ToM - Theory of Mind - As an explanation of Autism

Question 1

Is ToM not innate?

Answer 1

Yes it is not evident from birth

Question 2

What happens before babies can understand other people?

Answer 2

They must develop a sense of self, realising they are seprate to other people

Self-rcognition develops rapidly from birth to two years

Question 3

What has research shown how children develop a sense of self?

Answer 3

This is distinct from others

This leads an interest in others around them

Hence beginning to develop a ToM

Question 4

What is an accronym for Theory of Mind?

Answer 4

ToM

Question 5

What is the timeline of the development of self-recognition?

Answer 5

• 6-10 weeks - babies want to get used to faces showing emotion
• 3 months - eye-to-eye contact emerges
• 12-15 months - Pointing directions to avert other people’s attention
• 18-moths - pretend play emerages and child uses ‘ I, me , he , she;
• 2 years- sense of self has developed

Question 6

What does ToM refer to?

Answer 6

The understanding that other people have different beliefs , emotions and intentions and they see the world from a different point of view to their own

This understanding is not evident from birth

Question 7

An everday example of ToM is:

Answer 7

• Friend is nervous when sitting their A-level exams and you arent

Question 8

Most people develop the ability to put themselves into someone else’s shoes and to ‘take their perspective’ , this helps to

Answer 8

• Understand different points of views
• From birth to 2 years old , self -recognition is fully developed this is a useful cognitive skill that helps put someone else’s shoes and ‘take their perspective’ to help consider the factors led to those mental states

Question 9

What does Theory of Mind allows us to do…?

Answer 9

• The child to understand that must develop their own sense of self (predict behaviours) realising they are seprate to other people leading an interest around them

Question 10

When does ToM develop?

Answer 10

Around children in the ages of 4-5 years old

Question 11

How is theory of mind assessed?

Answer 11

Using false belief questions

e.g Maxi and his mother

Question 12

What is autism?

Answer 12

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with other people and how experience the world around them

Autism is a complex spectrum condition

Question 13

Research has systematically divided the symptons of autism into three areas of impairment called what?

Answer 13

Wing’s triad

Question 14

What are the three following principles of Wing’s triad?

Answer 14

• Social and emotional
• Flexibility of thought (imagination)
• Language and communication

Question 15

What is the sympton for autism linking in with language and communication?

Answer 15

They do not not initiate in conversation

Question 16

What is the sympton for social and emotional for autism?

Answer 16

• They do not engage in social situations
• They have problems with social interaction
• Absent eye contact

Question 17

What is the typical characteristic of autism?

Answer 17

They find social interaction is difficult which may be explained by an inability to understand the mental states of other people and inability to predict , and adjust to and behaviour of others

Question 18

Baron -Cohen et al (1985)

‘Sally- Anne test’

Aim

Answer 18

The aim fo this study is to investigate the explanation of childhood disroder of autism

Question 19

Baron -Cohen et al (1985)

‘Sally- Anne test’

Procedure

Answer 19

• The study had involved three groups of participants , 20 children with autism and 14 children wtih Down’s syndrome of the similar chronological age but with lower mental age and 27 ‘normal’ children with the mean age of about 4 and a half years
• The children were asked some control questions such as ‘Where the marble really? just to check they had seen what happend’
• Finally asked the false belief question where Sally thought the marble was

Question 20

Baron -Cohen et al (1985)

‘Sally- Anne test’

Findings

Answer 20

• About 85% of the normal children asnwered the false belief question correctly as well as the Down’s syndrome children
• This demonstrated that ToM is not linked with low intellgience
• Only 20* of the children with autism answered correctly

Question 21

Baron -Cohen et al (1985)

‘Sally- Anne test’

Conculsion

Answer 21

This concluded that there is impairment with autistic individuals with their ToM ability

Question 22

Why are there ethical issues a key in working with children?

Answer 22

They are too young to fully constent and take part in research

Therefore needs a full debriefing with parents because could suffer from psychological harm they should know

Question 23

Why are there more ethical issues associated with autistic children?

Answer 23

Their communications skill lack so couldn’t be able to fully articulate themselevea and constent

Question 24

Why could language used in false belief taks cause methologdical issues?

Answer 24

May have some sort of evidence of leading questions so decrease the validity of findings as could be biased

Question 25

Why did Baron-Cohen use matched pair experiemntal design type to ensure what?

Answer 25

Fewer participants so lower risk of demand of charaistic so no order effects

Question 26

Discuss ToM as an explanation of Autism

AO1 PLAN

Answer 26

1. Talk about ToM
2. What is autism
3. What characteristic link with ToM being underdeveloped

Question 27

A limitation

Ethical issues associated with ToM research as they commonly use young children as their participants

Answer 27

• Issues brought up such as informed consent and protection from harm
• This may affect the validity of the findings as the child may be stressed by the lab envirnoment so their behaviour cannot be generalised
• These issues can be improved by giving a full debreif to the parents and getting both consent from the child and the parents
• Furthermore giving the child the ability to withdraw from the study at any time
• This may question the researcher’s findings

Question 28

A second limitation

Metholodigcal issues arise in ToM research especially using autistic children as they need to be careful with the use of language in false belief questions

Answer 28

• Austic children may have the difficulty of understanding the question or articulating their response - they have a problem with social interaction
• So they may fail due to this rather than their ToM ability being undeveloped
• Therefore this makes ToM as an explanation of autism lack validity

Question 29

A third limitation

ToM’s studies shown to be culturally bias

Answer 29

• An evidence of this is in Baron-research of the ‘Sally-Anne test’ only used British people. Therefore only focused on a Western perspective
• Therefore these findings of the study cannot be generalised to non-western cultures in order to be used as an explanation of autism
• To improve the accuracy of ToM’s explanation you would need multi-cultural data to analyse this and be representative to wider populations

Question 30

A strength

ToM as an explanation of autism is supported by the ‘Sally-Anne study’

Answer 30

• this procedure is used to test 20 high-functioning children that are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder , a control group of 14 children with Down’s syndrome and 27 children without a diagnosis and asked belief then the false belief sQs
• 85% of children in control group clearly identified that Sally would look for marbel but only 20% of the ASD group did , suggest ASD involves a ToM deficity

Question 31

A limitation

It is difficult to distinguish ToM from perspective taking

Answer 31

• It is suggested that many methods used to study ToM (including Sally-Anne task) could actually be measures of perspective taking
• In addition , Rehfeldt et al (2007) suggest perspective taking tasks can be also used to distinguish between ASD children and others
• If ToM is basically the same perspective taking then concept lacks any usefulness