Social cognition is the ability of growing children to appreciate the mental lives of those around them; a process described as the growth of the theory of mind. This growth in the appreciation of the fact that those individuals around them have thoughts, feelings and motives different from their own which may be complex and sometimes different from their own is gradual. Meta-cognition is the ability by self to appreciate that social cognition in self; the ability to actually internalise the fact that one is in passion of the ability to appreciate the mental lives of others. Meta-cognition and social cognition play a part in the development of interpersonal behaviour and influences how children relate with other individuals at the several stages of development.
At infancy, social cognition is mainly exhibited in the form of social referencing where infants making similar responses to other people’s emotional reactions and the emerging realizations that other people have desires, goals and intentions that are different from their own. In this stage, infants will pursue tempting yet dangerous activities, but will be growingly be aware of the perspectives of the others (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2013).
In early childhood, social cognition helps child have a growing realization that their mind does not represent events accurately and that an individual may have a belief which is wrong. This means that as children in the early childhood stage, they are able to appreciate the fact what they hold as true may not and are thus able to tolerate opposing views by other people. They may thus display signs of empathy for individuals in distress and attempts to comfort people in distress. It is also at this stage that children start indicating that they are tolerant of perspectives of others. In this stage, children will be able to express their feeling about the thoughts, perspectives and needs of others. It is also at this stage, due to the influence of the development of social cognition that children will develop traits of selfishness and territorial behaviours, perhaps because of the ability to understand that their peers may want or need what they also want or posses. This means that the social interactions of the children at this stage are partly informed by this, and their interpersonal behaviours may be influenced by this, for example, they may show aggressiveness in struggles with peers about possessions and an ability to increasingly control their aggressive impulses (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2013).
At the middle childhood stage, children develop in social cognition and develop an appreciation that the actions of other people do not always reflect their true thoughts and feelings; that actions not exactly represent what their thoughts. In this stage, children also have a growing realization that other people make interpretations of their experiences rather than just remembering them. At this stage of social cognition, children will display a growth of their skills to resolve conflicts and will interact with their peers as conflict breakers. They also display a growing empathy for unknown individuals who are in suffering or are needy. In their interpersonal relationships, they also display a decrease in physical aggression but show an increase in relational aggression such as lying and stealing (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2013).
In the early adolescence stage, there is a habit to define oneself in abstraction rather than in a concrete way. There is also a drop in self esteem and an increased sensitivity to the views of others on self, and thus there is an increase in the preoccupation with appearance and comparisons with peers. It is at this stage that there is a belief of invulnerability, usually based on stereotypes, for example, a belief that boys are good in mathematics and sciences. In this early adolescence stage, children will display in their interpersonal behaviours a decline in physical aggression and an increase in the teasing and taunting of their peers and some signs of an emergence of sexual harassment among individuals in the early adolescence stage. There is also an increase in bullying among children of this age group (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2013).
In the late adolescence stage, there is a decrease in the self consciousness that is usually evident in early adolescence, and as such, there is a substantial decrease in heavy dependence on the behaviours of others and behaviours such as mood swings and peer pressure decrease. There is also an attempt, usually successful, to reconcile any contradictions in oneself and an increase in concern with identity issues. In the late adolescence stage, in terms of interpersonal behaviours, there is a substantial decline in the motivation to engage in aggressive behaviours, which may be attributed to the formation of rewarding social relationships with others. There is also a growth in the ability by individuals at this stage in their interpersonal behaviours to offer constructive help to other individuals. As such, children in late adolescence may take part in volunteer groups and participate in teams for charitable exercises and in community service work (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2013).
References
Drew J., Egan M. & Hardman L. (2011). Human Exceptionality: School, Community and Family. 10th Ed. Bemomt, CA: Cengage Learning.
McDevitt, T. M. & Ormrod, J. E. (2013). Child Development and Education. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
Ormrod, J.E. (2012). Essentials of Educational Psychology: Big Ideas to Guide Effective Teaching. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.
