California Preschool Learning Foundations - ECEZero2Three ...

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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children advance from a theory of mind
that is focused primarily on comprehending
others’ intentions, desires,
and feelings as motivators of behavior,
to a more advanced theory of mind in
which they also understand the nature
of people’s thoughts and beliefs as
motivators of behavior. One of the central
features of this conceptual advance
is the four-year-old’s emerging understanding
that people’s beliefs can be
mistaken; thus, others can be misled
or fooled, and the child’s own feelings
can be hidden or masked. The research
literature on developing theory of mind
is vast; recent summaries can be found
in Wellman (2002) and Harris (2006).
Although young children’s understanding
of the internal determinants
of behavior remains rudimentary, there
is evidence that they are already beginning
to comprehend the concept of
personality characteristics and their
association with enduring behavioral
characteristics in others. This emerging
understanding parallels similar
advances in their ability to perceive
themselves in terms of psychological
characteristics as well, as is discussed
in the bibliographic note on self-awareness.
Research by Heyman and her
colleagues shows that by the later preschool
years, children are beginning to
derive personality-like generalizations
about the behavior of others (see Giles
and Heyman 2005a, 2005b; Heyman,
Gee, and Giles 2003; Heyman and
Gelman 2000).
One of the central features of this
conceptual advance is the
four-year-old’s emerging
understanding that people’s beliefs
can be mistaken . . .
There is also vigorous research
literature on young children’s
developing emotion understanding,
an aspect of theory of mind that
is especially important to social
competence. This research shows
that from three to five years of age,
young children become increasingly
capable of identifying a broader
range of emotions and describing
prototypical situations in which these
emotions might be elicited. They
also become capable of explaining
the causes of these emotions and
their consequences in ways that
reveal a greater understanding of
the psychological bases of emotional
experience (e.g., frustrated goals with
respect to anger). This is consistent,
of course, with broader characteristics
of their developing theory of mind.
The research on developing emotion
understanding is reviewed by Denham
(1998, 2006), Harris (1989), Lagattuta
and Thompson (2007), Saarni and
others (2006), and Thompson (in
press; Thompson 2006; Thompson,
Goodvin, and Meyer 2006; Thompson
and Lagattuta 2006).
The later preschool years also witness
growth in event knowledge—that
is, the capacity to comprehend and
predict everyday routines—which is an
important component of social understanding.
Young preschool children
can describe the sequence of events
that characterize everyday routines
and experiences in their lives (e.g., a
trip to the grocery store), and older
preschool children have more comprehensive
knowledge of these events
(see Hudson 1993; Narratives from the
Crib 1989; Nelson 1993).
Finally, the preschool years also
witness young children’s growing
Preschool Learning Foundations, Volume 1 • California Department of Education