Children's production and comprehension of trait terms

Abstract

Children aged 5–10 years produced trait labels for eight descriptions of behaviour, and provided definitions of eight trait labels. There was a gradual increase with age in the number of correct trait labels produced, although even the youngest group were correct 25 per cent of the time. Judges correctly categorized the majority of children's trait definitions above chance levels. Comparisons of different types of trait term suggested that there was no overall tendency in young children to overgeneralize trait labels. The results suggest that a monolithic model of trait understanding is misleading, but that a distinction of internal-state and social-intention terms may be a useful way of relating trait concepts to other mental state terms.