Mind the Concept of \"Theory

¶ … Mind

The concept of "theory of mind" is meant to refer to the supposition that other people have a mind and that they are probable to express different opinions in regard to particular matters. This is a theory because individuals are only able to presuppose that their own mind actually exists and because they are unable to have direct access to the minds of other people. Persons who have a theory of mind are able to consider that other people can put across particular thinking styles and are thus likely to predict behaviors in some individuals who they are familiar with.

It is natural for humans to have an inquisitive nature and all people have a tendency to take on analyzing attitudes when they confront other individuals. Even with this, it takes some time before people develop the ability to understand behavior they see in other individuals. Children are also appreciative in regard to analyzing other people, but they are less able to do so because they are inexperienced. While it takes some time to develop a theory of mind, conditions are especially different in young children in comparison to older individuals, as the former are "profoundly egocentric: They are only able to consider things from their own point-of-view until they are about 7 years or older" (Doherty, p. 3).

The theory of mind is likely to result from the fact that individuals start to feel a general urge to escape from being egocentric during middle childhood. Children are well aware that other people can have different beliefs when they are about four years old, but they express little to no interest in acting in accordance with the desires of other individuals at the time. Many researchers apparently tend to ignore this when they focus on finding out more regarding the theory of mind and the way that it operates in children (Doherty, p. 3). A very important change takes place in children's minds somewhere between the ages of three and five and while they are initially unable to extract complex meaning from their surrounding environment, they gradually start to understand more regarding what happens around them and develop a theory of mind (Bower, 92).

Studies concerning the theory of mind have also been performed using chimpanzees. Although it is very difficult and almost impossible to determine whether or not chimpanzees have a theory of mind, researchers determined that these animals are likely to predict the behavior of an individual who has a false belief. While chimps find it difficult to predict thinking in other individuals, children appear to be better prepared to deal with such conditions. Intuition is one of the primary concepts fueling children in developing a theory of mind, as they start to put themselves in someone else's shoes at a young age and think about what the respective individual wants or believes with the purpose of being able to predict and understand his or her behavior (Bower, 93).