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Theory of Mind and Peer Rejection at School
Author(s) -
Badenes Lidón Villanueva,
Clemente Estevan Rosa Ana,
García Bacete Francisco J.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9507.00125
Subject(s) - theory of mind , psychology , autism , developmental psychology , social cognition , mentalization , literal and figurative language , social cognitive theory , false belief , cognition , mind blindness , cognitive psychology , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience
Little research into children’s theory of mind has focused on links with social deficits, with exception of research into the rare condition of autism. However, other studies have analysed theory of mind ability in less severe and less rare social deficits, such as children with conduct disorders or bullying at school. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how social experiences within the peer system are linked to understanding of mind, adopting a sociocultural view of theory of mind development. Peer‐rejected children, 4–6 years old, lacking positive social experiences with their peers, are compared with popular and average children in theory of mind tasks performance. Results showed that peer‐rejected children presented a similar performance to average children in all theory of mind tasks, with the exception of some figurative language tasks (White Lie), and the presence of socio cognitive aggressive biases. It cannot be said from these results that peer rejected children showed a deficit in the ability of mentalizing. However, a kind of theory of ‘nasty minds’ may be present in these rejected children.