Selman's levels of perspective taking

Question 1

What did Selman investigate?

Answer 1

Levels of role-taking that occurred with age

Question 2

What are the 5 stages of development?

Answer 2

1) Undifferentiated perspective-taking
2) social-informational perspective-taking
3) self-reflective perspective-taking
4) mutual perspective-taking
5) societal perspective-taking

Question 3

What happens in the socially egocentric (undifferentiated) stage?

Answer 3

Child cannot distinguish between their emotions and other emotions

Question 4

What happens in the social informational perspective-taking stage?

Answer 4

Child can tell the difference between their own point of view and others

Question 5

What happens in the self-reflective perspective-taking stage?

Answer 5

Child can put themselves into the position of another person and appreciate their perspective

Question 6

What happens in the mutual perspective-taking stage?

Answer 6

Children can look at a situation from both their own and others view at the same time

Question 7

What happens in the societal perspective-taking stage?

Answer 7

Children are able to see that understanding another person’s point of view isn’t enough to allow people to reach agreement

Question 8

What 3 later developments to social development did Selman et al. identify?

Answer 8

Interpersonal understanding
Interpersonal negotiation strategies
Awareness of personal meaning of relationships

Question 9

What is a strength of Selman?

Answer 9

Applied to education

Class discussions exposes children to different perspectives, which help to promote their perspective-taking ability