Posted by alexandra_k on October 15, 2006, at 6:08:05
In reply to Re: bpd, posted by alexandra_k on October 15, 2006, at 5:31:20
Theory of Mind.
The notion is that sometime between ages 3 and 4 people normally acquire the concept of belief. Having the concept of belief is different from having beliefs, it is the ability to have meta-beliefs, or beliefs about beliefs.
In order to understand what it is to have a belief one needs to know that false beliefs are possible.
There is a task... That is supposed to show whether someone has the concept of belief or not. The task involves something along the lines of this (it is typically catered for children)... If you show someone a tube with 'smarties' (a brand of sweets) and you ask them 'what do you think is in the tube?' they will say 'sweets'. Then you open the tube and show them that it actually contains a pencil. Then you put the pencil back in the tube and close it and you ask them 'if I show the tube to your mother (or whoever) and ask them what is in the tube what do you think they will say?'
People who have the concept of belief (and understand that people can have false beliefs) appreciate that their mother (or whoever) will say 'sweets'. People who don't have the concept of belief will say 'a pencil'. Having a theory of mind is sometimes called having the ability to mind read. Not in a spooky way... It is more that it is such a phenomenal acomplishment that we have the ability to do this and it is... A kind of mind reading ability.
The ability to pass the false belief task normally develops between ages 3 and 4. We consider that when people can pass the false belief task they have acquired a 'theory of mind'. They understand about mental states. Of course that is a very basic task... What is interesting about the task, however, is that people with autistic spectrum disorders typically can't pass the task even though they have age appropriate causal understanding. People with downs syndrome typically have age appropriate performance on the task but significant difficulty with tasks that involve causal understanding. That shows that the ability to pass the false belief task isn't merely to do with general intelligence.
There is a higher order belief task too (which tests the ability to attribute say x believes that y believes that... appropriately) But anyways...
There is controversy as to whether having a theory of mind involves literally having a theory (understanding of propositions) or whether having a theory of mind is having an ability (such as the ability to put oneself into anothers shoes via simulation / empathy).
Theory of mind isn't just to do with beliefs, however. It is to do with other mental states like desires and emotions too. It is about being able to attribute them appropriately to others and being able to attribute them appropriately to oneself. It has been found that those two abilities tend to be correlated. People who have trouble attributing appropriate mental states to others (in order to understand and explain the behaviour of others) also tend to have trouble attributing appropriate mental states to themselves (in order to understand and explain their own behaviour).
There are many different philosophical theories of the nature of mental states... One that has gained a lot of currency is analytic functionalism. According to analytic functionalism the meaning of a mental state term is fixed by the role the term plays in the 'folk conception' of mind. Which is to say the meaning of a mental state term is fixed by the role that mental state terms play in our efforts to understand and explain behaviour.
So...
Anger is whatever inner state of a person that...
Tends to be caused by:
-perception of injustice etc etc.
Tends to cause:
-increased heart rate
-clenched jaw etc etc.
Tends to cause action urges such as:
-desire to hurt etc etc.So... If you are asked how you feel instead of focusing on the inner phenomenology / feeling... One can observe what one is thinking about. If one is thinking 'how unfair is that!' and one has an urge to punch someone, for example, then 'anger' is the term that has been assigned to that state in the English language. Thus emotions... Aren't solely defined on the basis of how they feel.
:-O
Amazing...
But sometimes... The ability to observe goes out the window...
I learned... That you don't need to *feel* anything in order to have an emotion... You just need to be able to *observe* those other things...
But sometimes... The ability to observe goes out the window...
(Usually because observing prompts feelings of guilt or something or because one is in such heightened physiological arousal that one can't think. So mentalization therapy / mindfulness is supposed to teach you to be able to mentalize appropriately (in order to attribute likely / appropriate mental states to oneself and others) in the face of heightened physiological arousal).
:-)
poster:alexandra_k
thread:694669
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20061012/msgs/694954.html