In the article, “From simple desires to ordinary beliefs: The early development of everyday psychology”, authors Henry Wellman and Jacqueline Woolley state that “before young children construe human actions in terms of beliefs and desires they understand action only in terms of simple desires.” “Naïve Psychology” also called simple desire psychology, is how younger children understand human action. They can understand that desires motivate behaviors, but not that beliefs can also have an affect. Young children are able to understand their own drives and desires, such as being thirsty. However, drives and desires are different motivational forces. For example, Wellman and Woolley say that drive (hunger) is based on a physiological need and no particular object, but desire (wants an apple) is about the object wanted. Desires are formed through basic emotions such as love, hate and fear, and can be understood without beliefs involved. One must be able to take into account another person’s knowledge of the world in order to understand beliefs. Young children may not understand the intentions of others because they cannot appreciate the fact that others may have different beliefs as their own. For example, two children could be looking for a toy that they desire to play with, yet one might look in the kitchen because they believe they left it there last. The other child might not understand why the other is going into the kitchen, because they believe it is in the bedroom.
Since behavior is “mentalistic” for adults and children older than preschool, it makes sense that language is required to form these mental representations. Children under the age of two are mostly non verbal and therefore not able to understand the beliefs of others. It is obvious that language is needed to be able to organize thoughts and recognize the fact that others have their own beliefs and desires that may be motivated by different circumstances. To understand and to be able to predict the actions of others, there must be a mutual understanding of feelings, emotions, perception and intention. These concepts give clues about other people’s behavior and why they may act the way they do. First a person must be able to perceive their world to form beliefs, and then they must take into account their emotions to form desires. With the understanding of beliefs and desires, a person can act or see why another person may act the way they do. Along with beliefs, desires can motivate potential actions, and therefore an understanding of beliefs is necessary to fully appreciate the actions of others.
Susan C. Johnson, author of the article “The recognition of mentalistic agents in infancy”, says that the mental states needed in order to understand others behaviors have to be inferred by others and not just directly perceived. In the example above, the child that didn’t understand why the other was looking in the kitchen when the toy is usually found in the bedroom was simply perceiving a behavior. They were not inferring that the other child was looking in the kitchen because they knew it was left there last. Mental states are formed through “unobservable” internal states that are directed at the world. With the ability to form internal states, children are then able to see themselves and others as things with minds that perceive and believe different things. With this understanding, people can communicate with each other and comprehend that other’s beliefs may manipulate their behavior and intentions. Evidence of the use of mental states is shown through the ability to reason about false beliefs. If a person can understand that sometimes beliefs may be false, they can recognize the fact that the person is acting a certain way based on their belief of some false information. This can help people better understand others intentions and how desires are different from beliefs.
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Social cognition is an essential part of human survival. In order for us to exist and thrive in this world we must communicate, cooperate, and compete in efficiently in order to thrive. Pragmatics allow us to communicate affectively by taking into account our listeners prior knowledge. For instance, if I were to have a conversation with a fellow University of Oregon student and asked them whether or not they went to Max's (a local campus bar) this weekend, they would most likely know what I was talking about. However, if I were to ask a person who was visiting from University of Arizona, they most likely would not know what I was referring to. Pragmatics allow us to cut out irrelevant information from our speech in order to communicate in the most efficient way. Coordinating desires and intentions also allows us to reach goals quickly. Cooperation is an ability that is somewhat unique to human beings in terms of goals. While other species instinctively cooperate, such as in hunting, only humans can discuss cooperation and manage future goals even without the presence of the other cooperating individual (i.e. discussing plans over the phone).
Competition is also an important aspect of human social cognition. Through competition humans are able to make more money, gain more resources, and develop higher status. Through deceit, another human-specific quality, aids us in competition. Whether it be to attain a job or score a goal, deception is an important part of human social cognition. While essential, deception is interestingly often viewed in a negative manner. This is because human morality prevents us from allowing too much deception in society. However, those who are highly deceptive are also commonly classified as cunning and witty.
When it comes to cognitive development, children understand the basic underlying mechanisms of communication, cooperation, and competition at a very young age. However, more complex aspects of social cognition such as deceit are not understood until much later in the game.
Development of higher social cognitive abilities can be seen in different age groups. Children at the age of 3 generally do not have the ability to deceive others. This is why it is very easy to deceive or trick a three year old. Three year olds do not have the concept of deception and therefore we never presume that someone was trying to deceive them. Deception at a young age is also viewed as amusing. When a young child realizes they have been tricked or deceived they often find it humorous. For example, being surprised is often found as entertaining. However, some forms of deception can be frustrating. Learning that Santa Claus was imaginative all along can bring disappointment or even anger to young children.
There are both positive and negative sides to the development of deception, yet all aspects of social cognitive development are essential and make use unique as human beings.
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