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

Larkin, Fionnuala, Schacht, Robin, Oostenbroek, Janine, Hayward, Emily, Fernyhough, Charles, Munoz Centifanti, Luna C and Meins, Elizabeth (2021) Mind-mindedness versus mentalistic interpretations of behavior: Is mind-mindedness a relational construct? INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, 42 (2). pp. 176-187.

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	mentalising, mind&#8208, mindedness, parent&#8211, infant interaction
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	01 Feb 2021 08:41
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 23:01
DOI:	10.1002/imhj.21901
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3114951