Our everyday, basic understanding of people's mental states and behaviors has recently been a lively topic of debate in the social sciences This article addresses whether some aspects of our European-American theory of mind are universal, by examining ethnographic and experimental reports of cultural variation Implications of that variation for nativist theories of development are discussed and research strategies to augment our understanding are proposed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AvisJ.HarrisPL. (1991). Belief-desire reasoning among. Baka children Evidence for a universal conception of mind. Child Development62460–467.
2.
Baron-CobenS. (1995). Mindblindness. An essay on autism and theory of mind. LondonMIT Press.
3.
BartschK.WellmanHM. (1995). Children talk about the mind. Oxford, EnglandOxford University Press.
4.
BrethertonI.BeeghlyM. (1982). Talking about internal states. The acquisition of an explicit theory of mind. Developmental Psychology18906–921.
5.
BrunerJ. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MAHarvard University Press.
6.
ChomskyN. (1986). Knowledge of language. Its nature origins and use. New YorkPraeger.
7.
ClarkE. (1983). Meanings and concepts. InFlavellJH.MarkmanEM., (Eds), Hand book of child psychology Vol. 3 Cognitive development (pp. 787–840). New YorkWiley.
8.
DAndradeR. (1987). A folk model of the mind. InHollandD.QumoN., (Eds), Cultural models in language and thought (pp. 112–148). Cambridge, EnglandCambridge University Press.
9.
Evans-PritichardEE. (1976). Witchcraft oracles and magic among the Azande. Oxford, EnglandClarendon Press.
10.
FajansJ. (1985). The person in social context. The social character of Baining psychology. InWhiteGM.KirkpatrickJ., (Eds), Person, self and experience (pp. 367–400). BerkeleyUniversity of California Press.
11.
FiskeA. (1992). The four elementary forms of sociality. Framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological Review99689–723.
12.
FlavellJH.GreenFL.FlavellER. (1995). Young children's knowledge about thinking. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development60 (1 Serial No 243).
13.
FlvellJH.MillerPH. (in press). Social cognition. InKuhnD.SteglerRS., (Eds), Handbook of child psychologyVol. 2Cognition, perception, and language (5th ed.). New YorkWiley.
14.
FodorJA. (1987). Psychosemantics. The problem of meaning in philosophy of mind. Cambridge, MABradford.
15.
FodorJA. (1992). A theory of the child s theory of mind. Cognition, 44283–296.
16.
FortesM. (1987). Religion morality and the person. Essays on Tallensi religtion. Cambridge, England. Cambridge University Press.
17.
GopnikA.SlaughterV. (1991). Young children's understanding of changes in the mental states. Child Development, 6298–110.
18.
GreenfieldPM. (1997). Culture as process. Empirical methodology for cultural psychology. InBerryJW.PoortingaYH.PandeyJ., (Eds). Theory and method Vol. 1 Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (2nd ed.pp. 301–346). Boston Allen and Bacon.
19.
HammerslyM. (1990) Reading ethnographic research. A critical guide. LondonLongman.
20.
HarrisPL. (1989). Chilren and emotion. Oxford, EnglandBasil Blackwell.
21.
HarrisPL. (1992). From simulation to folk psychology. The case for development. Mina and Language7(1&2) 121–143.
22.
HarrisPL. (1995). Developmental constraints on emotion categories. InRussellJ.Fernandez DolsJ-M.MansteadASR.WellenkampJ., (Eds), Everyday conceptions of emotions (pp353–372). Dordrecht, NetherlandsKluwer.
23.
HarterS.WhitesellNR. (1989). Developmental changes in children s understanding of single, multiple, and blended emotion concepts. InSaarniC.HarnsPL., (Eds), Children s understanding of emotion (pp. 81–116). Cambridge, EnglandCambridge University Press.
24.
HumphreyN. (1984). Consciousness regained. Oxford, EnglandOxford University Press.
25.
JohnsonCN.WellmanHM. (1982). Children s developing conceptions of the mind and the brain. Child Development52222–234.
26.
KohlbergL. (1966). Cognitive stages and preschool education. Human Development95–17.
27.
LeslieAM. (1994). ToMM ToBy and Agency. Core architecture and domain specificity. InHirschfieldLA.GelmanSA., (Eds), Mapping the mind domain specificity in cognition and culture (pp119–148). Cambridge, EnglandCambridge University Press.
28.
LillardAS. (in press) Ethnopsychologies. Cultural variation in theories of mind. Psychological Bulletin.
29.
LutzC. (1988). Unnatural emotions. ChicagoUniversity of Chicago Press.
30.
MarkusHR.KitayamaS. (1991). Culture and the self. Implications for cognition emotion and motivation. Psychological Review98224–253.
31.
MeadM. (1932). An investigation of the thought of primitive children, with special reference to animism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 62173–190.
32.
MillerJ. (1984). Culture and the development of everyday social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology46961–978.
33.
MorrisMW.PengK. (1994). Culture and cause. American and Chinese attributions for social and physical events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology67949–971.
34.
ONeillDK.AstingtionJW.FlaveJH. (1993). Young children s understanding of the role that sensory experiences play I knowledge acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 63474–490.
35.
PillowBh. (1989). Early understanding of perception as a source of knowledge. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology47116–129.
36.
PremackD. (1992). On the origins of domain-specific primitives. InDen BrockHLPickPVKnillDC., (Eds)Cognition Conceptual and methodological issues (pp. 188–200). Washington, DCAmerican Psychological Association.
37.
PremackD.WoodruffG. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1515–526.
38.
RepacholiBM.GopnikA. (1997). Early reasoning about desires. Evidence form 14-and 18-month-olds. Developmental Psychology3312–21.
39.
RipsLJ.ConradFG, (1989). Folk psychology of mental activities. Psychological Review96187–207.
40.
RosaldoMZ. (1980). Knowledge and passion. Illongot notions of self and social life. Cambridge, EnglandCambridge University Press.
41.
RossL.NisbettRE. (1991). The person and the situation. Perspectives of social psychology. New YorkMcGraw-Hill.
42.
SchwanenflugelPJ.FabricusWV.NoyesCN. (1996). Developing organization of mental verbs. Evidence for the development of a constructivist theory of mind in middle childhood. Cognitive Development11265–294.
43.
StichS. (1983). From folk psychology to cognitive science. Cambridge, MAMIT Press.
44.
VindenPG. (1996). Junin Quecha children s understanding of mind. Child Development671707–1716.
45.
WellmanHM. (1990). The child s theory of mind. Cambridge, MABradford Books/MIT Press.
46.
WellmanHM. (1995). Young children's conception of mind and emotion. InRussellJ.Fernandez DolsJ-M.MansteadASR.WellenkampJ., (Eds), Everyday conceptions of emotions (pp. 289–313). Dordrecht, Netherlands Kluwer.
47.
WierzbickaA. (1992). Semantics culture and cognition. Oxford, EnglandOxford University Press.
48.
WierzbickaA. (1993). A conceptual basis for cultural psychology. Ethos21205–231.
49.
WilkesKV. (1988). Real people. Personal identity without thought experiments. Oxford, EnglandClarendon Press.
50.
WimmerH.PemerJ. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs. Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception. Cognition, 13103–128.
