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The relationship between belief‐desire reasoning and a projective measure of attachment security (SAT)
Author(s) -
Fonagy Peter,
Redfern Sheila,
Charman Tony
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1997.tb00724.x
Subject(s) - psychology , theory of mind , developmental psychology , cognitive development , perspective (graphical) , cognition , projective test , social cognition , maturity (psychological) , cognitive psychology , competence (human resources) , social competence , social psychology , social change , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychoanalysis , economics , economic growth
Recent research into the development of a child's theory of mind has investigated individual differences in children's acquisition of the concept. Most of the research that has attempted to delineate this acquisition process has approached the question from a social‐cognitive developmental perspective, measuring differences such as family size, mother‐child interaction and pretend play. Until now there has been little attempt to test empirically the claims which have been made within the psychoanalytic developmental literature—that measures of affective development, such as attachment, are also likely to be related to the development of a theory of mind and emotional understanding. The main finding of the present study was that attachment security (as measured by the SAT) was a significant correlate of theory of mind competence (as measured by a belief‐desire reasoning task), even when the contribution of chronological age, verbal mental age and social maturity were controlled for, in preschoolers and young school‐aged children.