social cognition - selman Flashcards
what is social cognition?
a person’s understanding of themself as an individual in the context of society and other people
- e.g. the competing demands of what you want and what other people and society in general may want
what is social perspective-taking?
- the ability to adopt another person’s perspective and understand their thoughts and feelings in relation to your own
why is social perspective-taking important?
- it is important to be able to predict how others will behave
- important in group activities (problem-solving)
- leads to socially desirable behaviours (predicting consequences, empathising with others)
outline Selman’s study
- 225 ppt’s
- devised a series of scenarios to investigate children’s ability to see the world from other perspectives in a social situation
- children listened to the scenarios and then answered a series of open-ended questions
- Selman collected qualitative data and analysed responses
outline a scenario used by Selman
- ‘Holly and her kitten’ task, which involved identifying the emotional states of Holly, her father and her friend, whose kitten is stuck up a tree.
- Holly must therefore make a decision, after promising her father not to climb trees, to rescue the kitten or not.
- questions involved: ‘should holly climb the tree?’, ‘will her dad tell her off?’, ‘does holly think she will be punished?’
what are the 5 stages developed by Selman?
- undifferentiated perspective-taking
- social informational perspective-taking
- self-reflective perspective-taking
- third-party perspective-taking
- societal perspective-taking
outline undifferentiated perspective- taking (1)
- age 3-6
- child cannot differentiate another’s perspective
- children are projecting what they would do and how they would feel
outline social informational perspective-taking (2)
- age 5-9
- child recognises that others have varying perspectives but still values theirs the most
outline self-reflective perspective-taking (3)
- age 7-12
- child is able to consider their own feelings and those of others involved in the situation, but separately
- child cannot fully consider 2 points of view simultaneously
outline third-party perspective-taking (4)
- age 10-15
- child can look at multiple perspectives (abstract thinking) at the same time
- can look at the situation and remain neutral, not projecting their own emotions or perspective
outline societal perspective-taking (5)
- child understands that social
rules and values are needed to maintain order
-simply understanding the other person is not enough
S Selman: supporting evidence (Fitzgerald and White) + ELAB: further research (Selman)
ID: a strength of Selman’s levels of perspective-taking is that there is evidence to support the role of experience
Q: this means that he provided solid evidence that perspective-taking improves with age in line with his theory, and there is further research to confirm his findings
EX: for example, Fitzgerald and White studied 93 US children, they found that children of parents who used victim-centred discipline, correlated highly with perspective-taking. they also found a positive correlation between Selman’s stages and the ages he suggested
AN: this is a strength because Selman’s ideas are based both on solid research and supported by a range of studies, increasing external validity
ELAB: furthermore, Selman conducted additional research 2 years later to support his stage theory. for example, he re-interviewed 48 boys and found that they showed progress within the stages due to age. therefore, providing longitudinal research support for his stage theory
W: contradicting research (Kurdek)
ID: however, not all research agrees with Selman, and his findings have been called into question
Q: this is because by focusing only on the cognitive ability to take another’s perspective, Selman’s perspective-taking is too reductionist to be a complete account of social cognition.
EX: for example, Kurdek did a longitudinal study in 1977 and concluded that the stages are too simplistic as perspective-taking is more complex. this means that social experiences and biological factors (e.g. genetics) are likely to play a part in both the development of perspective-taking and the development of social cognition.
AN: therefore, this is a limitation as. it suggests Selman’s theory is reductionist as perspective-taking is a complicated cognitive skill that cannot be limited to certain stages
S Selman: real-life application
ID: however, Selman’s findings have had real-life application
Q: therapy based on this approach is used with young offenders to develop empathy and perspective-taking, along with the development of diagnoses
EX: for example, it has been used as a diagnostic tool for ADHD and ASD. Morton. compared 50 8-12 y/o with ADHD to a control group, using a perspective-taking task. he found that the experimental group (ADHD) did significantly worse
AN: this provides support for the theory as by pinpointing the exact
impairments experienced by children with disorders, more efficient treatments can be developed.
