Cognition And Development: Selmans Level Of Perspective Taking Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is perspective taking
Our ability to appreciate a social situation form the perspective of other people
What is Piaget’s idea of egocentrism in children?
Egocentrism is the difficulty children have in seeing the world from someone else’s physical or emotional perspective.
What is the “three mountains task” used by Piaget?
A task where children describe what a doll would see from different viewpoints around a model with three mountains, testing their ability to take a physical perspective other than their own.
What kind of perspective-taking is tested by the “three mountains task”?
Physical perspective-taking—understanding what someone else can physically see.
What is social perspective-taking?
Understanding what someone else is feeling or thinking; part of social cognition.
Did Piaget view physical and social perspective-taking as developing together or separately?
Together; he believed in domain-general cognitive development.
What was Robert Selman’s view on the development of social perspective-taking?
He believed it was a separate process, a domain-specific development.
What did Selman study in 1971 and 1976?
Changes in children’s ability to take the role of different people in social situations as they aged.
What was the procedure of Selman’s 1971 study?
60 children (20 each aged 4, 5, and 6) were given tasks to assess role-taking, including a scenario about a girl named Holly and a kitten in a tree.
What was the purpose of the “Holly and the kitten” scenario in Selman’s study?
To measure how well children could understand and explain the feelings of each person in a social dilemma.
What did Selman find in his study on perspective-taking?
Distinct levels of role-taking that correlated with age, showing a clear developmental sequence.
What five stages of social cognitive development did selman propose
- stage 0 (3-6 yrs) - socially egocentric
- stage 1 (6-8 yrs) - social information role taking
- stage 2 (8-10 yrs) self reflective role taking
- stage 3 (10-12 yrs) - mutual role taking
- stage 4 (12 + yrs) - social and conventional system role taking
Outline stage 0 of social cognitive development according to selman
- child cannot reliability distinguish between their own emotions and emotions of others
- can generally identify emotional states in others but can’t work out what caused them
Outline stage 1 of social cognitive development according to selman
- child can now tell the difference between their own POV and others
- but they can usually only focus on one of these perspectives
Outline stage 2 of social cognitive development according to selman
- children can put themselves in the position of another + appreciate their perspective
- can still only take on board one POV at a time
Outline stage 3 of social cognitive development according to selman
- children can look at their own and others POV at the same time
Outline stage 4 of social cognitive development according to selman
Children become able to see that sometimes understanding another viewpoint is not enough to allow people to reach agreement
What did selman [propose about his stages of social cognitive development
The development through these stages is based on maturity and experience
What 3 aspects to social development did selman et al recognise
- interpersonal understanding - if we can take different roles this shows we can understand social situations
- interpersonal negotiation strategies - we develop social skills such as asserting our position and managing conflict
- awareness of personal meaning of relationships - social development also requires the ability to reflect o social behaviour in the context of life history and the full range of relationships
What are the three evaluation points for selmans levels of perspective taking
- evidence that perspective taking gets better with age
- mixed evidence for importance of perspective taking
- applications in understanding atypical development
Outline ‘evidence that perspective taking gets better with age’ as an evaluation point for selmans levels of perspective taking
- Selman provided solid evidence that perspective taking ability improves with age
- longitudinal follow up studies by selman et al - show perspective taking develops with age in each child
-however - many studies conducted by selman himself
Outline ‘mixed evidence for importance of perspective taking’ as an evaluation point for selmans levels of perspective taking
- evidence is mixed as to how important the cognitive ability to take alternative perspectives is in understanding children social development
- in an observation of child parenting interactions in supermarkets - researchers found a negative correlation between age, perspective taking and coercive behaviour
- so perspective taking may be important in developing pro social behaviour i.e alternatives to coercion
Outline ‘applications in understanding atypical development’ as an evaluation point for selmans levels of perspective taking
- the development of cognitive ability to take a range of perspectives appears to be important in atypical development
- children with ADHD and on the autism spectrum have problems with perspective taking
- this is strength because it helps understand atypical development
