Selman

Question 1

Define Perspective-Taking

Answer 1

A Central Dynamic of social development that involves being able to view a situation or emotions from another persons viewpoint

Question 2

Define Social Cogntition

Answer 2

Refers to how our mental state moderates our interaction with other people

Question 3

Selmans Perspective Taking Dilemmas

Answer 3

Selman Presented Children With Dilemmas for example,
Holly is an 8 year old girl who likes climbing Trees
After Falling out of a tree her father makes her primise to stop climbing
Later that day she and her friends see a kitten stuck in a tree.
Only Holly is able to climb well enough to rescue the cat but she remembers the promise to her father.

Will her father understand if she climbs the tree?
Will Her Friends Sean Understand If Holly refuses to help the kitten?

Question 4

Selmans Five Stage Theory

Answer 4

Selmans Analysis of children response revealed a pattern of age related reasoning, leading him to construct a developmental model of perspective-taking.

A key feature is the progression from egocentrism to the ability to consider multiple perspectives and social norms.

Question 5

Selmans Levels of Perspective-Taking

Answer 5

Stage 0 - Undifferentiated PT. : Approx age 3-6 years
Stage 1 - Social Informational PT: Approx Age 6-8 Years
Stage 2- Self Reflective PT: Approx Age 8-10 years.
Stage 3 - Mutual PT: Approx Age 10-12 years
Stage 4 - Societal PT: Approx Age 12-15+ Years

Question 6

Explain Undifferentiated Perspective Taking

Answer 6

Able to distinguish between self and others but largely governed by own perspective

Eg Hollys dad will not be mad as he will think the same as Holly

Question 7

Explain Social Informational Perspective Taking

Answer 7

Aware of different perspectives but assume this is because others are aware of different information

Eg Hollys dad wouldnt be mad if Holly shows him the kitten, he will change his mind

Question 8

Explain Self-Reflective Perspective Taking

Answer 8

Now able to view their own thoughts and feelings from another perspective and recognize that others do the same.

Eg Hollys dad will understand why Holly saved the kitten

Question 9

Explain Mutual Perspective Taking

Answer 9

Can imagine how the self and others would be viewed from a third, impartial party. Can consider two viewpoints at once

Eg Holly dad will be able to understand his and her viewpoint

Question 10

Explain Societal Perspective Taking

Answer 10

Personal Decisions are made with reference to social conventions

Eg Holyls dad will not be mad because it is important to treat animals humanely

Question 11

Explain Relation to deception - Planting a false belief in anothers mind

Answer 11

Deception is an outcome of perspective taking that children usually master around the age of three.
It is found that at this age children could hide their disappointment at receiving the worst present when watched by others but did show disappointment wen filmed covertly.

Question 12

Evaluation of Selman’s Levels of Perspective Taking:

Research Support for Stage Theory

Answer 12

Selmans original sample of 225 participants had an age range of 4.5 to 32 years of age.
2 years later, 48 of the boys were re-interviewed and found 40 of the boys had made gains in their level of perspective-taking and none had regressed.
3 years later, analysis of 41 boys again showed no regression or skipping stages.

This sequence may be due to the stages being closely related to the stages of development proposed by Piaget.

Question 13

Evaluation of Selman’s Levels of Perspective Taking:

Research support for the role of experience

Answer 13

Even if stages of development are biologically driven, the role of experience is well supported.
It was found children showed more development when parents encouraged them to take the perspective of the victim in cases where the child may have caused harm to another.
This implies that the development of perspective taking is also related to social interaction

Question 14

Evaluation of Selman’s Levels of Perspective Taking:

Importance of Perspective-Taking Skills

Answer 14

It was found that maturity of perspective taking was negatively related to aggression and positively related to pro-social behaviour.
Selman found children who were poor at perspective-taking had more difficulty forming and maintaining relationships and were less popular.
Such research suggests perspective-taking skills lead to important social developments and may explain the lack of social development in some individuals.

Question 15

Evaluation of Selman’s Levels of Perspective Taking:

Correlation not causation

Answer 15

Correlation research means we cannot calim perspectve taking skills cause higher levels of social competence.
Maybe more popular children interact with others and these experiences develop their perspective taking skills.
If so then perspective taking skills are simply an indication of how socially developed a child is

Question 16

Evaluation of Selman’s Levels of Perspective Taking:

Real-world application

Answer 16

Evidence that perspective taking abilities can be improved with experience has important implications for schools, therapy and treatment of criminals.
Selman believes facilitation of perspective taking is one of the fundamental missions of primary education and so should be central to daily activities.
Social skills training has been used with older children as well as in therapeutic sessions for people wit mental disorders or emotional problems. SST programmes have been developed to teach perspective taking skills to prisoners to develop their empathetic concern for others and increase pro-social behaviour on release from prison.