The Influence Of Theory Of Mind On Preschoolers’ Reputation Management

Reputation is the evaluation of the individual or the group,and it is evaluated by a group on the basis of the information they have obtained.Reputation is an important factor that affects individual interpersonal communication.Reputation management is a kind of strategic behavior,through which individuals can control others’ evaluation of themselves and obtain their desired reputation.Reputation management is an important way for individuals to adapt to the society.Theory of mind is the important social cognition which affects individuals’ reputation management,and partner choice is the important social motivation which affects individuals’ reputation management.The developmental studies have shown that reputation management not only appears in adults’ social intercourse,but also appears in preschoolers’ social intercourse.However,there has been no agreement on the occurrence and development characteristics of preschoolers’ reputation management,and the interaction of theory of mind and partner choice on preschoolers’ reputation management has been ignored at present.It is acquiring the occurrence,development characteristics and influencing factors of preschoolers’ reputation management that will not only deepen the research on preschoolers’ social development,but also help to provide theoretical basis for preschoolers’ pro-social behavior education.This study adopted the Sharing Behavior Paradigm,and designed two successive studies to explore the developmental characteristics of preschoolers’ reputation management and the interaction of theory of mind and partner choice on preschoolers’ reputation management.In study 1,180 preschoolers aged 3-5 years old were selected to investigate the developmental characteristics of 3-5 years old preschoolers’ reputation management by setting up "good kid who are willing to share" reputation group,compared with no reputation group.In study 2,on the basis of the development characteristics of 3-5 years old preschoolers’ reputation management in study 1,180 preschoolers aged 4-5 years old were selected to test their scores of theory of mind by unexpected location task and unexpected content task,and then they were divided into control group,non-partner choice group or partner choice group randomly.We explored the interaction of theory of mind and partner choice on preschoolers’ reputation management by comparing the differences of preschoolers’ behavior in different experimental situations.The results show that:(1)3-to 5-year-old preschoolers showed reputation management,and their reputation management showed significant developmental trend.4-to 5-year-old preschoolers’ reputation management was significantly better than 3-year-old.(2)Theory of mind could positively predict 4-to 5-year-old preschoolers’ reputation management.(3)Partner choice affected 4-to 5-year-old preschoolers’ reputation management.In the situation which contained partner choice,preschoolers’ reputation management was more obvious.(4)Partner choice could regulate the relationship between theory of mind and preschoolers’ reputation management,and in the situation which contained partner choice,theory of mind has a stronger positive predictive effect on preschoolers’ reputation management.