Development of constructivist theory of mind from middle childhood to early adulthood and its relation to social cognition and behavior.
Two studies examined the development of constructivist theory of mind (ToM) during late childhood and early adolescence. In Study 1, a new measure was developed to assess participants' understanding of the interpretive and constructive processes embedded in memory, comprehension, attention, comparison, planning, and inference. Using this measure, Study 2 tested a mediational model in which prosocial reasoning about conflict mediated the relation between constructivist ToM and behavior problems in high school. Results showed that the onset of constructivist ToM occurs between late childhood and early adolescence and that adolescents who have more advanced constructivist ToM have more prosocial reasoning about conflict, which in turn mediated the relation with fewer serious behavior problems in high school, after controlling for academic performance and sex. In both studies, girls showed more advanced constructivist ToM than boys in high school.
Department of Psychological Science, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, TX 78539, USA. Electronic address: amy.weimer@utrgv.edu.
Amy A
AA
Weimer
Department of Community Psychology, Counseling, and Family Therapy, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN 56301, USA.
Susan J
SJ
Parault Dowds
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
William V
WV
Fabricius
Department of Educational Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Paula J
PJ
Schwanenflugel
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
Go Woon
GW
Suh
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D056345:Theory of Mind
Adolescence; Constructivism; Hostile attribution bias; Interpretive diversity; Middle childhood; Theory of mind; Young adults