The Development Of Social Cognition Flashcards
What is perspective taking
Being able to see from someone else’s viewpoint
What are the 5 stages of Selmans levels of perspective taking and the ages they occur in
Stage 0 - Undifferentiated (3-6 years)
Stage 1 - Social Informational Perspective Taking (6-8years)
Stage 2 - Self reflective (8-10 years)
Stage 3 - Mutual perspective taking (10-12 years)
Stage 4 - Societal perspective taking (12-15+)
Selmans levels - Stage 0 Undifferentiated
There is no perspective taking. Children assume that others have the same perspective as themselves and are very egocentric
Selmans levels - Stage 1 Social Informational
Children are aware that perspectives are different to their own but not why
Selmans levels - Stage 2 Self Reflective
Children can consider how ONE viewpoint may be different to theirs
Selmans levels - stage 3 mutual perspective taking
Good perspective taking. Children can see how TWO or more viewpoints may differ to theirs
Selmans levels - Stage 4 Soceital Perspective taking
Can see how society and culture can change multiple peoples perspectives
EVALUATION - how valid is Selmans explanation of social cognition
STRENGTH - research support for stage theory of perspective taking - Selman gave perspective taking tasks to 60 children aged 4-6 years and found significant correlations between age and ability to perspective take - suggests biological process and that we have an innate ability to perspective take as we grow older - on the other hand flawed methodology due to high cognitive load on children so they could have found the dilemma harder to remember. Baillargeon found children understand false beliefs and hence could perspective take at 14.5 months
STRENGTH - real life application to disorders like ADHD and ASD - 50 8-12 yr old children with ADHD were compared to a control of non ADHd children and found those with ADHD performed worse on understanding the feelings of others in scenarios - suggests biologically different to those without disorder and fits with research on mirror neurons as those without ASD have less activity and therefore PT could develop with age as mirror neurons develop - however Selmans can not explain how children progress through stages and is likely that it is environmental so maybe Vygotsky has a better explanation of how PT develops over time
WEAKNESS - it is correlational and lacks causation - research has found a negative correlation between PT and aggression and a positive correlation with pro social behaviour - this suggests that PT skills lead to important social development and can help understand relationship problems and aggressive behaviour but is correlational so we cannot say for certain that lack of PT causes aggression - furthermore socially sensitive through eugenics and saying people with lack of PT have more anti social behaviour
What is Theory of Mind (ToM)
The ability to not only understand that people have different beliefs, motivations, knowledge and moods but also understanding how that affects their actions, intentions and behaviour as well as their own. Researched by Baron-Cohen.
Assessing ToM - KEY STUDY - Maxi
Method - story about Maxi seeing a chocolate cake go into a green cupboard. When maxi leaves the chocolate cake is moved into the blue cupboard. Children are then asked when maxi returns what cupboard will he look in
Results - aged 3 - said maxi would check the blue cupboard. 4 and onwards - said maxi would check the green cupboard. All children aged 6 understood maxi had a false belief
Conclusion - by age 4-6 children have developed ToM and it develops through biological maturation based on age
Theory of mind as an explanation of autism - SALLY ANNE KEY STUDY
Quasi experiment with 20 children who had ASD, 14 children with DS and 27 neurotypical children.
Procedure - situations was role played. Sally has a basket and Anne has a box. Sally puts her red ball into her basket. Sally leaves the room. Anne takes the red ball out of Sallys basket and puts it in her box and children were asked where Sally will look for her red ball
Results - 85% of control group gave correct answer but only 20% of ASD gave correct answer which suggests a theory of mind deficit in those with ASD
Theory of mind as an explanation for autism - EYES TASK KEY STUDY
Method - high functioning ASD adults were given the eyes task and had to pick the intention of the facial expression based on the eyes
Results - ASD adults had a mean score of 16/25 and non ASD control had a mean score of 20/25
Conclusion - impairment in ToM with those with ASD
EVALUATION - how valid is Baron-Cohens theory of mind explanation of social cognition?
WEAKNESS - low validity in false belief tasks - Maxi and Sally Anne tasks are high in cognitive load and require working memory functioning which is low in 3 year olds - therefore validity can be questioned as it tests memory of story rather than ToM - however does increase understanding of neurodivergent people
WEAKNESS - difficult to distinguish ToM from perspective taking - Sally Anne measures more PT than ToM as it does not measure intent - therefore ToM not distinct concept but PT under another name so low validity - however baron cohen eyes task looks at the intentions behind facial expressions so this would be more valid
WEAKNESS - only s partial explanation for ASD - recent research has questioned the deficit in ToM is specific to those with ASD as they have other symptoms - therefore can not be used to diagnose ASD - furthermore no clear explanation for how ToM develops
