes better with age
(semantic leakage in younger children)
 ToM and peer acceptance: behavioural
factors are more important in young
children but cognitive factors become
more important as they grow older
 Bullying and ToM: