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Based on past research that suggests an association between perspective-taking and theory of mind, the present study investigates the relationship between these two constructs by administering three perspective-taking and three theory of mind tasks, along with one measure of inhibition and one measure of expressive language, to eighty-four 3- and 4-year olds. The goals of this study were to (1) evaluate the relative difficulties of the six perspective-taking and theory of mind tasks, (2) assess whether the theory of mind and perspective-taking tasks scale onto the same dimension, (3) examine the distinctions proposed within the construct of perspective-taking, (4) investigate the relationship between inhibition and verbal ability with theory of mind and perspective-taking, and (5) examine the relationship between perspective-taking and theory of mind. The results show that the six theory of mind and perspective-taking tasks develop along a single continuum and produce a scale of the understanding of subjectivity for preschoolers. Results also demonstrate that the ability to take someone else’s perspective without directly confronting it with one’s own perspective is the least challenging, and understanding that others’ beliefs can be false is the most challenging task. Finally, results indicate that inhibition and verbal ability account for the relationship between almost all of the perspective-taking and theory of mind tasks. / Graduate

This dissertation engages in two major hypotheses regarding infants' naïve theory of social relationships. First, it proposes that infants may apply a domain-specific understanding to represent and reason about social groups defined by affiliation amongst their members. Second, it argues that infants may have an understanding of the causal role that behavioral conformity plays in promoting affiliation, and that this understanding may help to determine how infants reason about the coalitional social groups referred to in the first hypothesis. Experiments across three chapters address different aspects of these hypotheses. The experiments in Chapter 2 ask whether infants selectively use coalitional groups to make certain sorts of behavioral inferences, in contrast to the inferences they draw regarding other animate and inanimate categories. The experiments in Chapter 3 investigate the role of similarity of appearance in infants' representations of coalitional groups. Finally, the experiments in Chapter 4 look at how infants evaluate behavioral conformity and what they think it indicates about the attitudes of conformers and their targets. Chapter 5 synthesizes this work and discusses how it might apply to the study of imitation in both developmental and comparative fields. / Psychology

Beliefs--mental representations of particular propositions as true--are fundamental to social cognition. Among the most influential beliefs are ideologies, which concern the way things should be and help people understand the social structures within which they live. Ideologies occupy a unique position because they contain elements of other types of beliefs. For example, to a Biblical literalist, the belief that the earth is 4000 years old may seem fact-like. Because not everyone agrees about ideologies, however, such beliefs may seem somewhat preference-like even to their strongest adherents. To investigate the role of social experience in reasoning about ideologies, we examined children and adults. Because children have significantly less experience with ideologies, their reasoning may diverge from adults. On the other hand, if children and adults respond similarly, this would indicate that vast amounts of experience are not necessary for adult-like belief-based cognition to emerge. Part 1 showed that 5-10 year old children and adults distinguished ideological beliefs from factual beliefs(a domain in which, if two people disagree, at least one must be wrong) and preference-based beliefs(a domain in which it is acceptable for people to disagree), indicating that much experience is unnecessary for this ability to emerge. Given that even young children recognize that those who disagree with their ideological beliefs are not necessarily wrong, it is possible that children would not show strong social preferences in this domain. On the other hand, given children’s propensity toward group-based preferences in other areas, even young children may show religion-based preferences. In Part II, 6-8 year old Christian children showed implicit pro-Christian preferences regardless of the comparison target’s religion but only reported pro-Christian preferences when the two targets were very different from one another. In Part III, 6-11 year old children preferred peers who shared their religious, factual, and preference-based beliefs and selectively attributed pro-social behaviors to individuals who shared their religious views. Taken together, these findings suggest that children and adults differentiate ideologies from other types of mental states and that, despite its complexity, ideology influences social judgments even among young children. / Psychology

This thesis focuses upon the abilities of children with severe learning difficulties to contemplate the psychological states of other people, what is often referred to in the literature as 'mindreading' (Whiten and Perner, 1991). The first section contains a review of the literature on children's developing understanding of the mind and their conceptual representational abilities. This is followed by two studies investigating non-learning disabled children's abilities to attribute first-and second-order false belief. The first of these uses an adaptation of the Sally-Anne test (Baron-Cohen, et al., 1985). The second study uses an original false belief story scenario, which involves children in drama. The researcher uses a technique called 'split-briefing' to provide children with first-hand experience of first-and second-order false belief. Simplified versions of the two false belief story scenarios are then used with children with severe learning difficulties to investigate their abilities to represent first-and second-order false belief. The relationship between children's scores on belief attribution tasks and their scores on tests of non-verbal intellectual reasoning (Ravens Coloured Matrices) and receptive language ability (TROG) is also examined in this study. The third section outlines the findings of a questionnaire-based study examining parental reports of spontaneous internal state use by two groups of children: non-learning disabled children aged 1-5 years and pupils with Down's Syndrome aged 4-19 years with severe learning difficulties. 'Internal state language' is language which refers to intentions, cognitions and feeling states (Bretherton and Beeghly, 1981). This is followed by a further investigation of internal state language among a group of students with severe learning difficulties. This study uses a series of playlets written by the author to provide students with an interactive, participatory medium in which to draw their attention to people's internal states. The thesis concludes with a final statement on research into the social-cognitive development of children with severe learning difficulties, with recommendations for future research and intervention.

Dentro dos transtornos do espectro autístico, as alterações de linguagem e da comunicação sempre foram consideradas elementos fundamentais. Hoje inúmeros trabalhos relatam a atuação do fonoaudiólogo junto a esta população. Esta pesquisa propõe-se a contribuir para um melhor entendimento dos processos de desenvolvimento da linguagem e do desempenho sócio cognitivo em crianças normais e em crianças autistas no período que antecede à verbalização e no período inicial da mesma. A fundamentação teórica tem por finalidade ancorar este estudo e fornecer uma amostra do que se discute atualmente nas áreas abordadas. O objetivo do trabalho é traçar as correlações entre o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sócio cognitivo de crianças normais de zero a trinta e seis meses e de autistas. A metodologia proposta para esta pesquisa envolve o acompanhamento próximo e sistemático do desenvolvimento de 6 crianças, em situações de interação com suas mães, através de gravações trimestrais realizadas entre o primeiro e o décimo quinto mês (3 sujeitos) e entre o décimo oitavo e o trigésimo sexto mês (3 sujeitos). Com o objetivo de corroborar os dados referentes a este pequeno grupo, bem como ampliar as possibilidades de generalização dos resultados obtidos, foram colhidos dados da interação mãe - criança de outros 39 sujeitos, sendo 3 de cada faixa etária, respectivamente, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 e 36 meses. Os dados obtidos a respeito do desenvolvimento do perfil comunicativo e desempenho sócio-cognitivo em crianças normais forneceram parâmetros a partir dos quais investigar o perfil comunicativo e o desempenho sócio-cognitivo de 20 crianças autistas (10 falantes e 10 não falantes). Os resultados mostram que as crianças normais e as crianças autistas apresentam formas distintas de correlacionar a linguagem com as habilidades cognitivas e sociais. Nos dois grupos foi possível observar que o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sócio-cognitivo estão interligados e que o desenvolvimento de um passa necessariamente pelo desenvolvimento do outro. A presente pesquisa confirmou que há intenção comunicativa desde o nascimento e que a criança amplia quantitativamente e qualitativamente suas habilidades comunicativas, junto com o aprimoramento de suas habilidades sociais e cognitivas. Nas crianças autistas verbais e não verbais a caracterização do perfil funcional da comunicação e do desempenho sócio-cognitivo realizada neste estudo confirmou a dificuldade destas crianças nas três áreas abordadas e como estas dificuldades muitas vezes determinam o seu desempenho. Diferentemente das crianças normais, as autistas apresentam muitas vezes dissociações entre o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sóciocognitivo, em função das dificuldades específicas da patologia / Language and communication disorders have always been considered within autistic spectrum disorders. Nowadays many studies report the speech and language therapist\'s work with this population. This research provides a contribution to the better understanding of language and social cognitive developmental processes in the preceding and early stages of verbalization in normal developing and autistic children. The theoretical basis aims to support this study and to provide a sample of the recent discussions about the issue. The objective of the research is to determine the correlations between the functional communicative profile and the social-cognitive performance of children with normal development between zero and 36 months of age and autistic children. The methodology proposed involves the systematic follow up of six children interacting with their mothers through recordings sessions conducted in their homes, with three months interval of three children between the first and the 15th month (3 subjects) and between the 18th and the 36th months (3 subjects). To further improve the generalization possibilities of the data obtained with this small group the same data was obtained from other 39 subjects interaction with their mothers, 3 of each age (respectively 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 and 36 months). The data about the development of communicative language profile and social cognitive performance provided parameters from which investigate the communicative profile and the social cognitive development of autistic children (10 verbal and 10 non-verbal). Results show that normal and autistic children presented different correlations between language and social-cognitive habilities. In both groups it was possible to observe that the functional communication profile and the social-cognitive performance are associated and that the development of one domain in necessarily linked to the development of the other. The present research confirmed that communicative intent is present since birth and that there is a quantitative and a qualitative improvement of communicative abilities along with the improvement of social-cognitive abilities. In verbal and non-verbal autistic children the characterization of the functional communicative profile and the socialcognitive performance conducted in this study confirmed these children\'s inabilities in the three domains and how these inabilities determine their general performance. Contrary to normal developing children the autistic children many times present dissociation between the functional communicative profile and the social-cognitive performance due specific characteristics of the disorder.

Dentro dos transtornos do espectro autístico, as alterações de linguagem e da comunicação sempre foram consideradas elementos fundamentais. Hoje inúmeros trabalhos relatam a atuação do fonoaudiólogo junto a esta população. Esta pesquisa propõe-se a contribuir para um melhor entendimento dos processos de desenvolvimento da linguagem e do desempenho sócio cognitivo em crianças normais e em crianças autistas no período que antecede à verbalização e no período inicial da mesma. A fundamentação teórica tem por finalidade ancorar este estudo e fornecer uma amostra do que se discute atualmente nas áreas abordadas. O objetivo do trabalho é traçar as correlações entre o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sócio cognitivo de crianças normais de zero a trinta e seis meses e de autistas. A metodologia proposta para esta pesquisa envolve o acompanhamento próximo e sistemático do desenvolvimento de 6 crianças, em situações de interação com suas mães, através de gravações trimestrais realizadas entre o primeiro e o décimo quinto mês (3 sujeitos) e entre o décimo oitavo e o trigésimo sexto mês (3 sujeitos). Com o objetivo de corroborar os dados referentes a este pequeno grupo, bem como ampliar as possibilidades de generalização dos resultados obtidos, foram colhidos dados da interação mãe - criança de outros 39 sujeitos, sendo 3 de cada faixa etária, respectivamente, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 e 36 meses. Os dados obtidos a respeito do desenvolvimento do perfil comunicativo e desempenho sócio-cognitivo em crianças normais forneceram parâmetros a partir dos quais investigar o perfil comunicativo e o desempenho sócio-cognitivo de 20 crianças autistas (10 falantes e 10 não falantes). Os resultados mostram que as crianças normais e as crianças autistas apresentam formas distintas de correlacionar a linguagem com as habilidades cognitivas e sociais. Nos dois grupos foi possível observar que o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sócio-cognitivo estão interligados e que o desenvolvimento de um passa necessariamente pelo desenvolvimento do outro. A presente pesquisa confirmou que há intenção comunicativa desde o nascimento e que a criança amplia quantitativamente e qualitativamente suas habilidades comunicativas, junto com o aprimoramento de suas habilidades sociais e cognitivas. Nas crianças autistas verbais e não verbais a caracterização do perfil funcional da comunicação e do desempenho sócio-cognitivo realizada neste estudo confirmou a dificuldade destas crianças nas três áreas abordadas e como estas dificuldades muitas vezes determinam o seu desempenho. Diferentemente das crianças normais, as autistas apresentam muitas vezes dissociações entre o perfil funcional da comunicação e o desempenho sóciocognitivo, em função das dificuldades específicas da patologia / Language and communication disorders have always been considered within autistic spectrum disorders. Nowadays many studies report the speech and language therapist\'s work with this population. This research provides a contribution to the better understanding of language and social cognitive developmental processes in the preceding and early stages of verbalization in normal developing and autistic children. The theoretical basis aims to support this study and to provide a sample of the recent discussions about the issue. The objective of the research is to determine the correlations between the functional communicative profile and the social-cognitive performance of children with normal development between zero and 36 months of age and autistic children. The methodology proposed involves the systematic follow up of six children interacting with their mothers through recordings sessions conducted in their homes, with three months interval of three children between the first and the 15th month (3 subjects) and between the 18th and the 36th months (3 subjects). To further improve the generalization possibilities of the data obtained with this small group the same data was obtained from other 39 subjects interaction with their mothers, 3 of each age (respectively 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 and 36 months). The data about the development of communicative language profile and social cognitive performance provided parameters from which investigate the communicative profile and the social cognitive development of autistic children (10 verbal and 10 non-verbal). Results show that normal and autistic children presented different correlations between language and social-cognitive habilities. In both groups it was possible to observe that the functional communication profile and the social-cognitive performance are associated and that the development of one domain in necessarily linked to the development of the other. The present research confirmed that communicative intent is present since birth and that there is a quantitative and a qualitative improvement of communicative abilities along with the improvement of social-cognitive abilities. In verbal and non-verbal autistic children the characterization of the functional communicative profile and the socialcognitive performance conducted in this study confirmed these children\'s inabilities in the three domains and how these inabilities determine their general performance. Contrary to normal developing children the autistic children many times present dissociation between the functional communicative profile and the social-cognitive performance due specific characteristics of the disorder.

The present study investigated the impact of a multicultural self-awareness personal growth group on counselor education students (n = 94) and group leaders (n = 10) and their ethnic identity development scores, social-cognitive maturity levels, and presence of group therapeutic factors. Findings from the study identified no statistically significant differences in ethnic identity development and social-cognitive maturity scores between treatment group and comparison group participants, or as a result of multiple measurements throughout the semester. However, a statistically significant effect was identified for time (pre-test, M = 91.94, SD = 5.33; mid-semester, M = 90.32, SD = 6.43; post-test, M = 91.18, SD = 6.36) on social-cognitive maturity TPR scores for treatment group participants, Wilk’s Lambda = .90, F (2, 63) = 3.39, p = .04, η² = .10. In addition, positive correlations were identified between ethnic identity development scores and group therapeutic factors in students participating in the multicultural personal growth groups: (a) Instillation of Hope, n = 63, r = .43, p = .00 (18.5% of the variance explained); (b) Secure Emotional Expression, n = 63, r = .39, p = .00 (15.2% of the variance explained); (c) Awareness of Relational Impact, n = 63, r = .47, p = .00 (22.1% of the variance explained); and (d) Social Learning, n = 63, r = .46, p = .00 (21.2% of the variance explained. Furthermore, a discussion of implications for counselor education and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) with graduate students are included. Keywords: counselor education and development, multicultural counseling and development, scholarship for teaching and learning, social-cognitive development, therapeutic group factors

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:30:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5952.pdf: 1430380 bytes, checksum: c8ba5e629cc06643244438cb9ada84d7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-21 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The creation of imaginary companions is a phenomenon that has been timidly explored in the international literature in Psychology and Psychiatry. More specifically, there are still important questions regarding who are the children that create imaginary companions and the role that fantasy plays in emotional and cognitive development. In recent years, several studies investigating symbolic play have been conducted in Brazil, however, according to three different data bases (SciELO-Brasil, Index Psi, PePSIC), there are only two national studies on the topic of imaginary companions, suggesting a yet limited understanding of the manifestation of this phenomenon in Brazilian children. Considering this gap in the literature, as well as the potential contributions of studies on this type of fantasy, the present research aimed, therefore, to investigate this form of pretend play in a sample of Brazilian children, and to be the first study in Brazil to investigate the relationship between the creation of imaginary companions and sociocognitive development. Our hypothesis was that children with imaginary companions would have significantly higher scores than the comparison group in measures of language, social cognition and engagement in fantasy. Forty children between 6 and 7 years of age (M age = 7;1, SD = 5.29), 21 girls and 19 boys, participated in the study and were recruited from an elementary public school in a city located in the state of São Paulo. Eighteen participants were included in the group of children who reported an imaginary companion and 22 in the group of children who did not. To test for possible differences between the two groups, three measures of theory-of-mind, emotional comprehension and language were used, as well as an interview about fantasy orientation and the characteristics of their imaginary companions. In addition, a questionnaire assessing socioeconomic status and an interview about the family and the child s fantasy world were administered to 11 participating caretakers. As predicted, children s reports of imaginary companions were rich and seemed to serve similar functions to the ones found in previous international studies (e.g., company, fun, emotional support). Children with imaginary companions had higher vocabulary scores than children who did not report them, but no significant differences were found between the two groups with regard to theory of mind and emotional comprehension. Such line of research can help to demystify this form of pretend play, to which little attention is given in the media and in the scientific community, as well as to collaborate with the instruction of parents and educators on the creation of imaginary companions, and finally, to contribute to international research by providing data from a specific culture. Moreover, the present study provides evidence that the creation of imaginary companions is not associated with any developmental deficits; on the contrary, it can be a predictor of more sophisticated abilities such as higher vocabulary. / A criação de amigos imaginários é um fenômeno que tem sido explorado de forma tímida na literatura psicológica e psiquiátrica internacional. Mais especificamente, ainda há questões importantes sobre quem são as crianças que criam amigos imaginários e sobre o papel da fantasia no desenvolvimento emocional e cognitivo infantil. Nos últimos anos, diversos estudos brasileiros têm investigado a brincadeira simbólica, no entanto, segundo três diferentes bases de dados (SciELO-Brasil, Index Psi, PePSIC), há apenas dois estudos nacionais voltados especificamente para a criação de amigos imaginários, o que sugere uma compreensão ainda limitada da manifestação desse fenômeno em crianças brasileiras. Diante dessa lacuna na literatura nacional e as potenciais contribuições do estudo sobre esse tipo de fantasia, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo principal explorar esta forma de faz de conta em uma amostra de crianças brasileiras, sendo a primeira no país a investigar a sua relação com o desenvolvimento sociocognitivo. A hipótese defendida foi a de que as crianças com amigos imaginários apresentariam desempenhos significativamente melhores em medidas de linguagem, cognição social e engajamento em fantasia, em relação ao grupo de comparação. Quarenta crianças, entre 6 e 7 anos (M idade = 7;1, DP = 5,29) participaram do estudo, sendo 21 meninas e 19 meninos, todos recrutados em uma escola de ensino fundamental da rede estadual de uma cidade do interior de São Paulo. Dentre os participantes, 18 foram classificadas no grupo de crianças que possuem um amigo imaginário e 22 no grupo de crianças que não relatam ter amigos imaginários. A fim de testar possíveis diferenças entre os dois grupos de crianças, foram utilizadas três tarefas de teoria da mente, um teste de compreensão emocional e uma medida de vocabulário, bem como uma entrevista sobre engajamento em fantasia e outra sobre amigos imaginários, para explorar as características de tais criações. Um roteiro de entrevista sobre a família e o universo de fantasia da criança foi aplicado com 11 responsáveis de participantes do estudo. Conforme esperado, os relatos de companhias imaginárias recolhidos mostraram-se ricos e apresentaram funções parecidas com aquelas de estudos internacionais (e.g, companhia, diversão, conforto emocional). As crianças com amigos imaginários apresentaram escores mais elevados do que as crianças sem esse tipo de criação na medida de vocabulário receptivo, mas não foram encontradas diferenças significativas entre os dois grupos no que diz respeito à teoria da mente e à compreensão emocional. Pesquisas como esta podem ajudar a desmistificar essa forma de faz de conta, sobre a qual pouco se fala na mídia e na comunidade científica, bem como colaborar com a instrução de pais e educadores sobre a criação de amigos imaginários, e finalmente, contribuir para a pesquisa internacional, ao fornecer dados provenientes de uma cultura específica. Além disso, o presente trabalho oferece evidências de que a criação de amigos imaginários não se associa a déficits em desenvolvimento, e pode inclusive ser um preditor de habilidades mais sofisticadas, como por exemplo, um vocabulário mais desenvolvido.

This research explores the application of Viewpoints and Composition training with a cast of high school students to measure changes in the social cognitive development (SCD) of individuals and the collective group. The research centers on the writing of Michael F. Mascolo and Deborah Margolis, which takes a coactive approach to the relationship between one's social cognitive development and how it is manifested in his or her actions within a social group. Using this framework, the researcher assesses the personality types within the cast and analyzes how utilizing Viewpoints training creates shifts within these personalities. The researcher approaches this study from both a theoretical standpoint as a student during a two-week intensive training course for adults with SITI Company, and a practical standpoint in the direction of a fully mounted production with high school actors. The objective of the research is to propose a method to implement advanced Viewpoints training within a high school ensemble in order to cultivate ensemble and ultimately aid the social cognitive development of the individual actors.