Abstract
We examined relations between the understanding of gratitude (GRA) and the development of a theory of mind (TOM). The study was done with 228 5-year-old North American children (53% female). We tested the following hypotheses: (a) there are no sex differences in GRA or TOM, (b) children who perform better on TOM tasks have better GRA, (c) TOM is a necessary condition for GRA. We used three tasks to evaluate TOM: visual perspective taking, first-order false belief, and second-order false belief. The children were read two vignettes about gratitude. GRA was evaluated based on children's responses to questions asked after each vignette was read. The first two hypotheses were supported. The hypothesis that TOM would be a necessary condition for GRA did not receive sufficient empirical support.
Highlights
We examined relations between the understanding of gratitude (GRA) and the development of a theory of mind (TOM)
Futuras pesquisas deveriam incluir crianças com menos idade e, assim, poder-se-ia utilizar a tarefa de crença falsa de primeira ordem para testar a hipótese de que o desenvolvimento de uma teoria da mente seria condição necessária para a compreensão da gratidão
Summary
We examined relations between the understanding of gratitude (GRA) and the development of a theory of mind (TOM). Os resultados indicaram que aquelas crianças que não tinham uma completa evidência de uma teoria da mente na tarefa de crença falsa de segunda ordem eram também as que mais tinham mostrado não ter uma compreensão da gratidão, na história da gatinha, χ2 (1) = 11,22, p < 0,001, e na história do sweater, χ2 (1) = 6,44, p < 0,02.
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