School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, UK.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2011 Sep;29(Pt 3):437-54. doi: 10.1348/026151010X502999. Epub 2011 Mar 9.
Theoretical links between emotional knowledge and theory of mind (ToM) have previously been proposed. This study investigates this relationship using measures of both ability and trait emotional intelligence (EI). Our sample comprised 194 children, divided into two age groups (5-7 years and 8-10 years). Children participated in measures of false belief understanding, advanced tests of ToM, ability EI and trait EI, and a standardized language assessment. For both age groups, we found that only ability EI was related to false belief understanding. Furthermore, regression analyses revealed that the understanding and managing branches of ability EI predicted unique variance in false belief understanding once controlling for age, language, and the other ability EI branches. Trait EI failed to display any association with false belief understanding. Ability and trait EI were associated with more advanced ToM tasks undertaken only by the older sample. These results offer support for previous research that has found a relationship between emotion perception and labelling and ToM. They also provide new knowledge: (1) higher order emotional knowledge, measured by ability EI, is associated with advanced ToM; and (2) emotional self efficacy, as measured by trait EI, is also important in advanced ToM. Furthermore, they provide the first account of associations between standardized EI measures and ToM.
先前已经提出了情感知识和心理理论（ToM）之间的理论联系。本研究使用情感智力（EI）的能力和特质测量来研究这种关系。我们的样本包括 194 名儿童，分为两个年龄组（5-7 岁和 8-10 岁）。儿童参加了错误信念理解、高级 ToM 测试、能力 EI 和特质 EI 以及标准化语言评估的测试。对于两个年龄组，我们发现只有能力 EI 与错误信念理解有关。此外，回归分析表明，在控制年龄、语言和其他能力 EI 分支后，能力 EI 的理解和管理分支可以预测错误信念理解的独特差异。特质 EI 与错误信念理解没有任何关联。能力 EI 和特质 EI 与仅由年龄较大的样本进行的更高级的 ToM 任务相关联。这些结果为先前的研究提供了支持，该研究发现情绪感知和标签与 ToM 之间存在关系。它们还提供了新知识：（1）由能力 EI 衡量的更高阶的情感知识与高级 ToM 相关；（2）特质 EI 衡量的情感自我效能在高级 ToM 中也很重要。此外，它们首次描述了标准化 EI 测量与 ToM 之间的关联。
