Selman- Levels of Perspective Taking

Question 1

Social cognition

Answer 1

Mental process we use in social interaction
Make decisions based on our understanding of social situations

Question 2

Perspective taking

Answer 2

cognitive Ability to take on view point of another person in physical and SOCIAL situation

Question 3

Selmans research’s procedure and findings

Answer 3

60 children’s 30boys 30girls
20 4 year olds
20 5 year olds
20 6 year olds
(Split 10b 10g)
Individual tasks with interpersonal dilemmas
Given task- holly and her kitten
Identify emotional state of father, friend + holly

Found:
Number of distinct levels of perspective taking identified
Level correlated with age showing developmental sequence

Question 4

Selmans stages of development

Answer 4

0- (3-6) socially egocentric- only take one perspective-unable to take on perspectives of others

1- (6-8) social informational role taking- able to take on a single perspective at a time

2- (8-10) self reflective role taking- can put self in others perspective and fully appreciate it but only one pov at a time

3- (10-12) mutual role taking- can identify and take on multiple pov at once

4- (12+) social and conventional system role taking- Children understand that social rules are needed to maintain order when simply understanding the other person is not enough

Question 5

Developments to Selmans theory

Answer 5

Schultz, selman and la Russo
Added extras to help complete Selmans explanation of social cognition

Interpersonal understanding- (original study)- can take different roles and understand social situations

Interpersonal negotiation strategies- developing skills in how to respond to people’s perspective (asserting position and managing conflict)

Awareness of personal meaning of relationships- social development requires reflection on social behaviour in the context of different relationships

Question 6

Limitation Selman levels theory (reductionist)

Answer 6

Reductionist
Limits social cognition only to perspective taking
Ignores factors such as theory of mind and mirror neurons
Not holistic

Question 7

Strength selman theory (support)

Answer 7

gurucharri and selman longitudinal study
Followed children over time and found improvements in perspective taking

Longitudinal study provides more temporal validity for the theory

Question 8

Limitation selman theory (contrast)

Answer 8

Gasser and Keller
Assessed perspective taking in bullies, victims and non participants
Found bully’s displayed no difficulty in perspective taking
This doesn’t support the link between perspective taking and social development as if PT is required for social development would expect bullies to have an issue due to poor social development but they don’t
Limits theory in explaining social development