What Factors Influence TOM Development? –Biological factors TOM as a product of evolution –Adaptive to understand mental states such as beliefs and desires—makes it possible to understand and predict others’ behavior –TOM module: Brain mechanism that makes it possible for children to acquire a theory of mind

–Social interaction is likely to contribute to the development of a TOM Pretend play: Pretending to be someone one is not or pretending that an object is something else may foster understanding that beliefs may not always reflect reality Discussions with adults about mental states such as desires, beliefs, etc. –Mothers who talk more about mental states with young children have children who perform better on false belief tasks

Late signers and autistic children may show delay in TOM development in part because of restricted access to social interaction (Peterson)

Evidence that late signing and autistic children do better on TOM tasks involving pictures –Peterson’s study: Late signers and autistic children performed better on “false drawing” tasks than typical preschool age children Preschool age children performed better on “false belief” tasks than late signers and autistic children

Achievement Motivation: The tendency to persist at challenging tasks –In infants and young children, typically referred to as mastery motivation

Attributions: Common, everyday explanations for the causes of behavior –Ex: failure on a task can be attributed to lack of ability or to insufficient effort

Normative Development Around age 3, children begin making attributions about their successes and failures Preschoolers tend to be “learning optimists” –Rate their own ability very high –Underestimate task difficulty –Expect to be successful

However, by age 3, some children give up easily when faced with a challenge –Ex: completing a difficult puzzle Individual differences in achievement motivation...

In older children, see two motivational styles: Mastery-oriented –Show an incremental view of ability Ability can be increased through effort –When they fail, attribute it to factors that can be changed (e.g., effort)

Learned Helplessness –Have an entity view of ability Ability is fixed and cannot be improved by trying hard –When they fail, think they’re not smart

Older children’s attributions affect their achievement goals –Mastery-oriented attributions are related to learning goals Increasing ability through effort –Learned helplessness attributions are related to performance goals Obtaining positive and avoiding negative evaluations of one’s ability

Possible Causes of Individual Differences Type of praise and criticism provided by adults may affect the development of children’s coping styles (Kamins & Dweck, 1999)

Different Types of Feedback: –Person- (or Trait-related) Feedback: Evaluate the child as a whole or the child’s traits –Ex: “Good boy!”, “You’re really good at this”, “I’m very proud of you” (praise) OR –“Bad boy!”, “You’re not very good at this”, “I’m very disappointed in you” (criticism)

–Process Feedback Evaluate the child’s efforts or strategies Exs: “You must have tried really hard”, “You found a good way to do it” (praise) OR “Maybe you could think of ANOTHER way to do it” (criticism)