Social cognition: Selman's levels of perspective-taking Flashcards
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Social perspective-taking concerns what someone else feels or thinks
Piaget believed that physical & social perspective-taking occurred hand-in-hand
Selman proposed that they were seperate processes
Perspective-taking research
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Procedure: 30 boys & 30 girls (20 4yos, 20 5yos & 20 6yos)
Individually given task to measure perspective-taking ability
The task involved asking them how each person felt in various scenarios
Findings: Number of distinct levels of perspective-taking identified
Selman found that level of perspective=taking correlated w/ age
Stage 0 (3-6 years): Egocentric
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Child in this stage cannot reliably distinguish between their own emotions & those of others
Can generally identify emotional states in others but don’t understand what social behaviour may have caused them
Stage 1 (6-8 years): Social-informational
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Child can tell difference between their own POV and that of others but can only focus on one of these perspectives
Stage 2 (8-10 years): Self-reflective
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Child can out themselves in position of another person & fully appreciate the other’s perspective
Can only take on board one POV at a time
Stage 3 (10-12 years): Mutual
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Children are able to look at a situation from their own & another’s POV at same time
Stage 4 (12 years +): Social & conventional system
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Children able to see that sometimes understanding others’ POVs is not enough to allow people to reach agreement
This is why social conventions are needed to keep order
Interpersonal understanding
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Schultz et al
This is what Selman measured in his earlier perspective-taking research
If we can take diff roles then we can understand social situations
Interpersonal negotiation strategies
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Schultz et al
As well as understanding what others think in social situations we also have to develop skills in how to respond to them
We therefore develop social skills such as asserting our position
Awareness of personal meaning of relationships
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Schultz et al
As well as understanding social situations and how to manage them, social development also requires ability to reflect on social behaviour in context of diff relationships
Evaluation: Research support for stages
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Strength: Evidence that perspective-taking becomes more advanced w/ age
Selman (1971) tested 60 kids with various senarios
There were sig pos correlations between age & ability to take diff perspectives
This cross-sectional research has been supported by findings of longitudinal studies (Gurucharri & Selman, 1982)
Such studies have followed children over period of time & recorded improvements to their perspective-taking ability
They have good validity because they control for individual idffs whereas cross-sectional ones don’t
Therefore, there is solid support from diff lines of research for Selman’s most basic idea, that perspective-taking improves w/ age
Evaluation: research support for perspective-taking
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Strength: Support for importance of perspective-taking in healthy social development
Support from observational study of child-parent interaction in toyshops & supermarkets
Buzijen & Valkenburg (2008) observed interactions including those where parents refused to buy want child wanted
Researchers noted coercive behaviour in children, which is example of unhealthy social behaviour
Study found negative correlatiosn between coercive behaviour & both age & perspective taking ability
Therefore, there is a relationship between perspective-taking abilities & healthy social behaviour
Evaluation: Research support for perspective-taking (counterpoint)
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
However, other research studies have not supported the link between perspective-taking & social development
E.g. Gasser & Keller (2009) assessed perspective-taking in bullies, victimes & non-ppts
Found bullies displayed no difficulties in perspective-taking
Therefore, perspective-taking may not be key element in healthy social development
Evaluation: Too cognitive
Selman’s levels of perspective-taking
Limit: focus on cog factors alone
Perspective-taking is cog ability
There is more to children’s social development than their increasing cog abilities
By focusing on cog elements, Selman’s app fails to take into account full range of other factors that impact on a child’s social development
Other internal factors include development of empathy & emotioanl self-regulation
Important external factors include parenting-style, family climate & opportunities to learn from peer interaction
Therefore, Selman’s approach to explaining social development is too narrow
