ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the possible development of the theory of action in adulthood. H. M. Wellman’s model has its roots in the intentional theory of action. The interpretation of the term “desire” by Wellman is both too narrow and incorrect, and it would be less misleading to use D. Davidson’s term “pro-attitude” instead. Wellman, despite giving pre-eminence to belief-desire psychology, also claimed that “traits figure prominently in causal explanations of actions”. Wellman has developed a model of adult belief-desire reasoning as an extension of the child’s belief-desire psychology. In both studies responses were coded using a coding scheme based on the categories in Wellman’s model of adult belief-desire psychology, with the addition of a “goal” category, since previous research has suggested that many explanations for action are of this sort. In fact, of the psychological categories used in these studies, desire, physiology, emotion, goals and plans, attitude, and trait can all be subsumed under the general notion of a “pro-attitude”.
