The impact of mood on children’s egocentrism

Hashmezadeh, Pardis (2024). The impact of mood on children’s egocentrism. University of Birmingham. Clin.Psy.D.

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Abstract

Background: Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute mental states to others. Egocentric bias occurs when one’s own knowledge interferes with the judgement of another’s mental state. Happy adults have been shown to exhibit increased egocentricity. This study extends this to children by investigating how happiness influences their degree of egocentric bias and contributes to understanding the underlying processes of ToM in children.

Methods: Eighty-seven children were exposed to either happy or neutral mood conditions and completed a continuous false belief task. Mood ratings were taken before and after manipulation.

Results: A mixed design ANOVA revealed a significant effect of false belief on bias, but the effect of mood on bias was not significant, and there was no significant difference in the interaction between belief type and mood condition. The lack of a successful mood manipulation explained these findings. A Spearman’s correlation between egocentric bias and mood scores after induction showed a moderate positive correlation.

Conclusions: The current study indicated higher self-reported happiness predicted increased egocentric bias in judgments, consistent with findings observed in adults. Overall, these results contribute to the two-step model of ToM, where happier children are more prone to interference from readily accessible defaults, whilst less happy children demonstrate more effortful ToM reasoning

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Clin.Psy.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Clin.Psy.D.

Supervisor(s):