Selman's levels of perspective taking

Define social cognition

The mental processes underlying human social interaction to enhance our understanding of a social situation and improve our social decision making

Define social perspective taking (role-taking)

Being able to look at a social situation from another person’s point of view and consider what other people are thinking

Did Selman take a domain-general or domain-specific approach to cognitive development?

• Domain-specific process

• Develops separately from other cognitive domains, acting as a distinct process for understanding social situations

Outline Domain-General

A system or process that applies to many types of tasks or knowledge across different situations

Outline Domain-Specific

A system that only applies knowledge to a specific situation

How did Selman research his levels of perspective taking?

Looked at how responses to the Holly dilemma changes as children develop their social-perspective-taking abilities

Briefly outline the Holly dilemma

• Holly, an 8-year-old who loves climbing trees

• Promises her father she won’t climb after a fall

• Later, a friend’s kitten is stuck in a tree

• Holly is the only one who can rescue it

• She must decide whether to keep her promise or help the kitten

Outline the procedure and findings of Selman’s research

Procedure

• 60 participants

• Asked how Holly, her friend and her father would feel in scenario if Holl did climb the tree

Findings

• Identified 5 levels of perspective taking that clearly correlated with age

Conclusion

• Found clear developmental sequence of social perspective taking

What are the 5 stages of Selman’s development of social perspective taking?

0. Undifferentiated (egocentric) perspective taking

1. Social informational perspective taking

2. Self-reflective perspective taking

3. Mutual perspective taking

4. Social and conventional perspective taking

Give the ages at which children reach each stage of social perspective taking?

0. Undifferentiated (egocentric) perspective taking → 3 to 6 years old

1. Social informational perspective taking → 6 to 8 years old

2. Self-reflective perspective taking → 8 to 10 years old

3. Mutual perspective taking → 10 to 12 years old

4. Social and conventional perspective taking → 12+ years old

What are the key features of undifferentiated (egocentric) perspective taking

• Children are unaware of any perspective other than their own

• They can't distinguish between their own emotions and others'

What are the key features of social informational perspective taking ?

• Children recognise that others have perspectives that differ from their own

• They only recognise others have different perspectives because they have received other information

What are the key features of self-reflective perspective taking ?

• Children cannot consider more than one viewpoint at a time

• Children know that their own and others' points of view conflict even when they receive the same information

What are the 4 key features of mutual perspective taking?

• Can see a situation from their own point of view and someone else's at the same time.

• Understand that other people are also trying to understand their perspective.

• Can imagine what a neutral third person would think about the situation.

• Able to consider multiple perspectives simultaneously.

What are the key features of social and conventional perspective taking?

• Child can understand another persons perspective by comparing it to the society in which they live

• Child expects others to take viewpoint of most people in their social group to keep order

What are the three aspects of the complete perspective taking theory? Who came up with them?

Selman

• Social perspective-taking

  • Understanding another person’s thoughts, feelings, and viewpoint

• Self-reflective perspective-taking

  • Understanding that others can view you from their perspective

• Mutual (or third-person) perspective-taking

  • Being able to step outside the situation and consider how both viewpoints interact, like an objective observer

What supporting evidence is there for Selman’s stages?

Gurucharri and Selman (1982)

• Longitudinal research on perspective taking ability

• Found improvements of perspective taking ability in Holly dilemma correlated with age

• Supports the high validity of stages of perspective taking

What supporting evidence is there for the importance of social perspective taking?

Buijzen and Valkenberg (2003)

• Observation of child-parent interaction in toyshops and supermarkets

• Found negative correlation between repeated demands for products and age/perspective taking ability

• Supports Seligman's approach that perspective-taking is vital for healthy social development, as there is a relationship between perspective-taking and healthy social behaviour

What counter evidence is there for Buijzen and Valkenberg (2003) findings?

Mixed research evidence

• Gassner and Keller (2009) found that bullies did not show difficulties with perspective-taking

• Contradicts the theory, which suggests that poorer perspective-taking should lead to more antisocial behaviour.

• Therefore, it reduces the validity of the theory, as perspective-taking ability may not fully explain behaviours like bullying

How is this theory reductionist?

• Only takes cognitive factors into account

• But social development is the result of many other factors

• For example: empathy, internal self-regulation, parenting, and peer interactions