COG AND DEV : Selmans Level Of Perspective Taking Flashcards
(15 cards)
Define social cognition
Social cognition: the mental processes that people use to understand/process info about others emotions and actions.
Social cognition explains how individuals make sense of the world. This isnt as related to Piagets three mountain task, and the idea of physical perspective taking.
It is more about someone ELSE WILL FEEL OR THINK
What is selmans work on perspectivective taking
30 girls and 30 boys, ages 4,5,6
Each were individually given a task about perspective taking/role taking. They asked kids how each person wousld feel in certain scenarios.
Eg: Holly promised her farther she wouldnt climb trees buts he sees her friends kitten is stuck in one. How would everyone (holly, hollys friend and her father) feel about what she should or should not do.
Found: the level of role tacking correlated with age = clear developmental sequence.
What are Selmans levels of perspective taking
0 - egocentrism
1 - social informational
2 - self reflective
3 - mutual
4 - social and conventional system
ESSMS: Every Small Step Makes Sense
Level 0 stage of persepcive taking
Egocentrism
3-6 y/o
Children are unable to take on the perspective of others and therefore are egocentric
They cannot distinguish between their own emotions and others
Level 1 of perspective taking
Social Informational
- 6-8 y/o
Chidlren can tell Diff between their own pov and that of others
They are only able to take on one single perspective at a time - SAME AS LEVEL TWO
They realise other have different pov, but only due to receiving information not understanding : social INFORMATIONAL STAGE
Level 2of perspctive taking
Self-Reflective
8-10 y/o
Children can put themselves in the position of someone else and APPRECIATE THIS POV
Different to level one because level one assumes that having the same INFO means we have the SAME POV but this one realises that having the same INFO can have DIFF POV/OPINIONS : aka ‘reflective’
But they can only focus on one perspective at a TIME. - SAME AS LEVEL ONE
level three of perspective taking
l 3 - Mutual
10-12 y/o
Children can fully identify with and take on multiple perspectives at the same time - DIFF TO LEVEL TWO
Level 4 of perspectivetaking
Level 4 - Social and conventional system
12+ y/o
Children understand that social rules are needed to maintain order when simply understanding a person is not enough.
Schultz selman and la russo
Later Developments: Selman recognises that his stages of development do not fully explain social development.
Schultz, Selman and La Russo (2003) : have identified three aspects to social development.
Interpersonal understanding
This is what Selman measures in his earlier role taking research: understanding different roles and perspectives taking> understanding social situations.
Interpersonal negotiation strategies
Skills in how to respond to them. Develop social skills such as asserting out position and managing conflict.
Awareness of personal meaning of relationship
Ability to reflect on social behaviour in the context of life history and the full range of relationships
s
Gurucharri and Selman (1982) :
Gurucharri and Selman (1982) : longitudinal study that confirms Selmans intirial results of a significant positive correlation between age and ability to take different perspectives in different scenarios. Found Selmans results on a cross sectional research, and was not due to individual differences.
This is a strong support of Selman because then there is higher internal validity.
Keller and edelstein
Keller and Edelstein : fonud participants responses reflected Selmans stages of perspective taking like Selman expected in a recreation of the dilemmas.
Martin et al (2009)
Research found that kids with ADHD/on the autistic spectrum have problems with perspective taking.
Martin et al (2009) ; compared children with a diagnosis of ADHD with a control group on performance of perspective taking.
Those with ADHD did worse on understanding the scenarios, identifying feelings and evaluating consequences.
What does Martin et al implicate for selman research
X: this is a limitation of Selmans theory of perspective which is nomothetic and cannot apply to all people as no type of cognitive functioning is the same.
P: strength because it helps understand atypical development.
P: might also lead to more help for children with disabilities and bring awareness to different cognitive functioning.
This might lead to government being able to increase funding/research for special needs/ neutrodivergent kids to aid their different types of learning/funtioning.
Wu and Keysar
Wu & Keysar (2007) - found that in their research on Chinese participants and they found that chinese participants did better than their matched US counterparts on their task.
- This implies that Selmans ignorance of cultural differences and assumption that the stages of perspective taking are based on maturity (biologically driven) and universality
Evaluate Selmans levels of persepctive taking
determinism v free wil
Nomothetictic v idiographic him
Reductionism v holism
Nature v nurture
cultural and gendee diff
X: deterministic: the stages are fixed ages and beleive that functioning doesn’t involve free will.
X: nomothetic approach : limiting as it assumes that everyone functions the same way
X: reductionist: assumes that there are other factors that impact a child social development except age (too narrow)
Eg: internal factors: empathy, emotional self regulation, trauma or early exposure.
Eg: external factors: parenting style, family climate, friends/no friends.
X: doesnt consider cultural differences.
