.5-9 Year-old Children's Psychological Development Of The Theory And Its Relationship With The Peer Acceptance

The theory of mind was an implicit idea in psychological field. It was an abstract, consisted and causal interpretative system and it help people draw support from some invisible psychological states, such as belief, desire, emotion, etc. to interpret and predict behaviors. In recent years, researchers paid more attention to the development of children's theory of mind, which was a new research area in children's social cognitive development. The researches found the preschool children's theory of mind developed fairly and about 4 year-old, children gained false belief which was the important symbol of having theory of mind. According to the theory of lifetime development, the theory of mind's developing was a lifetime task. After having false belief, their theory of mind would continue to develop. While recently, the research about the children's theory of mind in transitional period from preschool age to school age was little which would be researched further. In addition, researchers pay more attention to the relations between the theory of mind and peer acceptance. However, the previous researches focused the preschool term and the results are not consistent. Some researches found the popular children's theory of mind were significantly higher than the contradictory children, the others found there wasn't significantly difference between them. So the relation between the theory of mind and peer acceptance was complex which would be studied further.As the first step in the present thesis, a comprehensive literature review was made with regard to the important empirical findings and major theoretical models. The critical analysis is focused on the current situation and deficits existing in researches. On base of these, two related studied on 159 children aged 5-9 were presented following the objectives set forth in this research.. Study 1 used second-order false belief, trait understanding and interpretative theory of mind examined the characteristic of 5-9 year-old children's theory of mind, respective developing trends and their relations. Study 2 explored the relations among children's theory of mind and peer status, and the measures of study 2 included theory of mind and peer acceptance.1.With the age growing, 5-9 year-old children's theory of mind had more progresses than preschoolers obviously. It showed in quality that was second-order false belief and in quantities that were trait understanding and interpretative theory of mind.2. The critical age for the development of 5-9 year-old children's second-order false belief, trait understanding, interpretative theory of mind was around age 6. But their developing trends and levels were different at the same age. Among them, trait understanding developed fast, the following were second-order false belief and interpretative theory of mind.3. The development of second-order false belief and interpretative theory of mind based on first-order false belief hadn't certain relations. Trait understanding's development based on desire-reasoning.4. In totality, 5-9 year-old children' theory of mind hadn't significant difference in different social status.5.5-9 year-old children' theory of mind could fairly predict their social impact. The significantly positively correlation existed between children's second-order false belief and social preference, and the former could fairly predict the latter. The same relation existed between trait understanding and social impact.The research highlighted the characteristics of children's theory of mind in transitional period from preschool age to school age, which didn't only enlarge aging range of samples, but also practice the theory of lifetime development in theory of mind at present. Second-order false belief, trait understanding and interpretative theory of mind examined children ,meanwhile broaden visual angle of research.. In study 1, experimental materials were stories' narrating and cartoons' emerging which had been broadcasted with FLASH and PPT in computer. The method wasn't used in past researches , so the research method could be improved.