Social cognition - Selman's Levels of Perspective Taking

Social cognition

• The mental processes we go through when we are engaged in social interaction

• we often make decisions on how to behave based on our understanding of a social situation

• what we understand about a social situation and the decisions we make as a result are both cognitive processes

Perspective taking

SOCIAL NOT PHYSICAL

• our ability to appreciate a social situation from the perspective of other people

• the cognitive ability to understand the view points of others, underlies much of our normal social interaction

Selman domain specific approach

Suggested social perspective taking is a separate process - it develops independently to physical perspective

Selman’s theory of perspective taking

• Selman told a story to children about a girl, Holly, who could rescue a friend’s cat by climbing a tree

• climbing trees was banned by her father and she had promised her father that she wouldn’t

• Selman then asked the children if Holly should be reprimanded and punished by her father if she climbed the tree

Method and Procedure

• 30 boys and 30 girls

• 20 aged 4, 20 aged 5, 20 aged 6

• children were asked to describe how people would have felt in each scenario

Findings

• based on the responses of the children, Selman determined five levels of perspective taking

  1. undifferentiated and egocentric (up to age 6)

  2. differentiated and subjective/social informational (ages 5-9)

  3. second person and reciprocal/self reflective (7-12)

  4. third person and mutual role taking (10-15)

  5. in depth and societal-symbolic/social conventional (14 and above)

• age ranges overlap as children develop perspective taking abilities at different rates

Undifferentiated and egocentric

• 3-6

• children are only able to distinguish themselves physically

• not capable of recognising psychological differences between themselves and others

• they see other people the way they see an object

tended to answer that the father would not mind if Holly rescued the cat as the father and Holly both liked cats

Differentiated and subjective

• 5-9

• children begin to understand that people have perspectives that are different from their own

• cannot take perspective of the other person

• children recognise that other people have access to different information and therefore will have different perspectives

children might respond that the father might be angry if he did not know holly’s reason for climbing the tree but he wouldn’t be angry if he did know the reason

Second-person and reciprocal

• 7-12

• children able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes and be able to take another person’s perspective

• children can view their own thoughts, feelings and behaviour from the other person’s pov

• children can recognise that others can do the same

when children asked if the father would want holly to climb the tree, they would say no as the father is concerned about her safety

Third-person and mutual perspective taking

• 10-15

• able to take the perspective of a third impartial person

• children can step outside a two-person situation and image how the self and other are viewed from the point of view of a third, impartial party

when describing the scenario, the children could respond as a detached, impartial third-person

In depth and societal symbolic

• 14 up

• now understand the third-party perspective can be influenced by social or cultural factors

• as children mature they take more information into account

• they realise that different people can react differently to the same situation

• develop the ability to imagine how different cultural or social values would influence perceptions

• now able to take multiple perspectives: legal, ethical, moral, religious, scientific etc.

adolescents upon hearing the story and deciding whether or not Holly should be punished 'No’

AO3 - strength - research evidence

P = One of the strengths of Selman’s theory is that he provided evidence that perspective taking improves with age and this is further supported by a range of studies

EX = within his research, positive correlations were found between age and ability to take different perspectives in scenarios like that of Holly and the kitten

EV = Longitudinal studies with similar scenarios have also supported Selman’s findings that perspective taking improves with age. Gurucharri and Selman (1982) carried out a follow up study in which 41 participants were reinterviewed 3 years after an initial 2 year follow up interview and the results supported Selman’s stage theory of perspective taking

C = However, Wu and Keysar (2007) found that when comparing Chinese and American participants, Chinese children had significantly better perspective taking ability

LB = This suggests that there is potentially more to the development of cognition than just maturity and this limits the application of Selman’s theory

AO3 - weakness - atypical development

P = Selman’s research seems to be helpful in understanding atypical development

EX = Additional research has shown that children with ADHD and those on the autistic spectrum have problems with perspective taking

EV = Marton et al (2009) compared 80 8-12 year old children with ADHD to a control group on performance of perspective taking. Those with ADHD did worse on understanding the scenarios, at identifying the feelings of each person involved and evaluating the consequences of different actions

C= However, we cannot be certain that the ADHD was causing the worse perspective taking as the ADHD may simply be a secondary issue - unsure of cause and effect

LB = This suggests that the development of cognitive ability to take a range of perspective appears to be important in understanding atypical development

A03 - strength - methodology

P = strength = scientifically credibility

EV = in situations like Holly-Kitten, methods were rigorous and standardised when conducting interviews e.g. children being asked identical questions

EX = therefore he has a rich, insightful, in-depth data which gives further validity to his stage theory

EXT = good sample - mixed genders - reduces gender bias + range of ages to ensure full stage theory concluded

LB = standardised methodolgy gives theory credibility to stage theory of perspective taking

AO3 - weakness - overly cognitive

P = limitation = based entirely on understanding perspective taking via cognition

EX = there is more to a child’s social development than their cognitive abilities alone

EV = theory neglects role of internal factors such as empathy, emotional self-regulation or external factors such as family climate and opportunities to learn from observation and peer interaction

EXT = doesnt take into account a child’s complex social worlds in a modern society e.g. attending nursery, families etc.

LB = suggests Selman’s view is limited only to cognition and does not consider all factors which may influence a person’s perspective taking abilities