White Lars O, Klein Annette M, von Klitzing Kai, Graneist Alice, Otto Yvonne, Hill Jonathan, Over Harriet, Fonagy Peter, Crowley Michael J
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig Leipzig, Germany.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of LeipzigLeipzig, Germany; Institute of Psychology, Goethe University FrankfurtFrankfurt, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2016 Dec 22;7:1926. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01926. eCollection 2016.
Much is known about when children acquire an understanding of mental states, but few, if any, experiments identify social contexts in which children tend to use this capacity and dispositions that influence its usage. Social exclusion is a common situation that compels us to reconnect with new parties, which may crucially involve attending to those parties' mental states. Across two studies, this line of inquiry was extended to typically developing preschoolers (Study 1) and young children with and without anxiety disorder (AD) (Study 2). Children played the virtual game of toss "Cyberball" ostensibly over the Internet with two peers who first played fair (inclusion), but eventually threw very few balls to the child (exclusion). Before and after Cyberball, children in both studies completed stories about peer-scenarios. For Study 1, 36 typically developing 5-year-olds were randomly assigned to regular exclusion (for no apparent reason) or accidental exclusion (due to an alleged computer malfunction). Compared to accidental exclusion, regular exclusion led children to portray story-characters more strongly as intentional agents (intentionality), with use of more mental state language (MSL), and more between-character affiliation in post-Cyberball stories. For Study 2, 20 clinically referred 4 to 8-year-olds with AD and 15 age- and gender-matched non-anxious controls completed stories before and after regular exclusion. While we replicated the post regular-exclusion increase of intentional and MSL portrayals of story-characters among non-anxious controls, anxious children exhibited a decline on both dimensions after regular exclusion. We conclude that exclusion typically induces young children to mentalize, enabling more effective reconnection with others. However, excessive anxiety may impair controlled mentalizing, which may, in turn, hamper effective reconnection with others after exclusion.
关于儿童何时开始理解心理状态，我们已经了解很多，但几乎没有实验能确定儿童倾向于运用这种能力的社会背景以及影响其运用的性格特征。社会排斥是一种常见情况，它迫使我们与新的群体重新建立联系，而这可能关键在于关注这些群体的心理状态。在两项研究中，这一研究方向扩展到了发育正常的学龄前儿童（研究1）以及患有和未患有焦虑症（AD）的幼儿（研究2）。孩子们表面上通过互联网与两个同伴玩虚拟投球游戏“网络球”，这两个同伴一开始公平游戏（包容阶段），但最终很少把球传给孩子（排斥阶段）。在玩“网络球”游戏前后，两项研究中的孩子都完成了关于同伴情景的故事。在研究1中，36名发育正常的5岁儿童被随机分配到常规排斥组（无明显原因）或意外排斥组（由于所谓的电脑故障）。与意外排斥相比，常规排斥使孩子们在游戏后的故事中更强烈地将故事角色描绘为有意图的主体（意图性），使用更多的心理状态语言（MSL），以及角色间更多的关联。在研究2中，20名临床诊断为患有AD的4至8岁儿童以及15名年龄和性别匹配的非焦虑对照组儿童在常规排斥前后完成了故事。虽然我们在非焦虑对照组中重复观察到了常规排斥后故事角色的意图性和MSL描绘增加的情况，但焦虑儿童在常规排斥后在这两个维度上都出现了下降。我们得出结论，排斥通常会促使幼儿进行心理化思考，从而更有效地与他人重新建立联系。然而，过度焦虑可能会损害有控制的心理化思考，这反过来可能会妨碍在被排斥后与他人有效地重新建立联系。
