Selman's Theory: The development of Social Cognition Evaluation

Question 1

Support

Answer 1

• strong research evidence
• Selman found positive correlations between age and the ability to take different perspectives
• this is supported by Gurucharri and Selman’s longitudal studies which confirms that perspective-taking develops with age
• longitudal studies have good validity because they control for individual differences
• this is a strength of the levels idea because it’s supported by a range of evidence

Question 2

Contradiction

Answer 2

• an issue with much of the research is that it’s correlational
• such correlations do no mean that perspective-taking skills cause higher levels of social competence
• for example, more popular children have more social interactions which may lead to advance in the development of perspective-taking skills
• if this is generally the case the perspective-taking skills are a marker of how socially developed a child is - this is caused by social experiences

Question 3

Alternative

Answer 3

• an alternative explanation for development of social cognition is the biological explanation
• for example, mirror neurons suggest we imitate others behaviour to learn the intentions of others
• this suggests that Selman’s theory is too simplistic to explain all social cognition

Question 4

Practical Applications

Answer 4

• another strength is that it helps us understand some atypical development
• Marton compared 8-12 year olds who were diagnosed with ADHD with a control group, looking at performance on perspective-taking tasks - finding that the children with ADHD did worse
• the ADHD group also did worse on identifying the feelings of each person involved and evaluating the consequences of different actions
• meaning that research has identified a key social cognitive deficit in this group of people
• this supports the usefulness of the theory in helping us to intervene and support people with atypical development

Question 5

Issues + Debates

Answer 5

• a limitation of this theory is that only 1 viewpoint is covered
• Selman’s theory looks only at cognitive factors - whereas children’s social development involves more than their developing cognitive abilities
• for example, internal factors (empathy) and external factors (family atmosphere) are important and is likely that social development is due to a combination of these
• it can be argued that to consider one element of perspective-taking in isolation gives an oversimplification account of social development