cognition and development - selman updated

Question 1

what is social perspective taking

Answer 1

understanding what someone else is feeling or thinking

Question 2

what did Piaget say about social perspective taking

Answer 2

said social and physical perspective-taking developed together (domain-general approach)

Question 3

what did selman say about social perspective taking and what is it based on

Answer 3

develops separately from other cognitive development (domain- specific).

Based on maturity (age) and social environment.

Question 4

what are selmans stages

Answer 4

stage 0 = socially egocentric
stage 1 = social information role-taking
stage 2 = self reflective role-taking
stage 3 = mutual role-taking
stage 4 = social and conventional system role-taking

Question 5

what is stage 0

Answer 5

(3-6 years) Socially egocentric: A child cannot distinguish between their own emotions and those of others nor explain the emotional states of others.

Question 6

what is stage 1

Answer 6

(6-8 years) Social information role-taking: A child can distinguish between their own point of view and that of others, but can only focus on one perspective at a time.

Question 7

what is stage 2

Answer 7

(8-10 years) Self-reflective role-taking: A child can explain the position of another person and appreciate their perspective, but can still only appreciate one view at a time.

Question 8

stage 3

Answer 8

(10-12) Mutual role-taking can consider own point of view and that of others at the same time

Question 9

what is stage 4

Answer 9

12+) Social and conventional system role-taking: A child recognises that understanding others’ viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreement. Social conventions are needed to keep order. E.g. personal decisions are made with reference to social conventions, such as humanely treating animals

Question 10

strengths of selman

Answer 10

• Research support:
  • Cross-sectionalstudy:Selman(1971)compared60 four-, five-, and six-year-olds on their perspective taking abilities and found significant positive correlations between age and perspective-taking.
  • Longitudinal: Gurucharri and Selman (1982) followed up children, testing whether their perspective-taking abilities changed.
  • Found: Children’s abilities improved with age.
• Real world application: Some criminals lack empathy so are more willing to harm others. Social skills training programmes encourage prisoners to learn perspective-taking skills. This means that they can increase their empathetic concern and hopefully this will stop them reoffending so research in this area is useful

Question 11

limitations of selman

Answer 11

Correlational. For example, just because perspective-taking skills and age are correlated does not mean that it develops due to maturity. Likewise, perspective-taking skills and social competence are correlated but this does not necessarily mean that the former causes the later