social cognition, prosocial behaviour and moral development - psych 200 (module 5)

what is social cognition?

thinking about others

theory of mind is a key concept

what is theory of mind? (ToM)

the understanding that people’s actions are motivated by internal mental states

what are three types of internal mental states?

desires (wants, intentions, likes/dislikes, preferences)

thoguths, knowledge, beliefs

emotions

describe the social attribution task (klin, 2000)

multiple shapes on screen

big trangle seems to be the ‘bully’ to the little triangles

we can attribute feelings to non-human things

why do we need ToM?

predicting behaivours

reflecting on others

building connections

communication

what are precursors of ToM?

things that are related to ToM but are not technically considered ToM

they lay foundation for skills that allow children to develop understanding of other people’s mental states

what are the four precursors or ToM?

imitation

joint attention

pretend play

emotion understanding

describe imitation (precursors of ToM)

helps build understanding of others’ actions

describe joint attention: (precursors of ToM)

awareness of the visual experience

early steps towards perspective taking

describe pretend play: (precursors of ToM)

start taking others’ perspectives

distinguish between reality and fantasy

emerges around 1-2 years

describe emotion understanding: (precursors of ToM)

identifying and understanding causes of basic emotions

emerges around 2 years

what are wellman’s (1990) 5 stages of ToM development?

desire understanding

diverse belief understanding

knowledge access

false belief understanding

hidden emotions

describe desire understanding: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that people have wants and they like things and that drives their behaviour

describe the task used to measure desire understanding (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

‘diverse desires’ task (repacholi & gopnik, 1997)

establish which snack child prefers - broccolli or gold fish crackers

experimenter says “ew I do not like goldfish crackers” (shows a different desire)

experimenter then says “can you give me one” (which snack does the child give?)

what were the results of the ‘diverse desires’ task? (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

seen as early as 18 months of children passing the task

variation due to differences of methology

what is diverse belief understanding? (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that people can hold different beliefs about the same object or event and they will act in accordance with those beliefs

describe the task used to measure desire beliefs (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

‘lost cat’ paradigm

someone lost their cat and child says “child says I think it is in the bedroom”

experimenter says “sally thinks it is in the garage, where do you think sally will look for the cat?”

see if child will demonstrate awareness

what is knowledge access? (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that seeing an object or an event means that someone has the knowledge of that event

what is false belief understanding (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that beliefs can be false and people will act in accordance with their beliefs

describe an example of a false belief understanding task: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

"‘sally/anne task’

sally puts ball in her basket then leaves

anne moves sally’s ball to the box

sally comes back, where will she look for the ball?

4 year olds would pass the task, but 3 year olds wouldn’t

describe a more complex notion of false belief understanding: (ToM)

first order: “what does sally think?”

second order: “what does sally think about what mary thinks?”

describe hidden emotions: (wellman’s 5 stages of ToM dev.)

understanding that people can deliberately hide and falsify internal emotional states

what are two forms of perspective taking? (ToM)

visual and cognitive/emotional

describe cognitive/emotional perspective taking: (ToM)

ability to imagine how others think and feeling

understanding why another person may think or feel as they do

not the same as empathy

what are three components of morality?

understanding right and wrong, and the reasons that actions are moral and immoral

acting in a moral manner

experiencing the emotions that accompany moral/immoral acts: pride and shame, experiencing empathy

what are four examples of prosocial behaviour?

voluntarily acting to benefit others:

-helping

-sharing

-cooperating

-comforting (empathetically)

describe prosociality in infancy:

infants’ basic understanding of prosocial behaviour emerges in first two years

understanding join action is collaborative, emerges between 10-14 months

describe an example of how to measure prosocial behaviour in infancy:

a habituation paradigm

babies watch a stimulus until they get bored

two experimenters collabortively getting a toy out of a box