The Influence Of Empathy And Social Skill Training To Children’s Advanced Theory Of Mind

The study of children’s theory of mind (TOM) is an important part of children’s social cognition research area. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of social skill training in advanced TOM improvement in normal children and the assessment of the effective on training frequency. Independent variables are children’s empathy level and social skill frequency. Furthermore, this study investigated whether there was a meaningful difference between the lower empathy group and the higher empathy group after they have accepted a series of social skill training. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistics and two ways analysis of variance then came to the following conclusions:1. There has no obvious gender difference on children’s empathy level.2. There has no obvious peer relationship (whether or not only child) difference on children’s empathy level.3. Overall, experimental results prove the validity of social skill training. It has effectiveness on children’s advanced TOM.4. On children’s advanced TOM---Faux Pas Detection Task, the higher empathy children did well than the lower empathy children. The children who have accepted social skill training showed a lot of superiority on Faux Pas Detection Task relative to who did not accepted social skill training. High frequency training group did better than low frequency training group.5. On children’s advanced TOM---Persuade Task, the higher empathy children did well than the lower empathy children. The children who have accepted social skill training showed a lot of superiority on Persuade Task relative to who did not accepted social skill training. High frequency training group did better than low frequency training group.6. On children’s advanced TOM---Vague Circumstances Task, the higher empathy children did well than the lower empathy children. The children who have accepted social skill training showed a lot of superiority on Vague Circumstances Task relative to who did not accepted social skill training. High frequency training group did better than low frequency training group.