Social cognition: Selmans levels of perspective-taking

Question 1

Outline Selman’s study

Answer 1

• 30 boys, 30 girls
• 20 aged 4, 20 aged 5 and 20 aged 6
• individually given a task measuring role-taking ability which involved asking them how each person felt in various scenarios
• a number of distinct levels of role taking were identified
• level of role taking correlated with age, suggesting a clear developmental sequence

Question 2

What are Selman’s stages of development

Answer 2

• stage 0: socially egocentric
• stage 1: social information role taking
• stage 2: self-reflective role taking
• stage 3: mutual role taking
• stage 4: social and conventional system role taking

Question 3

Outline stage 0

Answer 3

• child cannot reliably distinguish between their own emotions and those of others (3-6 years)

Question 4

Outline stage 1

Answer 4

• the child can now tell the difference between their own point of view and that of others

Question 5

Outline stage 2

Answer 5

• child can put themselves in the position of another person

Question 6

Outline stage 3

Answer 6

• children are now able to look at a situation from their own and another’s point of view at the same time

Question 7

Outline stage 4

Answer 7

• young people become able to see that sometimes understanding others’ viewpoints is not enough to allow people to reach agreements

Question 8

What is interpersonal understanding

Answer 8

• if we can take different roles then this shows we can understand social situations

Question 9

What is interpersonal negotiation strategies

Answer 9

• understanding what others think in social situations we also have to develop skills in how to respond to them

Question 10

What is awareness of personal meaning of relationships

Answer 10

• the ability to reflect on social behaviour in the context of life history and the full range of relationships

Question 11

What is a strength of Selman’s ideas

Answer 11

• longitudinal follow-up studies have shown that perspective-taking develops with age in each individual child, showing that earlier cross-sectional research was simply not the result of individual differences in social- cognitive abilities in children in different groups
• this is a strength because Selman’s ideas are both based on solid research and supported by a range of studies