Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue (한국심리학회지 : 문화 및 사회문제)

Korean Psychological Association of Culture and Social Issues (한국문화및사회문제심리학회)
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Understanding of mind and social skills in adolescents

청소년의 마음이해 능력과 사회적 능력

  • Hyeon Ok Choi (Developmental of Psychology, Chungbuk National University) ;
  • Hei Rhee Ghim (Developmental of Psychology, Chungbuk National University)
  • Received : 2008.01.16
  • Published : 2008.02.28
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Abstract

The present study was to investigate the developmental change of adolescent's theory of mind. In addition, the relations between theory of mind and the social competence were investigated. Sixty students in each the 6th and 8th grade group were participated in this study. Adolescents' understanding of mind were measured by four kinds of mindreading tasks; the second-order false belief tasks, understanding the ambiguous social behaviors tasks, understading the hidden meaning of a figurative statement tasks, and the "faux pas" tasks. Social skills were measured by social skill scales. Eighth graders performed better than the 6th graders on the understanding the ambiguous social behaviors tasks and faux pas tasks but not on the second-order false belief tasks and understanding the hidden meaning of figurative statement tasks. The results suggests that the mindreading ability continues to develop during the adolescence, especially the ability to interpret others' ambiguous social behaviors by reading their mental states and the ability to understand that a person says a faux pas it is due to a mistaken belief. In addition, the understanding the ambiguous social behaviors tasks was found to be the best task to predict social behaviors. The results suggests that the mindreading ability would be a significant explanatory factor on social competence.

본 연구는 청소년기에도 마음이해 능력이 계속 발달하는지, 또 마음이해 능력이 사회적 능력과 관련되는지 알아보기 위해 수행되었다. 초등학교 6학년 60명과 중학교 2학년 60명이 연구에 참여하였다. 마음이해 능력은 2차 순위 틀린 믿음 과제, 애매한 행동 이해하기 과제, 숨은 말뜻 이해하기 과제, 그리고 헛디딤 말 이해하기 과제로 측정하였다. 사회적 능력은 마음이해 관련 사회행동과 마음이해와 무관할 수 있는 관습적 사회행동을 묻는 질문지로 측정하였다. 2차 순위 틀린 믿음과제와 숨은 말뜻 이해하기 과제에서는 두 집단 간의 수행차가 나타나지 않았으나 애매한 행동 이해하기 과제와 헛디딤 말 이해하기 과제에서는 중학생의 수행이 더 높았다. 이는 마음읽기 능력이 청소년기에도 계속 발달하는데, 특히 애매한 행동의 의미를 이해하는 능력과 말하는 이가 상대방에 대한 특정한 사실을 알지 못해 실수로 하는 헛디딤 말이 상대방의 기분을 상하게 한다는 사실을 이해하는 능력이 6학년 이후에도 발달함을 보여준다. 또, 여러 마음이해 과제 중에서, 애매한 행동 이해하기가 사회적 행동을 가장 잘 예측하는 것으로 나타났으며, 마음이해 과제들의 사회적 행동 설명력 또한 크지는 않았지만 유의미한 것으로 나타났다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 논문(도서, 작품)은 2006학년도 충북대학교 학술연구지원사업의 연구비지원에 의하여 연구되었음.

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