Mind‐mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind‐mindedness a relational construct?

Larkin, Fionnuala; Schacht, Robin; Oostenbroek, Janine; Hayward, Emily; Fernyhough, Charles; Muñoz Centifanti, Luna C.; Meins, Elizabeth

Abstract

Mind‐mindedness is a measure of the tendency to represent significant others in internal state terms and is central to supportive parent–infant relationships. The two studies reported here explored whether mind‐mindedness generalizes to representations of unknown individuals, using a novel task that assessed individual differences in adults’ tendency to interpret others’ behavior with reference to their internal states: the Unknown Mother–Infant Interaction Task (UMIIT). We compared UMIIT performance with measures of mind‐mindedness from (a) adults’ descriptions of close friends and partners (Study 1, N = 96) and (b) mothers’ appropriate versus nonattuned comments on their infants’ internal states (Study 2, N = 56). In line with the proposal that mind‐mindedness is a relational construct, UMIIT performance was unrelated to mind‐mindedness in both studies.

Citation

Larkin, F., Schacht, R., Oostenbroek, J., Hayward, E., Fernyhough, C., Muñoz Centifanti, L. C., & Meins, E. (2021). Mind‐mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind‐mindedness a relational construct?. Infant Mental Health Journal, 42(2), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21901

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 16, 2020
• Publication Date: 2021-03
• Deposit Date: Feb 8, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 16, 2022
• Journal: Infant Mental Health Journal
• Print ISSN: 0163-9641
• Electronic ISSN: 1097-0355
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 176-187
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.21901
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1280772