Children's Theory of Mind : Story Constructions Compared With Social Behavior Explanations

이야기 구성과 사회적 행동 설명에서 나타나는 아동의 마음 이론 비교

Children 5 and 8 years of age and undergraduates constructed stories using the wordless picture book, "Frog, where are you?" On a separate task, they explained the good and bad behaviors of others. The constructed stories of task 1 and responses of task 2 were audiotaped, analyzed by clauses, and then coded into the mind-related categories. Results showed that on both tasks the subjects used the actor's desires and intentions much more than the other categories of mind. Undergraduates used more mind-related expressions in making their stories than children, but they were not different from children in considering the minds of others for behavior explanations. Positive but non-significant correlations were found between scores in constructing stories and scores in behavior explanations.