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abstract: A cornerstone of children’s socio-cognitive development is understanding that others can have knowledge, thoughts, and perceptions that differ from one’s own. Preschool-aged children often have difficulty with this kind of social understanding, i.e., they lack an explicit theory of mind. The goal of this dissertation was to examine the role mental state language as a developmental mechanism of children’s early understanding of their own mental states (i.e., their introspective ability). Specifically, it was hypothesized that (1) parents’ ability to recognize and appropriately label their children’s mental states and (2) children’s linguistic ability to distinguish between their mental states shapes the development of children’s introspective ability. An initial prediction of the first hypothesis is that parents should recognized differences in the development of children’s self- and other-understanding in order to better help their children’s introspective development. In support of this prediction, parents (N = 400, Mage = 58 months, Range = 28-93 months) reported that children’s understanding of their own knowledge was greater than children’s understanding of others’ knowledge. A prediction of the second hypothesis is that children’s linguistic ability to distinguish between and appropriately label their own mental states should determine their ability to make fined grained judgments of mental states like certainty. In support of this prediction, children’s (N = 197, Mage = 56 months, Range = 36-82 months) ability to distinguish between their own knowledge and ignorance states was associated children’s ability to engage in uncertainty monitoring. Together, these findings provide support for the association between children’s linguistic environment and ability and their introspective development. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Psychology 2018

Philosophical and psychological theories of social understanding have largely focused on the construct of “theory of mind” (ToM) and the inferential processes that may be necessary for understanding the meaning of others’ behaviour. On these traditional accounts, social understanding has often been described as a process of “mind reading” or “mentalizing”, where one imputes mental states to others to make sense of their behaviour. However, recent work from social neuroscience and enactivist and phenomenological perspectives have pointed to the importance of considering non-inferential forms of social understanding that may be a more basic or foundational way in which we understand others. This dissertation investigates the relationship between these different forms of social understanding by examining the role of perceptual, motor, and conceptual processes in how we understand others. One hundred and two older adolescents and adults completed a battery of psychophysical and paper & pencil tasks. Correlations showed coherence amongst measures that assessed participants’ perceptual sensitivity to social information, with minimal coherence across “theory of mind” tasks. Exploratory factor analysis conducted on 13 measures yielded a meaningful 4 factor solution that supported the distinction between conceptual or inferential measures and more direct, perceptual forms of social understanding. Overall, the findings from this study highlight the importance of considering the variety of ways in which we can understand others and provides empirical support for a more pluralistic and comprehensive account of social understanding. / Graduate / 2020-10-23

A sociabilidade humana tem merecido atenção especial para o entendimento da filogênese e ontogênese da espécie. Nos humanos, a característica de interagir com o parceiro, envolve uma capacidade peculiar de reconhecer estados mentais e emocionais de si mesmo e do outro, aqui referida como compreensão social. A literatura da área de desenvolvimento infantil indica uma provável relação entre a compreensão social de crianças e as interações que elas estabelecem em contextos lúdicos com seus pares de idade. As pesquisas, no entanto, dificilmente investigam os comportamentos que caracterizam essas interações em situação de brincadeira livre entre crianças pré-escolares. A partir da psicoetologia, a brincadeira entre pares é considerada um espaço ecologicamente relevante para o desenvolvimento da criança e atividade privilegiada para a observação de seu comportamento social. No presente estudo visamos caracterizar o comportamento de crianças pré-escolares em relação à capacidade de compreensão social quando observadas em situação lúdica triádica e avaliadas em testes individuais de teoria da mente e compreensão das emoções. Investigamos uma amostra de 31 crianças (50% meninas). Elas frequentavam o mesmo Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil, que lhes ofertava um atendimento diário, organizando-as em três agrupamentos etários (3, 4 e 5 anos). Os trios observados e videoregistrados em um ambiente lúdico, foram compostos por crianças do mesmo agrupamento, usando-se o critério de parcerias preferenciais ou neutras. Identificamos na situação de observação comportamentos de acesso/recepção (aproximação sem conflito, ação coordenada por cooperação, exibição, aproximação com conflito; intermediação, ação coordenada por imitação, pedido, convite e oferta) usados pelas crianças para se ajustarem aos parceiros de interação. Em decorrência de uma análise fatorial exploratória, esses comportamentos foram nomeados de: interações amistosas, interações agonísticas e propostas. Em seu conjunto, os resultados sugerem que as crianças apresentam, nas interações lúdicas com os seus pares de idade, uma compreensão do outro que as possibilita realizar ações ajustadas ao contexto interacional. As crianças de 5 anos apresentaram mais interações amistosas para acessar a situação já estabelecida ou receber uma nova criança, quando comparadas às de 4 e 3 anos; além disso, elas apresentaram um desempenho melhor no teste de teoria da mente e no teste de compreensão de emoções quando comparadas às mais novas, resultados que sugerem transformações ontogenéticas relevantes nessa idade. As análises realizadas permitem indicar um caminho ontogenético de desdobramentos e ampliação da compreensão social de crianças nas interações estas são tomadas como produto e instrumento da compreensão social o que reflete uma psicologia que evoluiu junto com a complexidade da vida em grupo. Os resultados também contribuem para a discussão sobre em que medida ter e usar a capacidade de compreender o outro são competências relacionadas. Indicamos que os comportamentos categorizados neste estudo ajudam a identificar tendências comportamentais que fazem parte do repertório da criança na interação lúdica com pares e que podem passar despercebidos em testes individuais ou situações experimentais de resolução de problemas. Compreensão social e desenvolvimento social podem constituir uma via de mão dupla com consequências para a exibição de comportamentos ajustados às demandas sociais / Human sociability is merited to highlight special attention to the understanding of phylogenies and ontogenesis, the evolutionary functions of the Homo sapiens species. Social understanding within the human context comprises of the capacity to attribute to mental and emotional states of oneself and to others. The current literature indicates potential links between childrens social understanding and their peer interaction in settings of play. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated the behaviors displayed in those interactions during free play among preschool children. From the human ethological approach, playing with peers is an ecologically relevant environment for childrens development; and for the observation of their social behaviors. This present study aims to describe pre-school childrens behaviors in terms of their social understanding abilities when they played freely in triad, and then were assessed individually on tests regarding theory of mind and emotional comprehension. The studys sample was composed of 31 typically developing children (50% girls) from low-income socioeconomic status, equally distributed in three age groups (3, 4 and 5 years old) and attending the same daycare group in Recife, Brazil. From the observation of the free play, we could identified access/receptive behaviors displayed by the children when adjusting their behaviors to those of their peer group (approach without conflict, cooperative coordinated action, exhibition, approach with conflict, intermediation, imitative coordinated action, request, invitation and offer). In result of a factorial exploration analysis, these behaviors were grouped: friendly interaction, agonistic interaction and proposal. We found age-related differences with regard to childrens behaviors while interacting with their peer group in the triadic playful situation, as well as on their performances in the individual tests. 5-year-old children showed more friendly interaction than 3 and 4-year-old children, either when accessing a situation already established by others or when welcoming a new child. The older children also performed better than the younger children on the theory of mind and emotional comprehension tests. There was no relation between the access/receptive behaviors in peer interaction and childrens performances on the individual conceptual tasks. The results suggest that, during ludic interaction with peers, children show an understanding of others, which allows them to adjust their action based on the interactional context. Although, children unfold and improve their understanding while interacting; interactions are both a product of and tool for social understanding; after reflecting on the psychological processes that evolved, according to the complexity of navigating within peer groups. The findings also contribute to the discussion regarding [having and using the ability to understanding others] are related competences. The behaviors categorized in this study aid the identification of childrens repertoire of behavioral patterns in ludic peer interaction, which very often cannot be grasped through individual tests or collaborative problem-solving situations in experimental settings. Social understanding and social development within children might constitute a bi-directional relationship, which brings consequences for the display of behaviors well-adjusted to social demands

A sociabilidade humana tem merecido atenção especial para o entendimento da filogênese e ontogênese da espécie. Nos humanos, a característica de interagir com o parceiro, envolve uma capacidade peculiar de reconhecer estados mentais e emocionais de si mesmo e do outro, aqui referida como compreensão social. A literatura da área de desenvolvimento infantil indica uma provável relação entre a compreensão social de crianças e as interações que elas estabelecem em contextos lúdicos com seus pares de idade. As pesquisas, no entanto, dificilmente investigam os comportamentos que caracterizam essas interações em situação de brincadeira livre entre crianças pré-escolares. A partir da psicoetologia, a brincadeira entre pares é considerada um espaço ecologicamente relevante para o desenvolvimento da criança e atividade privilegiada para a observação de seu comportamento social. No presente estudo visamos caracterizar o comportamento de crianças pré-escolares em relação à capacidade de compreensão social quando observadas em situação lúdica triádica e avaliadas em testes individuais de teoria da mente e compreensão das emoções. Investigamos uma amostra de 31 crianças (50% meninas). Elas frequentavam o mesmo Centro Municipal de Educação Infantil, que lhes ofertava um atendimento diário, organizando-as em três agrupamentos etários (3, 4 e 5 anos). Os trios observados e videoregistrados em um ambiente lúdico, foram compostos por crianças do mesmo agrupamento, usando-se o critério de parcerias preferenciais ou neutras. Identificamos na situação de observação comportamentos de acesso/recepção (aproximação sem conflito, ação coordenada por cooperação, exibição, aproximação com conflito; intermediação, ação coordenada por imitação, pedido, convite e oferta) usados pelas crianças para se ajustarem aos parceiros de interação. Em decorrência de uma análise fatorial exploratória, esses comportamentos foram nomeados de: interações amistosas, interações agonísticas e propostas. Em seu conjunto, os resultados sugerem que as crianças apresentam, nas interações lúdicas com os seus pares de idade, uma compreensão do outro que as possibilita realizar ações ajustadas ao contexto interacional. As crianças de 5 anos apresentaram mais interações amistosas para acessar a situação já estabelecida ou receber uma nova criança, quando comparadas às de 4 e 3 anos; além disso, elas apresentaram um desempenho melhor no teste de teoria da mente e no teste de compreensão de emoções quando comparadas às mais novas, resultados que sugerem transformações ontogenéticas relevantes nessa idade. As análises realizadas permitem indicar um caminho ontogenético de desdobramentos e ampliação da compreensão social de crianças nas interações estas são tomadas como produto e instrumento da compreensão social o que reflete uma psicologia que evoluiu junto com a complexidade da vida em grupo. Os resultados também contribuem para a discussão sobre em que medida ter e usar a capacidade de compreender o outro são competências relacionadas. Indicamos que os comportamentos categorizados neste estudo ajudam a identificar tendências comportamentais que fazem parte do repertório da criança na interação lúdica com pares e que podem passar despercebidos em testes individuais ou situações experimentais de resolução de problemas. Compreensão social e desenvolvimento social podem constituir uma via de mão dupla com consequências para a exibição de comportamentos ajustados às demandas sociais / Human sociability is merited to highlight special attention to the understanding of phylogenies and ontogenesis, the evolutionary functions of the Homo sapiens species. Social understanding within the human context comprises of the capacity to attribute to mental and emotional states of oneself and to others. The current literature indicates potential links between childrens social understanding and their peer interaction in settings of play. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated the behaviors displayed in those interactions during free play among preschool children. From the human ethological approach, playing with peers is an ecologically relevant environment for childrens development; and for the observation of their social behaviors. This present study aims to describe pre-school childrens behaviors in terms of their social understanding abilities when they played freely in triad, and then were assessed individually on tests regarding theory of mind and emotional comprehension. The studys sample was composed of 31 typically developing children (50% girls) from low-income socioeconomic status, equally distributed in three age groups (3, 4 and 5 years old) and attending the same daycare group in Recife, Brazil. From the observation of the free play, we could identified access/receptive behaviors displayed by the children when adjusting their behaviors to those of their peer group (approach without conflict, cooperative coordinated action, exhibition, approach with conflict, intermediation, imitative coordinated action, request, invitation and offer). In result of a factorial exploration analysis, these behaviors were grouped: friendly interaction, agonistic interaction and proposal. We found age-related differences with regard to childrens behaviors while interacting with their peer group in the triadic playful situation, as well as on their performances in the individual tests. 5-year-old children showed more friendly interaction than 3 and 4-year-old children, either when accessing a situation already established by others or when welcoming a new child. The older children also performed better than the younger children on the theory of mind and emotional comprehension tests. There was no relation between the access/receptive behaviors in peer interaction and childrens performances on the individual conceptual tasks. The results suggest that, during ludic interaction with peers, children show an understanding of others, which allows them to adjust their action based on the interactional context. Although, children unfold and improve their understanding while interacting; interactions are both a product of and tool for social understanding; after reflecting on the psychological processes that evolved, according to the complexity of navigating within peer groups. The findings also contribute to the discussion regarding [having and using the ability to understanding others] are related competences. The behaviors categorized in this study aid the identification of childrens repertoire of behavioral patterns in ludic peer interaction, which very often cannot be grasped through individual tests or collaborative problem-solving situations in experimental settings. Social understanding and social development within children might constitute a bi-directional relationship, which brings consequences for the display of behaviors well-adjusted to social demands

This thesis presents a three-phase longitudinal study of naïve psychology and pretend play behaviour development between preschool children in the United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore. Research conducted in the Western contexts has shown that children develop an understanding of pretence and desires at 18 months of age (e.g. Nielsen & Dissanayake, 2004; Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997), before level-1 visual perspective-taking at 2½ years of age (e.g. Flavell, Everett, Croft, & Flavell, 1981) and followed by level-2 visual perspective-taking, appearance-reality distinction and false-belief understanding at 4 years of age (e.g. Flavell et al., 1981; Flavell, Flavell, & Green, 1983; Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). A major issue that has dominated the field for many years concerns whether naïve psychology follows a universal developmental pattern. The majority of the studies to date have tended to rely heavily on false-belief understanding as an index of children’s understanding of mental representation. Some cross-cultural results have shown that the onset of false-belief understanding coincides with Western norms (e.g. Callaghan et al., 2005) whereas several non-Western studies have demonstrated a time lag in development across cultural groups (e.g. Vinden, 1999). To date no longitudinal study comparing the development of other naïve psychology concepts from 2 to 4 years of age between diverse cultures has been published. The present study aims to address the gap in the literature by tracking longitudinally and comparing the developmental patterns of children’s understanding of a range of naïve psychology concepts in the UK and Singapore at 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age (phases I, II and III respectively). Singapore with its mixed blend of Eastern and Western values represents a unique case for comparative study. This study employed a repeated-measures design, incorporating a large battery of established tasks that tapped children’s understanding of pretence, desires, visual perceptions and beliefs. In addition, a semi-structured observational approach was employed to study children’s naturally occurring pretend play behaviour. A total of 87 children were recruited in the UK (M = 28.60 months, SD = 1.90) and Singapore (M = 29.89, SD = 2.76) in the first phase of study. Of the initial sample, 36 children (M = 42.75, SD = 1.84) in the UK cohort and 38 children (M = 43.68, SD = 2.79) in the Singapore cohort participated in all three phases of the study. This thesis has five research questions. The first question relates to the extent to which acquisition of naïve psychology concepts differ between the two cultures at 2½ years of age. The baseline results reported in Chapter 5 indicate that 2½-year-old children in both cohorts acquired a rudimentary understanding of some aspects of pretence, discrepant desires, action prediction, emotion prediction and level-1 visual perspective-taking. The results showed no gross cross-cultural differences. However, subtle cross-cultural differences in children’s understanding of discrepant desires and action prediction were found. The second question addresses longitudinal cross-cultural differences in naïve psychology development between 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age. The results presented in Chapter 6 reveal cultural similarities in children’s performance on several pretence understanding, the level-2 visual perspective-taking, the appearance-reality distinction and the false-belief explanation tasks. Nonetheless, cultural differences were observed in some aspects of naïve psychology. The UK cohort performed significantly better than the Singapore cohort in the unexpected transfer false-belief prediction task at 3½ years of age, after verbal mental age (VMA) and gender were treated as covariates. Additionally, the UK cohort achieved significantly higher total mean for the level-1 visual perspective-taking task across the three phases and the mental representation in pretence task across phases II and III. In contrast, the Singapore cohort scored significantly higher in total mean for the discrepant desires task across the three phases. The third question considers longitudinal differences in children’s understanding of knowledge-ignorance and beliefs from 3 to 3½ years of age. The analysis in Chapter 7 indicates that the Singapore cohort performed significantly more poorly than the UK cohort in understanding knowledge-ignorance attribution (for the false-belief prediction and falsebelief explanation tasks) and true-belief ascription (for the false-belief explanation task) across phases II and III, after VMA and gender were considered as covariates. Comparison of children’s false-belief prediction and justification scores revealed that the cross-cultural difference in false-belief prediction related to an explicit ability to predict false-belief without concurrent ability to justify a naïve character’s behaviour based on false-beliefs. Twenty-four (66.7%) and 11 (28.9%) children in the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively were able to make correct false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age. Among these children, only six and five children from the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively provided correct justifications on the basis of false-beliefs. These findings therefore indicated cultural similarities in that the same number of children in both cohorts was able to predict and justify other’s behaviour in terms of false-beliefs. The fourth question explores the degree to which presence of sibling(s), birth order, language (VMA) and bilingualism contribute to individual differences in naïve psychology development. The results in Chapter 8 show no evidence that presence of sibling(s) and birth order facilitated understanding of action prediction, discrepant desires, level-1 visual perspective-taking, mental representation in pretence and false-belief prediction in either cohort. With respect to the role of language in children’s naïve psychology development, there were concurrent (within phase) associations between VMA and false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age and longitudinal associations between VMA at 2½ years of age and falsebelief prediction at 3½ years of age for both cohorts. These findings suggest that language ability contributes to individual differences in false-belief understanding. It is worth highlighting that not all aspects of naïve psychology and VMA were related. The fifth and final question focuses on longitudinal cross-cultural similarities and differences in pretend play behaviour and examines the links between pretend play behaviour and naïve psychology development. The observational data in Chapter 9 reveal that the Singaporean children spent significantly more time engaged in non-pretend play and non-social pretend play at 2½ years of age whereas the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in social pretend play. This finding contrasted with the marked cultural differences in naïve psychology development found at 3 and 3½ years of age. It is important to note that the UK and Singaporean children showed similar developmental sequences from non-pretend to non-social pretend and finally to social pretend play behaviour and from simple to complex forms of social pretend play behaviour. With respect to other pretend play behaviour, the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in positive complementary bids, negative conflict, other forms of pretence, metacommunication and in the pretend theme of outings, holiday and weather across all phases than the Singaporean children. The associations between some early pretend play behaviour and later acquisition of some naïve psychology concepts for both cultures provide partial support for the proposition that pretend play behaviour is an early marker of understanding mental representation.

303f. / Submitted by Suelen Reis (suziy.ellen@gmail.com) on 2013-04-11T19:57:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mariella Vieiraseg.pdf: 2548489 bytes, checksum: d251f7ee4da3d49fc92c67acdf53925b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Alice Ribeiro(malice@ufba.br) on 2013-05-07T14:27:34Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mariella Vieiraseg.pdf: 2548489 bytes, checksum: d251f7ee4da3d49fc92c67acdf53925b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-07T14:27:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Mariella Vieiraseg.pdf: 2548489 bytes, checksum: d251f7ee4da3d49fc92c67acdf53925b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / A esfera cultural vem se tornando uma instância protagonista de legitimação e visibilidade das práticas sociais na contemporaneidade. Sua ascensão é fruto de um concurso de fatores possibilitados por um contexto sócio-histórico no qual temas relativos às questões de identidade e diferença ganham visibilidade acentuada. Parte-se aqui da hipótese de que instituições como a Unesco vem contribuindo para elevar o tema da cultura a uma pauta importante para a agenda política internacional. O objetivo dessa tese foi o de investigar o papel Unesco enquanto narradora de categorias de compreensão social (acerca da noção de cultura e seus imediatos corolários, a exemplo da idéia de diversidade cultural) que acabam por orientar práticas e saberes dos agentes implicados na esfera cultural. Optou-se por tomar os bastidores da elaboração da Convenção da Unesco sobre a Promoção e a Proteção da Diversidade das Expressões Culturais como caminho empírico para ilustrar a problemática eleita pela pesquisa. Amparando-se no modelo analítico das configurações do sociólogo Norbert Elias, buscou-se mapear a complexa trama de interdependências que se forjou em torno da formulação do referido tratado de modo a compreender as vicissitudes do processo (identificação de atores sociais, lutas por definição de sentido, enfim, as disputas de poder inerentes ao processo) que resultaram na cosmologia presente no texto da convenção. / Salvador

Autismspektrumtillstånd (AST), är ett spektrum av funktionsvariationer som visar sig i sociala-, emotionella- samt empatiska interaktioner. AST-personers tolkning samt brist i inkännandet av andra personer bidrar till sociala-, empatiska-, samt emotionella problem. Resultat presenterade från kognitiv neurovetenskap studier visar positiv korrelation för förmågan att mentalisera, även känt som Theory of Mind (ToM), och hjärnregionen mediala prefrontala hjärnbarken (mPFC) som modererar, det vill säga styr sociala beteenden, exekutiva funktioner (handlingsförmågan) samt tolkningen av andra människors mentala tillstånd. Prefrontala hjärnregioner samt limbiska systemet visar på positiv korrelation till empatiska-, emotionella- samt sociala förmågor. Huvudfråga för denna systematiska översikt var hur personer med AST påverkas socialt, empatiskt samt emotionellt i interventionsutövandet av ToM och sociala förmågor. Fem studier fokuserade på AST-personer (vuxna, unga vuxna eller barn) och deras förmågor inom sociala-, empatiska- samt emotionella områden. Olika interventionsprogram (ToM och sociala förmågor) och mätningsinstrument bidrog till resultat gällande AST-deltagares potentiella utveckling. Slutresultaten visade på varierat utfall gällande vilka interventionsprogram som bidrog till ökad social-, empatisk- eller emotionell förståelse, vilket slutligen demonstrerade att mer empirisk data anses nödvändig inom AST-forskningen.

The purpose of this study was to examine the contribution of different aspects of executive function (EF) and social understanding to emotion regulation (ER), and the influence of these aspects of self-regulation on temper tantrums. A model of self-regulation is presented in which ER, EF, and social understanding contribute to self-regulatory competence. General cognitive (i.e., language) and emotional (i.e., temperamental emotional reactivity) measures are included to increase the specificity of the relation between ER and other aspects of self-regulation. ER, EF, and social understanding were also examined in relation to temper tantrums. One hundred twenty seven preschool children and their parents completed batteries of ER, EF, and social understanding, as well as measures of verbal ability, temperament, and temper tantrums. This study extends previous research by including multitrait, multimethod assessment of EF, ER, and social understanding, and controlling for verbal ability and emotional reactivity. Exploration of temper tantrums offers a unique illustration of the manner in which aspects of self-regulation contribute to everyday displays of strong emotion in preschoolers. Overall, the results of this investigation provided evidence that aspects of EF and social understanding are related to ER and that these aspects of self-regulation are also related to temper tantrums. More specifically, this study makes three main contributions to understanding children’s ER. First, there was evidence that EF and social understanding were related to ER even after individual differences in emotional reactivity and verbal ability had been removed. Affective social understanding, but not cognitive social understanding, was a useful predictor in the regression model. Among the EF variables, there was evidence that individual differences in both response and delay inhibition contributed significantly to ER. This finding replicates and extends Carlson and Wang’s (2007) findings of partial correlation (controlling for verbal ability) between inhibitory control and ER. Second, individual differences in both delay inhibition and ER contributed to the prediction of temper tantrums, even after controlling for emotional reactivity. Social understanding variables were not included in this analysis because correlations between social understanding and temper tantrums were low. Finally, mediation analysis provided evidence that ER significantly buffers the effect of emotional reactivity on temper tantrums. That is, the effect of emotional reactivity on temper tantrums was significantly reduced by ER. This effect remained even after controlling for age. These findings suggest that inhibitory control and affective social understanding make unique contributions to understanding ER and that temper tantrums are related to inhibitory control and ER.

This thesis examines the relationship of verbal intelligence and social cognition through verbal subtests of Wechsler intelligence scales for adults (3rd revision) and Differential Self and Complexity of representations of People and Understanding of Social Causality scales in Thematic Apercepčního Test. The theoretical part introduces the concepts of intelligence and social cognition, as well as psychological tests of intelligence tests and apperception techniques. The theoretical part also focuses on the social intelligence as an answer to the question of the relationship between intelligence and social cognition. In the empirical part of the thesis data collected from 30 probands is processed who underwent testing above mentioned psychological tests. The data are processed with correlation and factor analysis. The conclusions statistical processing are in the thesis further developed in the context of the theoretical base of scientific knowledge. The discussion points to limits of the testing and suggests options for the future researchs.