Theory of Mind
Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to a broad understanding of other individual's mental states, such as beliefs, desires, and knowledge. ToM allows prediction of other people's behaviour and understanding of various concepts such as physical versus mental perspectives and making inferences about other people's thoughts and emotions. It also allows one to take on another individual's perspective, which is crucial for mental processes such as empathy. ToM plays an important role in both social interaction and the perception of social interaction, and is also closely related to social functioning.If an individual attributes mental states to himself and to others, that individual has a theory of mind. Since a system made of assumptions cannot be seen directly, it is viewed as a theory. However, this system can be used to help predict the actions of others.
ToM has been identified as a key component of positive social skills. It is an essential tool for social perception because it gives an individual the ability to infer what another individual is thinking. However, ToM does not always develop normally or may be damaged later in life. The irregular development or damage to ToM has been associated with many clinical conditions such as Schizophrenia, autism, Asperger's Syndrome, traumatic brain injury, and various forms of dementia including fronto-temporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A cue of an impaired theory of mind in individuals with these conditions is poor social skills. Although there is no known fix for these clinical conditions and their damaged ToM, many social skill improvement and rehabilitation programs have been developed to help individuals smoothly integrate into society.
Read more about this topic: Social Perception
Famous quotes containing the words theory of, theory and/or mind:
“We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;—and that is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Thus the theory of description matters most.
It is the theory of the word for those
For whom the word is the making of the world,
The buzzing world and lisping firmament.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Japanese food is very pretty and undoubtedly a suitable cuisine in Japan, which is largely populated by people of below average size. Hostesses hell-bent on serving such food to occidentals would be well advised to supplement it with something more substantial and to keep in mind that almost everybody likes french fries.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1975)