Handout Social Cognition

Social Cognition CHDODEV L9

How to apply cognition

to social situations

SOCIAL COGNITION

•Theory of mind

•Humor

•Moral judgement

• Social cognition refers to cognition applied to the social domain.

• Theory of mind (TOM) is the ability to read other people’s mental states, like beliefs, desires, knowledge, and intentions. It is commonly tested with false-belief or appearance reality tests.

Theory of mind • Challenges in

development:

AUTISM

• Poor TOM is the hallmark of autism and Asperger’s disorder.

• Autism (but NOT Asperger) often occurs with other cognitive and language delays

Theory of mind • Where does

theory of mind come from?

• There are different views on how TOM develops:

a) “children are born with an innate TOM”, or

b) TOM I a function of a general increase in information processing abilities (executive function), or

c) Children generate a theory of others’ minds through reasoning & social experience, like how a scientist generates a theory.

Age trends in Social Cognition

Thelma Rabago-Mingoa, PhD 6

Theory of Mind

• Early Childhood (prenatal to 5 years)

• Infants are innately pre-disposed to look at human faces, distinguish facial expressions, and follow others’ gazes

• Toddlers understand that others have feelings, intentions & desires

• Before age 3, children usually fail the false-belief-test & appearance reality task

• By 5 to 6 years they perform at adult levels on these tasks

• They still believe that wishing can make things happen like magic

• Autism is usually diagnosed at the age of 3 years

• Joint attention – even infants are capable of understanding that when they look at the same thing as another person, they share something in the other person’s mind.

• Both the child & the other person visually explore the object together

• Infants are attracted to eyes and will follow others’ gaze and look at others are looking at

• Gaze following makes joint attention possible.



Theory of Mind

• Middle Childhood (6 to 12 years)

• Children become better able to use TOM to generate persuasive arguments

• They understand that they know more about their own inner thoughts and feelings than others do.

• They become better at distinguishing intentional from unintentional acts.

• Asperger’s disorder is usually diagnosed in middle childhood.



Theory of Mind

• Adolescence (13 to 19 years)

• Adolescents have better TOM than do younger children, but they still tend to believe that others know what they know.

• They over-estimate whether people will remember something about them (spotlight effect)

• They over-estimate how others can read them (the transparency illusion)

• Older adults have better TOM than younger adults.

Theory of mind • individual diversity

in theory of mind

• All children will eventually pass the false belief test

• Some children have better TOM than their age mates.

• Those who have better TOM ability tend to be more socially competent, better in deception, and advanced in language ability

Theory of mind • Group diversity in

theory of mind

• Girls & high SES children tend to have better TOM than boys or low SES children.

• TOM develops more slowly in some countries than others

Theory of mind • Classroom

implications of theory of mind

• Help students develop good verbal ability

• Converse with students about others’ mental states. Use words like think, know, believe, wonder, remember, forget, guess, expect, pretend, understand

Theory of mind • Classroom

implications of theory of mind

• Provide students with the opportunity to interact with peers who might have different opinions

• Establish a secure, positive relationship with students

• Secure attachment is linked with greater TOM

Humor • Causes & functions

of humor

• Humor is social-cognitive playfulness

• It can be caused by physical play or by encountering information that is puzzling and then suddenly resolved by insight

• Humor can serve several functions:

• Insulting others or

• Creating social bonds

Humor • Playful teasing • Teasing is playful and

provocative commentary on others

• It can be physical,

• It can be positive or antisocial

• Children with a good sense of humor are better liked by others

Humor Theories & theorists:

SIGMUND FREUD

• Emphasized the power of unconscious feelings and that dreams have meaning.

• He developed a form of therapy, psychoanalysis, which is widely used today.

• He believes jokes, like dreams, have hidden meanings & allow people to express forbidden feelings.

• He believed emotions & attachment are the basis of morality,



Humor


• Social smiling emerges at about 1 month of age. Laughing emerges at about 4 to 6 months

• Toddlers laugh at word distortions, unusual bejaviors, and pretend play

• Preschoolers laugh at unusual appearances and distortions of the physical world

• Causes of laughter become more subtle and varied with age. Children find concepts hey hae just mastered most amusing (e.g. word distortions are funny to toddlers who have just acquired language abilities)



Humor


• Complex verbal jokes become funny. Children enjoy puns, wordplays, & knock knock jokes. Joke and riddle books become popular for grade 3 - .

• They become better at reading others’ intent so that they understand when someone is joking or not.

• They enjoy teasing more. They tease about different subjects – in upper elementary grades they tease about boyfriends and girlfriends



Humor


• They can see the benefit of using humor to cope with stress, but need help doing so

• By age 10, children understand sarcasm • Children and teachers initiate more

humor in elementary classrooms than in secondary.

• Humorous children are likely to act out somewhat in class because they are highly active, social children.



Humor


• Adolescents find humor in the wider world and enjoy puns, double entendres, and witicisms that younger children would not understand.

• Put-downs become popular, especially among boys

• both teacher-initiated & child-iniiated humor is less common among HS than elementary kids

• Humorous kids no loger disruptive in class because they have learned to use their humor appropriately.

Humor • individual diversity

in Humor

• “Laughter is like medicine”

• Humor helps people cope with difficult situations

• Humor predicts social acceptance; better liked by teachers & peers

• Humor can facilitate learning

• Humor can grab the attention of inattentive students.

Humor • Group diversity in

Humor

• Boys & girls tease, but girls tend to back off if the target reacts neagatively.

• Ethnic groups differ in their styles of teasing (double meaning, irony, clever twist, surprises)

Filipinos 'third happiest' in Asia, says report • Thanks to happiness inside the home, Filipinos emerged as the

third happiest people in Asia in 2013, a new report showed.

• The Philippines was named the third happiest among five countries in Asia assessed for innovations firm Eden Strategy Institute's Happiness Index.

• The country scored 90 points in the Happiness Index, which the Eden said is based on more than 200 million social media accounts in the five countries covered by the study.

• Singapore was deemed the happiest country in Asia with a Happiness Index score of 518 points, followed by Malaysia, 245 points.

• Ranked lower than the Philippines was India with 29 points and Indonesia, 11 points.

Humor • Classroom

implications of Humor

• Positive (non-sarcastic) humor in the classroom promotes teacher-student relationships and

• enhances creativity, positive emotions & learning

• Humor is less frequent in secondary than in elementary schoolsBe humorous yourself (keep humor positive)

• Accept children’s humor (when appropriate) – Respond positively

– Be aware of culture-based humor

– Invite children to share humor

Moral judgement Different views of Moral judgement

• Piaget believed that children construct their own sense of justice, rather than adopting others’ moral standards through social cognitive conflict with others.

• Heteronemous to autonomous morality.

• Kohlberg believed children’s moral judgement develops in invariant, universal sequence of stages.

• From authority-punishment oriented to justice-oriented.

• Not everyone believes justice is higher than caring

Moral judgement

Moral judgement

Moral judgement • Prosocial reasoning refers to reasoning

about dilemmas where needs conflict but no laws are involved. Hedonistic reasoning is considered lower than internalized reasoning.

Moral Issues • Sacredness of Life

• Sexuality

• Crimes

• Pornography

• Environmental destruction

• Piracy

Moral judgement • Challenges in

deveopment:

• ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

• Academic dishonesty is prevalent & increasing in frequency

• Students who view cheating as no big deal, have low ability, & do not respect the teacher are more likely to cheat.

• Teachers can diminish cheating by being fair, respectful and caring towards students & convey that dishonesty is not acceptable. Scores in Kohlberg’s stages are not strongly related to moral behavior.

• Prosocial reasoning is related to moral behavior in younger, but not older, children.

Moral judgement • individual diversity

in Moral judgement

• Children who have inhibitory control,

• authoritative parents, • religious affiliation and • better TOM • tend to have higher levels of moral

judgement and behavior. High SES children and boys, tend to score higher in moral judgement.

• Girls have a slight tendency to be more caring oriented in their moral judgement, whereas boys tend to be more justice oriented

• Boys do not behave with greater honesty.

• Culture affects values that children adopt and whether an issue is considered moral or not

Moral judgement • Classroom

implications of Moral judgement

• Moral education based on Piaget’s & Kohlberg’s views, emphasizes peer discussion of moral dilemmas and a democratic school.

• Character education emphasizes indoctrination of virtues and providing practice, rewards & models of virtue.



Moral judgement & Prosocial Reasoning


• Toddlers feel guilty and try to repair their transgression. Children are “moral” beings by age 3.

• Both Piaget & Kohlberg underestimated young children’s moral development

• Preschoolers often use more advanced needs-oriented rather than just punishment-oriented, prosocial reasoning

• They can distinguish social convention from moral rules

• They mistake exxagerations and mistakes for lies.

• They can distinguish white ies from antisocial lies.





• Children are typically at Kohlberg’s stage 1 or 2

• According to Piaget, children 8 years old value equality more than obeience to authority

• Use hedonistic reasoning • Can discuss if laws are good or bad • They develop a clearer concept of what

constitutes a lie (the more believable the lie, the naughtier it is, compared to preschoolers)





• They can see the benefit of using humor to cope with stress, but need help doing so

• By age 10, children understand sarcasm • Children and teachers initiate more

humor in elementary classrooms than in secondary.

• Humorous children are likely to act out somewhat in class because they are highly active, social children.





• Adolescents have reached Piaget’s autonomous morality

• They may be in Kohlberg’s stage 3. only well-educated adults score a 5 – 6

• Young adolescents may increase in stereotyped prosocial reasoning.

• They may slightly increase in hedonistic reasoning (delight), needs-oriented reasoning may decline slightly, indicating moral regression.

• Cheating more prevalent in HS then elem.

Documents

Handout Social Cognition