What are you Thinking? The role of Mentalization in Children’s Dyadic Interactions with Unfamiliar Peers

Introduction:

Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to accurately infer the beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions of others (1,2)

Mentalization is the process of reasoning about the meaning behind others' emotional displays and actions ( Dziobek et al., 2006)
- Over mentalization: Over interpretation of available information, with over extended consideration of how situation affects emotion/thought processes
- Under mentalization: Inadequate interpretation of available information, with no consideration of how situation affects emotion/thought processes 

Benefits of advanced ToM (Cutting & Dunn,2002):
- Greater sensitivity to the thoughts and feelings of others
- Improved ability to get along with others, make friends, or explain individual perspective

Risks of advanced ToM:
- Children with more advanced ToM are more sensitive to teacher criticism (Cutting & Dunn, 2002)
- Adults with social anxiety tend towards over mentalization (Washburn et al., 2016)

In social settings:
- More experience in social settings is associated with better ToM ( Carpendale & Lewis, 2004)
- Children with more advanced ToM tend to show more withdrawn temperaments in social settings (Moore et al, 2011)