Transcript Three Aspects of Self - Villanova University

Self and Others
The Development of Social Cognition
Precursors to thinking about
self and others
1. People are different from objects
People look, act, are acted upon
differently than objects
2. Self is different from others
The development of self recognition
Self Recognition
The ability to recognize oneself in an image
How can we measure self recognition?
Mirror recognition: 15-18 months
How can we experimentally test this?
put a mark in the kids face
Candid camera
Gallup’s Test of Mirror Recognition
1.
2.
3.
4.
Exposure to mirrors
While unaware, mark face with rouge
Exposure to mirror again
Do they touch face or mirror?
TOUCH FACE
TOUCH MIRROR
Chimpanzees
Baboons, monkeys
Orangutans
Cats, dogs
Gorillas (maybe)
Elephants
20 month old baby
< 12 month old baby
Correlates of Self Recognition
• Self-Conscious Emotions
– Embarrassment
– Guilt
– Pride
• Empathy
Understanding Self and Others:
Developing a “Theory of Mind”
Theory of Mind: What is it?
A folk theory about how mental states (beliefs,
desires, intentions) guide behavior
Useful for
predicting behavior
explaining behavior
Theory of Mind: What develops?
• Mental-Physical Distinction
– Thoughts in the mind = things in the world
• Mind Causes Action
– We act to fulfill our desires and beliefs
• Mind Represents Reality
– Our beliefs about the world may be false
Mental-Physical Distinction
(Wellman & Estes, 1986)
Two Story Characters:
One boy has a cookie
One boy is thinking about a cookie
Which cookie can be seen, touched, eaten, or
shared with a friend?
3-year-olds: 75% correct
things in the mind = things in the world
Mind Causes Action
Around the ages of 2.5 to 3, children...
Understand link between desire and action
“Jane wants to take her kitten to school”
(a) she finds her kitten
goes to school
(b) she finds a puppy
keeps looking
Mind Represents Reality
We act on the basis of our beliefs, even
when those beliefs conflict with reality
False-belief: A belief that conflicts with
reality
Change-in-location False-belief Task
•
Bert and Ernie are playing ball
•
Bert puts ball in GREEN box and leaves
•
Ernie moves ball to ORANGE box
Bert comes back….
Where will he look for the ball?
Change-in-location Task:
Results
3-year-olds FAIL
Bert will search where the ball really is
4-year-olds SUCCEED
Bert will search where he thinks the ball is
Is this task too hard?
Two locations, two characters, lots of action
Do Children Understand False Beliefs?
Children shown highly familiar container
e.g., crayon box
Asked what they think is inside
“Crayons!”
The box is opened to reveal something else
e.g., toy horse
Horse is put back inside box; children are asked
about a naïve character’s belief
e.g., What does Grover think is inside the box?
Unexpected Contents Task:
Results
3-year-olds FAIL
Grover will think there is a horse in the box
4-year-olds SUCCEED
Grover will think there are crayons in the box
3-year-olds’ Failure is Robust
They fail even when:
You ask about their own false belief
You explicitly state the character’s false belief
Why do Children Fail?
•
Conceptual Deficit
– Fail to understand that the world can be
one way and the mind can be another
This should sound familiar….centration,
egocentrism, appearance/reality….
Why do Children Fail?
•
Inhibitory Demands
–
Hard to resist reporting what is known to be true
–
At same age as they fail false-belief tasks,
children fail tasks of inhibitory control
e.g., say “day” when shown a moon, say “night”
when shown a sun
“Day!”
“Night!”
Role of Experience in ToM
• Conversations about mental states
– Mothers’ mental-state talk (more talk, earlier
use of mental-state terms)
– Number of siblings (more sibs, earlier success
on false-belief tasks)
Life without Theory of Mind?
Autism
•
Stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behavior
•
Delayed and deviant language
•
Impaired social development
75% mentally retarded
Cause of Autism?
• NOT due to parenting; social environment
• Biological evidence
– Strong genetic component
– Range of neurological impairments
– Disproportionately affects boys
Theory of Mind Hypothesis for Autism
• Social and communicative impairments
of autism result from a failure to develop
a theory of mind
Theory of Mind Deficits in Autism
Infant Precursors
•
Not preferentially interested in faces
•
Don’t prefer human speech over other
sounds
•
No joint attention, social referencing,
proto-declarative pointing
NOT TUNED INTO PEOPLE
Theory of Mind Deficits in Autism
•
Failure to understand communicative
intentions
•
Poverty of mental state language
•
Failure to understand false belief
•
Inability to create meaningful mentalistic
sequences
Mechanical Sequence
Behavioral Sequence
Mentalistic Sequence
7
6
5
4
Normal
Autistic
3
2
1
0
Mechanical Behavioral Mentalistic
self
• Self Concept:
– Self recognition: that one in the mirror is me!
• Self evaluation:
– Self worth, self esteem, self efficacy
• Self regulation:
– Self control, resistance to temptation