Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Filters

2018 - 201912020 - 20211

Settings

Author: search.filters.author.Caputo, Maryke Haasbroek

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    THE MEDIATING EFFECTS OF THEORY OF MIND ON RELATIONS BETWEEN TEMPERAMENT AND SOCIAL COMPETENCE
    (2021) Caputo, Maryke Haasbroek; Teglasi, Hedwig; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    To better understand one mechanism by which social cognition affects social outcomes, the current study proposed that young children’s differences in temperament and Theory of Mind (ToM) contribute to teachers’ perceptions of their social competence (SC). Temperament refers to biologically based differences in behavioral regulation and reactivity, whereas ToM describes the process of inferring others’ mental states and making predictions about related behavior. This study examined the effects of ToM on relations between temperament and SC. Moreover, it expanded ToM measurement beyond traditional methods that explicitly provide the information required to correctly ascertain social cognitions (termed truth-based ToM) by introducing a novel approach to defining and measuring ToM that captures the individualistic process of inferring mental states without direct access to all relevant information (termed interpretation-based ToM). Two mediation models were proposed. The first hypothesized that both types of ToM would mediate relations between temperamental effortful control and SC. Results revealed a significant positive indirect effect for truth-based ToM, suggesting that effortful control positively influences truth-based ToM, which in turn positively influences SC. Results did not yield a significant indirect effect for interpretation-based ToM, suggesting that these may be multiply influenced. This was confirmed by the second model which illustrated connections between temperamental negative reactivity, ToM, and SC. It was hypothesized that interpretation-based ToM would mediate relations between negative affectivity and SC, with a moderating effect by effortful control. Results revealed a significant positive moderated indirect effect, suggesting that negative affectivity positively influences interpretation-based ToM, which in turn positively influences SC, specifically when effortful control is high. This study showcased a novel way to define and measure a subtype of ToM that captures the construct more broadly and may be more relevant when interpreting incomplete information than when all situational cues are explicitly provided. Moreover, results of the moderated mediation model illustrated the positive role of negative affectivity when paired with high effortful control in facilitating this more complex form of interpretation-based ToM and eventual SC. Implications of the findings for literature on ToM, temperament, and SC in young children are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Parent- and Teacher-Rated Social Skills and Theory of Mind in Kindergarteners
    (2018) Caputo, Maryke Haasbroek; Teglasi, Hedwig; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study investigated how kindergartners’ use of Theory of Mind (ToM; understanding and inferring others’ mental states to predict and explain behavior) relate to their Social Competence (SC), as rated by parents and teachers. This study aimed to determine whether social skills items could be classified as more or less conventional (knowledge of emotions and social conventions) or intentional (requires noticing and interpreting other’s beliefs and intentions) based on their correlates with more or less structured performance measures of ToM, respectively. Results partially supported this this distinction. Patterns suggested that parents and teachers judge children’s social skills differently. This study also explored relations of language with SC and ToM. Language accounted for much of the variance in the more structured ToM task and teacher-rated social skills, but not the less structured ToM task or parent-rated social skills. Implications for SC conceptualization and scale construction and interpretation are discussed.