Psychological Development and Education ›› 2008, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (1): 7-13.

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Desire-belief Understanding and Emotion Understanding in Children’s Theory of Mind aged 3-6: Their Development and Relation

CHEN Jing1,2, LI Hong1   

  1. 1. The Personality and Cognitive Key Lab of The Education Ministry, School of Psychology, Southwest China University, Beibei, Chongqing 400715;
    2. School of educational science, West China Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan 637002
  • Online:2008-01-15 Published:2008-01-15

Abstract: This study examined children's development of desire-belief understanding and emotion understanding of theory of mind,and discussed the relat ion between the abilities to understand desire-belief and emot ion.256 children aged 3-6 participated in this study,and methods of experiment and interview were conducted.The results showed that:(1) there are age-related increases in development of desire-belief understanding and emotion understanding in theory of mind of children aged 3-6; 4-year-old children are in the critical period of the ability of belief-based emotion understanding; and children aged 4-5 are in the critical period of the ability of emotional perspect ive-taking;(2) the ability of false belief understanding appears earlier than the ability of belief-based emotion understanding;(3) there is a significant correlation between of desire-belief understanding and emot ion understanding.

Key words: children, theory of mind, desire-belief understanding, emotion understanding

CLC Number: 

  • B844.12
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