Children's explanations for self-presentational behaviour

✍ Scribed by Robin Banerjee; Nicola Yuill

• Book ID: 101276813
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 101 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0046-2772
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199902)29:1<105::aid-ejsp910>3.0.co;2-k

✦ Synopsis

Previous research has underestimated children's capacity to understand the selfpresentational behaviour of other people. We argue from recent research in mental-state understanding that 8-year-olds should be able to attribute self-presentational motives in order to explain others' behaviour. In the present study, children aged 6 to 11 years heard stories involving emotion-masking displays and were then asked to explain the motivations for those displays. Results supported our prediction.