心理弹性儿童的人际关系认知

探查儿童寻求信任性人际关系建立和向他人求助启动阶段的人际关系认知,检验心理弹性儿童是否比缺乏心理弹性儿童拥有更准确、快速的人际关系类型和更积极、快速的中性人际关系性质认知。利用自编人际关系类型认知和中性情境人际关系性质认知实验程序,对经由汇聚操作法筛选出的心理弹性儿童(99人)和缺乏心理弹性儿童(176人)实施实验,记录被试的反应结果和反应时。以年龄和性别为协变量,分别对两组儿童人际关系类型认知得分及反应时、中性情境人际关系性质认知得分及反应时进行组间差异的协方差分析。结果支持部分研究假设:心理弹性儿童人际关系类型认知总分显著高于缺乏心理弹性儿童;心理弹性儿童在中性情境下人际关系性质认知积极与消极维度总分、积极—消极连续体上的振幅均显著小于缺乏心理弹性儿童,但心理弹性儿童对中性情境人际关系性质认知更具积极偏向;两组儿童在所有任务指标上的平均反应时差异皆不显著。提示,儿童对人际关系类型的准确把握及对人际关系性质谨慎却相对积极的认知,可能是有效寻求和建立人际关系、获取社会支持资源以良好应对严重压力/逆境的重要主体性因素。     

亲子间心理状态术语、非心理状态术语使用与儿童心理理论的关系

本研究通过观察亲子互动游戏来考查母亲———孩子间心理状态术语、非心理状态术语使用与儿童心理理论发展的关系。实验结果表明,控制了年龄因素后,儿童心理理论发展和母亲心理状态术语使用存在显著相关,提示母亲有效地谈论心理状态对儿童心理理论的发展具有影响;儿童心理理论发展与其心理状态术语使用也存在显著相关,提示儿童将心理理论任务中涉及的表征问题与信念词所隐含的表征属性相联系是形成心理理论、正确使用心理状态术语的前提。当控制了母亲和儿童的心理状态术语使用总数后,母亲及孩子非心理状态术语的使用与儿童心理理论发展都不再存在显著相关,提示非心理状态术语的使用是以心理状态术语使用为中介而对儿童的心理理论发展产生影响。     

心理理论对城区流动儿童心理社会能力的影响机制：双中介作用

以福建省和河南省部分城市2620名义务教育阶段的学生为被试,采用问卷调查法,探析城区流动儿童心理社会能力发展状况,揭示心理弹性和自我效能感在心理理论与心理社会能力关系中的中介作用。结果显示:(1)城区流动儿童的心理社会能力显著低于城市儿童,城区流动儿童的心理社会能力在不同年级、家庭结构和教养方式上也存在显著差异;(2)城区流动儿童的心理社会能力与心理理论、心理弹性和自我效能感存在显著的正相关;(3)心理理论对心理社会能力有正向直接预测作用,心理弹性和自我效能感在城区流动儿童心理理论与心理社会能力之间起中介作用。     

心理弹性儿童的压力/逆境认知

心理弹性儿童是如何看待其曾经历的或正在经历的严重压力/逆境的?解读这一问题或可促进对聚焦于儿童自身的心理弹性机制的探查。为考察心理弹性儿童压力/逆境认知特点,利用Visual FoxPro 8.0平台自编计算机程序和故事测验法,分别从压力/逆境的敏感程度、觉知到的压力/逆境严重程度、觉知到的压力/逆境影响持久程度和觉知到的压力/逆境可应对程度四个方面对心理弹性组儿童和缺乏心理弹性组儿童进行测量。结果发现:(1)心理弹性儿童的压力/逆境敏感程度高于缺乏心理弹性儿童,表现为前者在压力/逆境指标回忆量、压力/逆境再认敏感性指标和模糊情境下压力/逆境偏向性上的得分均比后者高,而且,前者的压力/逆境指标再认击中平均反应时比后者短,反应标准亦比后者宽松。(2)心理弹性儿童在觉知到的压力/逆境严重程度、影响持久程度和可应对程度上两亚类实验任务(你认为主人公如何看?和若你是主人公如何看?)上的得分与反应时,除设身处地的压力/逆境影响持久程度认知外,其余与缺乏心理弹性儿童之间差异均不显著,提示,心理弹性儿童所觉知到的严重压力/逆境影响远没有缺乏心理弹性儿童所认为的更为持久。文章探讨了儿童更为敏感的压力/逆境觉知和相对而言认为严...     

幼儿说谎行为的特点及其与心理理论水平的关系

首先考察3-4岁幼儿在抵制诱惑情景下出现违规行为后的说谎行为特点,然后进一步探讨了说谎行为与心理理论水平之间的关系。研究结果发现,3岁儿童中有59.3%出现说谎行为,而4岁时这个比例达到75%;但经统计检验没有发现显著的年龄差异,性别差异也不显著。另外,说谎与未说谎组在错误信念任务上的得分没有显著性差异,但有策略的说谎组比没有策略组在错误信念任务上的得分更高;说谎水平与错误信念任务之间有显著的正相关     

母亲处理冲突方式与儿童心理理论发展的关系

以52名3～5岁幼儿为被试,考查了母亲处理亲子冲突的方式与儿童心理理论发展水平之间的关系.研究结果表明,不同性别和年龄阶段儿童的母亲,其处理亲子冲突的方式有所差异,隔离处理方式与儿童在心理理论任务上的得分存在显著的正相关.文章从冲突表征呈现的角度对上述结果进行了分析讨论.     

7~9岁儿童二级错误信念和失言理解的发展

采用二级错误信念任务、失言理解任务分别考察了90名7-9岁学龄儿童心理理论的发展。结果表明,7岁组儿童在二级错误信念和失言理解任务上的成绩与8岁组、9岁组存在显著差异,但8岁组和9岁组儿童之间没有显著差异,提示8岁可能是个体心理理论发展的又一个转折点。三组被试在二级错误信念理解上的成绩显著高于失言理解任务上的成绩,在控制年龄后,他们在两种心理理论任务上的成绩显著相关。另外,失言任务中三种心理状态理解的得分两两相关。综合以上结果,在学龄期,心理理论仍有质的发展,且心理理论的信念、情绪和意图等核心概念仍然相互关联。     

农村学前儿童心理弹性对行为问题的影响:有调节的中介效应

采用问卷法和测量法对568名农村学前儿童进行调查,探究学前儿童心理弹性与行为问题的关系,执行功能的中介作用以及师幼关系的调节作用。结果发现:(1)在控制了性别、年龄和是否留守水平后,农村学前儿童心理弹性负向预测行为问题;(2)执行功能在心理弹性与行为问题关系间起部分中介作用;(3)师幼关系对中介的后半路径"心理弹性→执行功能→品行问题/注意力不集中-被动"具有显著的调节效应。     

农村初中生心理弹性的特点研究

目的考察农村初中生心理弹性的状况以及农村初中生心理弹性的特点,为提高农村初中生的心理弹性提供依据。方法采用调查问卷对520名农村初中生进行问卷调查。结果:1不同性别的农村初中生在心理弹性上存在显著差异,且女生的心理弹性明显高于男生的心理弹性;2不同家庭经济条件在农村初中生心理弹性上存在显著差异,且家庭经济条件越优越的初中生心理弹性越高;3农村初中生心理弹性存在年级差异;4农村初中生是否为独生子女在心理弹性上没有显著性差异。     

早期儿童的游戏与心理理论的发展

选择在一日活动中儿童可自由支配的游戏时间存在明显差异的两所幼儿园,采用错误信念任务比较两园小班、中班儿童心理理论的发展状况,结果显示,半年在园经验的小班儿童在完成错误信念任务上存在显著差异,表明早期儿童的游戏,尤其是装扮游戏对儿童心理理论的发展有积极作用;但一年半在园经验的中班儿童在完成错误信念任务上不存在显著差异,由此推论儿童心理理论的发展受成熟的制约,成熟起主导作用。研究为理解幼儿园以游戏为基本活动提供了参考依据。     

Executive and attentional contributions to Theory of Mind deficit in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has been associated with attentional and executive problems, but also with socioemotional difficulties possibly associated with deficits in Theory of Mind (ToM). Socioemotional problems in ADHD are associated with more negative prognoses, notably interpersonal, educational problems, and an increased risk of developing other psychiatric disorders that emphasize the need to clarify the nature of their ToM deficits. In this study, we hypothesized that ToM dysfunction in children with ADHD is largely attributable to their attentional and/or executive deficits. Thirty-one children with ADHD (8–12 years, IQ > 85) and 31 typically developing (TD) children were assessed using executive functions (inhibition, planning, and flexibility) and attentional tasks, as well as two advanced ToM tasks (Reading the Mind in the Eyes and Faux Pas) involving different levels of executive control. Children with ADHD performed more poorly than TD children in attentional, executive function, and ToM tasks. Linear regression analyses conducted in the ADHD group indicated that inhibition scores predicted performance on the “Faux Pas” task the best, while attention scores were the best for predicting performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task. When controlled for inhibition and attentional variables, ToM performance in children with ADHD was actually similar to TD children. Contrarily, controlling for ToM scores did not normalize performance for inhibition and attentional tasks in children with ADHD. This unidirectional relationship suggests that deficits in the EF and attentional domains are responsible for ToM deficits in ADHD, which therefore may contribute to their socioemotional difficulties.     

From fancy to reason: Scaling deaf and hearing children's understanding of theory of mind and pretence

We examined deaf and hearing children's progression of steps in theory of mind (ToM) development including their understanding of social pretending. Ninety‐three children (33 deaf; 60 hearing) aged 3–13 years were tested on a set of six closely matched ToM tasks. Results showed that deaf children were delayed substantially behind hearing children in understanding pretending, false belief (FB) and other ToM concepts, in line with their delayed uptake of social pretend (SP) play. By using a scaling methodology, we confirmed previous evidence of a consistent five‐step developmental progression for both groups. Moreover, by including social pretence understanding, both deaf and hearing children's ToM sequences were shown to extend reliably to six sequential developmental steps. Finally and focally, even though both groups' sequences were six steps long, the placement of pretence relative to other ToM milestones varied with hearing status. Deaf children understood social pretending at an earlier step in the ToM sequence than hearing children, albeit at a later chronological age. Theoretically, the findings are relevant to questions about how universal developmental progressions come together along with culturally distinctive inputs and biological factors (such as hearing loss) to set the pace for ToM development.     

心理韧性儿童的社会能力自我觉知

旨在考察心理韧性儿童与缺乏心理韧性儿童相比社会能力自我觉知特点, 以探究社会能力自我觉知的心理韧性发展意蕴。利用量表法和内隐联结测验(IAT), 对经由汇聚操作法筛选出的99名心理韧性儿童和176名缺乏心理韧性儿童, 分别测量社会能力外显自我觉知与内隐自我觉知, 并从2个信息源多角度测量其实际社会能力。结果发现：心理韧性儿童比缺乏心理韧性儿童有更高水平的社会能力外显自我觉知, 社会能力自我觉知与心理社会发展功能总体上存在极其显著的正向关联; 心理韧性组儿童自我觉知的社会能力低于其实际社会能力但两者显著正相关, 缺乏心理韧性组儿童自我觉知的社会能力接近于其实际社会能力但两者不存在显著相关, 两组儿童自我觉知的社会能力与实际社会能力之差的差异极其显著; 心理韧性儿童在内隐社会能力自我觉知测验不相容任务与相容任务上反应时之差显著大于缺乏心理韧性儿童。这提示, 外显上谨慎一致的高水平社会能力自我觉知和内隐上更倾向于认为自己有能力或为心理韧性发展的主体性机制原因之一。     

Relations between theory of mind,mental state language and social adjustment in primary school children

The present study investigated the concurrent relations between theory of mind (ToM), mental state language (MSL) and social adjustment (assessed in terms of emotional instability, prosocial behaviour and aggressiveness) in a sample of 150 children between 8 and 11 years of age. The results showed no correlation between the performance on false belief tasks and the frequency of MSL in a narrative task. False belief understanding was unrelated with all measures of social adjustment, whereas the children’s use of MSL was negatively correlated with emotional instability and aggressiveness, above and beyond the influence of receptive language ability. These findings suggest that having a ToM ability is different from spontaneously using it during non-interactive narrative tasks, and that the two ToM measures are differently related to social competence in primary school children.     

Differences in Theory of Mind and Pretend Play Associations in Children with and Without Specific Language Impairment

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulty engaging in social pretend play, which cannot be explained exclusively by their deficient language skills. Alternatively, the ability to represent mental states (Theory of Mind [ToM]) might be important in appreciating peers' perspectives during pretend play. This study investigated whether ToM was associated with pretend play abilities in children with and without SLI. Forty‐four children (22 with SLI, 22 with typical development [TD]) between 4 and 6 years of age participated in ToM tasks and a dyadic role play activity. Children with SLI performed significantly more poorly on ToM tasks than children with TD; however, there were no significant group differences in children's role play abilities. Partial correlations revealed a positive and significant association between ToM and social pretend play in children with TD but a negative and not significant association in children with SLI. These findings suggest that not all forms and aspects of pretend play require mental representation in order to understand or engage in pretend play. Further, children with SLI may differ in their mental representational abilities from children with TD. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self versus other oriented social motivation,not lack of empathic or moral ability,explains behavioral outcomes in children with high theory of mind abilities

Although traditionally it was believed that having advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities led to social competence and prosocial behaviors in children, it has also been shown that some children use their high ToM abilities to strategically manipulate others instead of acting prosocially towards them. It is an important developmental task to understand the factors contributing to this behavioral divergence for children with advanced ToM understanding, which also has significant practical implications for bullying interventions. We contend that this divergence cannot be explained by a lack of moral competence or empathy, but that the existing evidence lends itself better to a motivational explanation. We propose that the direction of social motivation varies across children and the self versus other oriented social motivation determines if children will use their developed morality and empathy competencies in social interactions to act prosocially or instead cognitively divert moral and empathic emotions to avoid negative feelings about manipulating others. We show how self versus other orientation has been used as a legitimate distinction to inform other domains of psychology and conclude by discussing possible correlates and precursors of this difference in the direction of social orientation in children.     

Reliability and generalizability of an acted-out false belief task in 3-year-olds

The current study tested the reliability and generalizability of a narrative act-out false belief task held to reveal Theory of Mind (ToM) competence at 3 years of age, before children pass verbal standard false belief tasks (the “Duplo task”; Rubio-Fernández & Geurts, 2013, Psychological Science). We conducted the task across two labs with methodologically improved matched control conditions. Further, we administered an analogue intensionality version to assess the scope of ToM competence in the Duplo task. 72 3-year-olds participated in a Duplo change-of-location task, a Duplo intensionality task, and half of them in a matched verbal standard change-of-location task, receiving either false belief or matched true belief scenarios. Children performed at chance in the false belief Duplo location change and intensionality tasks as well as in the standard false belief task. There were no differences to the standard task, and performance correlated across all three false belief tasks, revealing a rather unified competence and no task advantage. In the true belief conditions of both Duplo tasks, children performed at ceiling and significantly different from the false belief conditions, while they were at chance in the true belief condition of the standard task. The latter indicates that a pragmatic advantage of the Duplo task compared to the standard task holds only for the true belief scenarios. Our study shows that the Duplo task measures the same ToM competence as the standard task and rejects a notion of earlier false belief understanding on the group level in 3-year-old children.     

Executive Function and Theory of Mind in Children with ADHD: a Systematic Review

In developmental research, the relationship between Executive Function (EF) and Theory of Mind (ToM) has been extensively assessed, and EF has been considered a condition for ToM. However, few researchers have studied the relationship between EF and ToM in clinical populations, especially that of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by symptoms of inattention and motor hyperactivity/impulsivity, in which EF is largely impaired. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model, 201 English and Spanish articles evaluating EF and ToM in ADHD were chosen. Fifteen papers met the inclusion criteria and were selected for further analysis. The first study dates from 2001. Most of the studies’ designs are cross-sectional, include mostly male children, have a small sample size, and were conducted in European countries. Unlike tasks assessing EF, tasks assessing ToM were heterogeneous across studies. The EFs most correlated with ToM were inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and attention. Interest in studying the relationship between EF and ToM in ADHD is recent,but increasing based on new findings and tuning of ToM instruments. However, while an association between EF and ToM is indicated in ADHD, the degree of prediction and predictability of one over the other cannot yet be established because of the studies’ heterogeneity.     

A teacher‐centered exploration of the relevance of social factors to theory of mind development

Many accounts of children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development favor a cognitive explanation, for example, in terms of mental representational improvements at or before 4 years. Here, we investigated whether social factors as rated by a child's teacher, are related to ToM development. We tested 82 children of 3–6 years on each of four ToM tasks, and their class teacher completed a social questionnaire about each child's playing behavior, sharing, talkativeness, confidence, aggressiveness and outgoingness. A measure of task memory and the child's gender were also recorded. Here, children generally passed ToM tasks after 5 years‐old, but no one gender performed reliably better than the other. Teacher‐rated confidence and playing behavior were correlated to ToM. But in a regression analysis, these were replaced by teacher‐rated talkativeness; with age and memory given primacy in both sets of analyses. It is concluded that maturation and cognitive factors may well have primacy but social factors, facilitated during early primary education, must also be given a role in ToM development.