Young Children's Understanding of the Psychological Causes of Behavior: A Review

Abstract

MILLER, PATRICIA H., and ALOISE, PATRICIA A. Young Children's Understanding of the Psychological Causes of Behavior: A Review. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1989, 60, 257-285. This review of the preschool social cognition literature examines the common conclusion that young children understand external causes of behavior better than, and prefer them to, internal ones. 4 areas of research are considered: (1) knowledge of psychological states, (2) understanding that psychological states can cause behavior, (3) preference for internal versus external causes, and (4) discounting. Preschoolers have a rudimentary knowledge of psychological states, often tend to assume that behaviors have a psychological cause (usually an intention), and do not evidence a general preference for external causes. The particular domain and types of causes involved affect young children's social reasoning, including their use of the discounting principle. It is argued that evidence for the external-to-internal developmental trend is weak and is limited to certain domains and assessment methods. Furthermore, the internal-external dichotomy, as utilized thus far by developmental researchers, is too simplistic to be useful. More differentiation among types of external and internal causes clarifies the nature of developmental changes in social causal reasoning.