The child's discovery of the mind
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The child's discovery of the mind
（The developing child）
Harvard University Press, 1993
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780674116412
Description
Three-year-old greets her grandfather at the front door: "We're having a surprise party for your birthday! It's a secret!" We may smile at incidents like these, but they illustrate the beginning of an important transition in children's lives - their development of the "theory of mind". Emily certainly had some sense of her grandfather's feelings, but she clearly doesn't understand much about what he knows, and surprises - like secrets, tricks and lies - all depend on understanding and manipulating what others think and know. Jan Piaget investigated children's discovery of the mind in the 1920s and concluded that they had little understanding before the age of six. However, since the late 1970s researchers have begun to challenge his methods and revise his conclusions. In this volume Janet Astington surveys this lively area of research in developmental psychology. She asserts that sometime between the ages of two and five, children begin to have insights into their own mental life and that of others.
They begin, she says, to understand mental representation - that there is a difference between thoughts in the mind and things in the world, between thinking about eating a cookie and eating a cookie. This theory reflects their emerging capacity to infer other people's thoughts, wants, feelings and perceptions from words and actions. Children come to understand why people act as they do and can predict how they will act in the future, so that by the age of five they are knowing participants in social interaction. Astington highlights how crucial children's discovery of the mind is in their social and intellectual development by including a chapter on autistic children, who fail to make this breakthrough.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780674116429
Description
Three-year old Emily greets her grandfather at the front door: "We're having a surprise party for your birthday! And it's a secret!" We may smile at incidents like these, but they illustrate the beginning of an important transition in children's lives-their development of a "theory of mind." Emily certainly has some sense of her grandfather's feelings, but she clearly doesn't understand much about what he knows, and surprises-like secrets, tricks, and ties all depend on understanding and manipulating what others think and know.
Jean Piaget investigated children's discovery of the mind in the 1920s and concluded that they had little understanding before the age of six. But over the last twenty years, researchers have begun to challenge his methods and revise his conclusions. In The Child's Discovery of the Mind, Janet Astington surveys this lively area of research in developmental psychology. Sometime between the ages of two and five, children begin to have insights into their own mental life and those of others. They begin to understand mental representation-that there is a difference between thoughts in the mind and things in the world, between thinking about eating a cookie and eating a cookie. This breakthrough reflects their emerging capacity to infer other people's thoughts, wants, feelings, and perceptions from words and actions. They come to understand why people act the way they do and can predict how they will act in the future, so that by the age of five, they are knowing participants in social interaction. Astington highlights how crucial children's discovery of the mind is in their social and intellectual development by including a chapter on autistic children, who fail to make this breakthrough.
"Mind" is a cultural construct that children discover as they acquire the language and social practices of their culture, enabling them to make sense of the world. Astington provides a valuable overview of current research and of the consequences of this discovery for intellectual and social development.
Table of Contents
* What Is the Mind? * What Does the Mind Do? * People and Things * Thoughts and Things * Thought and Language * Thinking about Wanting * Thinking about Knowing * Thinking about Believing * The Undiscovered Mind * Causes and Consequences * Notes * Suggested Reading * Index
by "Nielsen BookData"