Measuring of Theory of Mind in Adults and The Elderly and Age-Related Differences in The Performance of Theory of Mind

Abstract

Theory of mind refers to the ability to comprehend the emotions and mental states of others, and is a basic social cognitive ability that is required for social interaction. Although there have been many studies addressing the issue of theory of mind in childhood in our country, paralleling those in international literature, there have been few studies to date on theory of mind in the adult population. I present here a definition and summary of the components of theory of mind, followed by an explanation of the theory of mind tasks put forward by Happé et al. (1998) – as one of the first studies of theory of mind. As a further aim of this study, I review the current research findings comparing young and old people in terms of theory of mind. Theory of mind, referring to the act of making inferences about the mental states of others, can be measured in adults in terms of its affective and cognitive components, for which various tests and tasks have been developed that make use, most often, of Stories, Reading The Mind in The Eyes, Videos, False Belief and The Faux Pas Test. It has been determined that most of these tests used for the evaluation of theory of mind in international literature are valid also for the Turkish context, although some specific scales have been developed for our country, such as the Dokuz Eylül Theory of Mind Index. Finally, many studies comparing theory of mind in young and old people in different countries show that its performance generally decreases with age, although the level of this decline differs between the different components of theory of mind. Further studies of this issue are needed to determine whether this finding is also valid for the adult population of our country.

Keywords

• theory of mind
• adulthood
• old age