Development of Social
Cognition
Sense of self
Learning objectives
• To define what we mean by social cognition
• To explain how we develop a sense of self and how this is tested
• To apply “Theory of mind” to sense of self development
So far we have looked at…
• Theories of Cognitive development
- Piaget
- Vygotsky
• Theories of Moral development
- Kohlberg
- Piaget
Development of social cognition
• The mental processes by which
information concerning ourselves
and others is understood
• The understanding of information
relating to others
Sense of self
• The ability to self-recognise
• To know that we are separate from
other people
• This ability is needed for social
interactions to occur
Testing the sense of self
• This is done using the “mirror test” – Lewis and Brooks-Gunn (1979)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8311498.stm
Thought to develop
between the age of 1
and 2 – by 21 months
70% of infants were
touching the dot
Main evaluation point – lack of language in small children, making conclusions difficult to arrive at
Theory of Mind (ToM)
• Until we have a sense of self, we cannot develop a theory of mind –
this links to understanding others
• ToM refers to the ability to understand our own thoughts and
feelings and the thoughts and feelings of others. For example,
understanding that a friend who is about to take an exam is feeling
nervous even if we are not
• We are putting ourselves in other peoples shoes – taking their
perspective
• Generally thought that children over 4 years of age possess a ToM
Testing Theory of Mind…
• False belief tasks:
- Smarties tests
- Sally-Ann Task
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41jSdOQQpv0
Watch the video clip and outline the methods of the two tasks in your
booklets – make sure you include what the responses should be if a
child does have theory of mind
ToM and autism
• Baron-Cohen et al (1985):
- The Sally-Ann task was carried out on 61 children aged between 6 and 17
with matched mental ages
- 20 autistic children, 14 with Down’s Syndrome, 27 normally developing
children
- Results showed that 85% of children who were normally developing and
with Down’s Syndrome could correctly answer, showing they possessed
ToM
- Only 20% of autistic children answered correctly
- Autistic children have difficulty putting themselves in someone else's shoes
Linking sense of self, ToM and autism
• Until we develop a sense of self we cannot develop a Theory of Mind
or understand others.
• Based on evidence by Baren-Cohen, it is thought that in autism, ToM
fails to develop
• Autism is therefore a creditable example of what might happen if the
development of the self, and hence of Theory of Mind, goes wrong.
• Main symptoms of autism – difficulty in social communication and
interaction
Evaluation of sense of self theory
• Issues with research
• IDA
Complete the cut and stick to decide which points are limitations of
research and which are related to IDA