ABSTRACT
How and when children acquire the ability to think about and take account of others’ mental states, as well as their own, is a topic of much current interest to developmental psychologists. It is easy to see why: The ability influences almost every aspect of human social behaviour. To be a good conversationalist, to participate appropriately in a full range of social relationships, and to reason intelligently about behaviour, an individual must know something about others—how they are similar to and different from the self, what they are likely to know, and how they are likely to behave in various circumstances. Despite the fact that understandings of self and others grow and deepen over the years (e.g. Hickling, 1993), most research on the topic has dealt with the early development of a “theory of mind,” focusing on whether young children recognise that others have internal states and which internal states children attribute to others (Woolley & Wellman, 1990). At present, what counts as a theory of mind (Gopnik & Wellman, 1994; Harris, 1994) and when children acquire it (Golinkoff, 1993; Shatz & O'Reilly, 1990; Shatz, 1994) are matters of some controversy.
