About the Book
The need to understand human social life is basic to our human nature and fuels a life-long quest that we begin in early childhood. Key to this quest is trying to fathom our inner mental states--our hopes, plans, wants, thoughts, and emotions. Scientists deem this developing a "theory of mind." In Reading Minds, Henry Wellman tells the story of our journey into that understanding.
Our hard-won, everyday comprehension of people and
minds is not spoon-fed or taught. Each of us creates a wide-ranging theory of mind step-by-step and uses it to understand how all people work. Failure to learn these steps cripples a child, and ultimately an
adult, in areas as diverse as interacting socially, creating a coherent life story, enjoying drama and movies, and living on one's own. Progressing along these steps--as most of us do--allows us to see the nature of our shared humanity, to understand our children and our childhood selves, to teach and to learn from others, and to better navigate and make sense of our social world. Theory of mind is basic to why some of us become religious believers and others atheists, why some of us become
novelists and all of us love stories, why some love scary movies and some hate them. Reading Minds illuminates how we develop this theory of mind as children, how that defines us as individuals, and
ultimately how it defines us as human.
Table of Contents:
Preface Chapter 1: Reading Minds 101 How We Begin Reading the Minds of Others Mistakes Are Made Life Without Reading Minds: Autism and Mind Blindness Going Forward Chapter 2: Mindreading, Gossip, and Liars Gossip: Can You Blame Your Primate DNA? Reading Minds 102 Not Just for Experts: Everyday Psychology Lies, Damned Lies, and Deceptions How to Detect Liars Our Social Brain Chapter 3: Friends, Secrets, and Lies Children Master False Beliefs
Back to Africa Lies and Deception Hiding and Secrets Persuasion Ruby Bridges and Friendlessness Chapter 4: Imagination and Reality Real or Imagined: Can Children Tell? Jean Piaget Imaginary Companions Mixing Mind and Reality--We All Do It In Sum Chapter 5: Putting the Theory in Theory of Mind Temple Grandin: Thinking in Pictures Everyday Theories Building Theories Theory? Or Not? Chapter 6: Block by Block Building Theory of Mind How Deafness Influences Theory of Mind Stepping Up Deaf with Deaf Parents Watching a Sign Language Arise Enhancing Theory of Mind Can Sequences Differ? Theories Beget Theories Building with Blocks Chapter 7: The Baby Boom: Where Reading Minds Begins Infants' Social Understanding How It's Done Preferences How Infants Understand People Further Questions Primal Egocentrism False Beliefs? Human Learning: The Real Baby Boom Chapter 8: Superpowers, God, Omniscience, and Afterlife Superheroes How Children Link to God
Omniscience? Does Religion Help? Adult, Too
The Living Dead Afterlife Is Your Mind Invisible? Is Your Brain? The Invisible Brain The Soul Has It Transcending the Ordinary Chapter 9: Possible Worlds, Possible Minds When People Don't Care When God Talks Back Mind Overcomes Reality People Everywhere are Different, People Everywhere are Just the Same Teaching and Time
Rubber Band Development Contradictions and Progress Chapter 10: Chimps, Dogs and Us: The Evolution of Reading Minds How Human Are They? Rich or Lean? The Lean Getting Richer Chimp Limitations Human versus Chimp: Sharing, Helping, and Acquiring Sharing and Cooperation Helpful Disclosures Helpful Acts My Dog Can Read My Mind Temperamental Humans Social Intelligence Chapter 11: The Social Brain Cells that Read Minds How It Works Yawning Infects Us TOM: The Theory of Mind Network Childish Brains Plastic Brains Chapter 12: Hi, Robot The Uncanny Valley Creepiness Creeps In Learning from Robots Trustworthy Testimony Developing Ideas about Robots Younger Children Learn from Robots Younger versus Older Children and Robots Feelings toward Robots Morality for Robots? Into the Future Chapter 13: Theory of Mind At Work At Work in the Law Mind Bubbles Up
Mysteries of Mind
Theory of Mind at Work for Childish Adults Theory of Mind Works Against Us Forecasting Feelings Surprise: It's Not the Thought that Counts Easy Knowledge Is Bad for You How to Get Smarter Always Working Chapter 14: Stories, Theories, Minds The Stories We Live By Self-Deceptions and Errors Understanding and Misunderstanding Emotions It's Magic We Don't Know What We Don't Know Reading Minds
About the Author :
Henry M. Wellman graduated with a BA from Pomona College in 1970 and with a PhD from the Institute of Child Psychology at the University of Minnesota in 1975. He has been on the faculty of the University of Michigan for just over 40 years. His book Making Minds (OUP 2014) won book awards from the American Psychological Association and the Cognitive Development Society. He is recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award,
University of Michigan 2009; the G. Stanley Hall Award (for distinguished career contributions to Developmental Psychology) from the American Psychological Association, 2012; and a MERIT award from the National Institute of Child
Health and Development.
Review :
"The book makes for a fun reference text, in part because the narrative flows so easily." -- Choice
"Henry Wellman offers a compelling narrative of how children construct an increasingly elaborate theory of the human mind. Children use that theory to make sense of what people say, do, think and feel. It helps children to communicate, make friends, collaborate, play games, and empathize--and it gives them a way to think about a variety of other minds: the minds of imaginary playmates, fictional characters, animals, robots, and even supernatural agents, such
as God. A pioneer in the field, with impeccable research credentials, Wellman has written an accessible account of one of the most fertile and enduring research programs in developmental psychology."
--Paul L. Harris, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education, Harvard University
"Henry Wellman is the world's leading authority on children's 'theory of mind'-the way that we come to understand the minds of others. It is a topic that is increasingly central in developmental and clinical psychology and in neuroscience, and is equally important to parents and teachers. This comprehensive, clear, and very accessible and readable book provides the best possible introduction to the field. But it also includes fascinating and exciting new ideas
about the frontiers of the research, from robots to religion."
--Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy, Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
"Most people think that psychologists read minds but what Henry Wellman demonstrates is that this is a natural ability we all possess from an early age. Peppered with fascinating examples from the lab and the real world, Reading Minds is a journey of wonder into this field of human development. Who better to guide us than one of leading experts who has mapped so much of the terrain."
-- Bruce Hood, Professor of Psychology, University of Bristol
