selman Flashcards
social cognition
define perspective-taking
cognitive ability to take on viewpoint/ perspective of another person in physical or social situations
outline Selman’s research into perspective-taking
M: looked at changes that occurred with age in children’s development
- 30 boys, 30 girls ages 4-6
- individually given tasks to measure role-taking ability- involving asking questions how they felt during given scenarios (e.g., child told not to climb tree but cat is stuck in tree)
R: distinct levels of role-taking identified correlated by age and therefore developed the 5 stages of cognitive development
what are the 5 stages of Selman’s cognitive development
socially egocentric (3-6)
social information role-taking (6-8)
self-reflective role-taking (8-10)
mutual tole-taking (10-12)
societal + conventional role-taking (12-15+)
outline Selman’s stage of socially egocentric in his stages of cognitive development
child can’t distinguish between own and other perspectives (presumes everyone has the same perspective as them)
outline Selman’s stage of social information role-taking in his stages of cognitive development
understand people have access to different information and think differently
outline Selman’s stage of self-reflective role-taking in his stages of cognitive development
understand others have different perspectives and know that others can view different perspectives too
outline Selman’s stage of mutual role-taking in his stages of cognitive development
ability to think about hypothetical 3rd party perspective as well as those involved
outline Selman’s stage of societal + conventional role-taking in his stages of cognitive development
can take on hypothetical 3rd party perspective + contextual values and opinions (e.g. religion, how they were raised)
what were the 3 aspects of social development later developed by Selman, Schutz and La Russo
interpersonal understanding
interpersonal negotiation strategies
awareness of personal meaning of relationships
define interpersonal understanding as an aspect of social development
ability to understand others feelings by taking into account their perspective
define interpersonal negotiation strategies as an aspect of social development
how to respond when understanding perspective (whether you feel they are right/ wrong)
define awareness of personal meaning of relationships as an aspect of social development
ability to reflect on social behaviour and that there are different ways to deal with a problem due to your current social role
evaluate Selman’s theory within social cognition
A: Buijzen + Valkenberg: observation of interaction in toyshop and found children were less likely to be upset about not receiving a toy the older they were due to understanding perspective taking- validity
C: Gasser + Keller: bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective taking- suggests perspective taking may not be important for socially desirable behaviour -> not everyone follows perspective taking values
C: atypical behaviours: those with ADHD and autism find it hard to take into account others’ perspective- Marton compared 50 12 year olds with ADHD to control group and found those with ADHD did worse on perspective taking task -> show not everyone can develop perspective taking skills in cognitive development stages
