Culture and the Sequence of Steps in The

Culture and the Sequence of Steps in Theory of Mind Development Shahaeian, A., Peterson, C. C., Slaughter, V., & Wellman, H. M. (2011). Culture and the sequence of steps in theory of mind development. Developmental psychology, 47(5), 1239.

Finding: generally, everyone develops ToM at the same pace, but some sub features come in different orders. In more collectivist societies, children exhibit earlier awareness of knowledge acquisition than of diversity of belief. (Diversity of belief less valued?) This suggests “culturally shaped differences in input are at work”

many middle-class samples in the United States (like those in Australia) evidence individualistic, independent views of personhood (Greenfield, Keller, Fuligni, & Maynard, 2003; Nisbett, 2007) according to which children are encouraged to think for themselves, to develop their own ideas, to assert their opinions freely, and to engage in reasoned discussion without privileging the traditional wisdom of elders over the creative new ideas of the young. It is conceivable that this style of child rearing leads many children in the United States and Australia to form initial concep- tualizations of mind in terms of differences of opinion, thus ex- plaining their early mastery of the DB task. Contemporary, middle-class Chinese samples, by contrast, ex- perience collectivist, interdependent cultural practices (Greenfield et al., 2003; Nisbett, 2007) according to which many parents teach filial respect, emphasize the acquisition of well-established knowl- edge, and encourage children’s conformity to the cultural models, rules, and traditions conveyed by their elders rather than self- assertive expression of their own independent points of view. Such an approach to child rearing may redirect ToM development in many Chinese children so that key concepts of mind are initially constructed around the insight that people can be knowledgeable versus ignorant rather than that people are often diverse in their opinions and beliefs.

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