The Understanding of the Adversary's Intention in Preschool Children :The strategies of solving interpersonal troubles and the reasons for doing

Abstract

The present study investigated the development of the understanding of the adversary' s intention in preschool children. 94 preschool children took part in the study. They were divided into the intention-group or the accident-group. Participants were shown 3 situations of interpersonal troubles and interviewed individually. In each situation, they were asked what strategy they would solve and the reason for doing. The following significant results were obtained. 6-year-old girls of the intention-group understood the adversary's intention, and reacted more aggresively than 4- or 5-year-olds. Though boys of the intention-group already understood the intention, they could not react aggressively except 6-year-olds. The above results suggested that children could understand adversary's intention as they grew up, and girls tried to solve the interpersonal trouble properly. Moreover, their strategies of solving may be influenced by human relations.