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Test:  Weaknesses?  Respond in comment...

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Test:  Weaknesses?  Respond in comment...

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Research is correlational. There was a link between social competence and perspective taking. However, it was not stated whether higher social competence causes better perspective taking or vice versa. Therefore, cause and effect cannot be established so it is hard to apply and generalise to other situations.

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Research into perspective taking and age. Found positive correlation between perspective taking and age. An increase in age increases ability to understand perspectives from other points of view. This supports selmans levels as it demonstrates how perspective taking develops over time.

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Research found maltreated children and those raised in chronically dysfunctional families show worse perspective taking abilities than control groups > due to low levels of communication, stressful environment and lack of role models for normal social interaction and behaviour > difficult to say poor perspective taking is direct cause of maltreatment/dysfunctional family > cannot establish cause and effect > furthermore > research may not be representative of actual perspective taking ability > children may give a good answer to demonstrate this > in real life social interactions may not show this ability > due to a lack of motivation

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Pair therapy > children with behavioural and emotional difficulties > helps children develop perspective taking and negotiation skills appropriate for their age > however > arguably Selman overemphasises > cognitive aspects of social interactions > perspective taking not only aspect needed for good social interactions > pair therapy would need to take this into account to maximise effectiveness

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Perspective taking is the ability to understand situations from different points of view. Piaget said perspective taking was a domain general approach where social and physical perspective taking occurred together. Selman said it is a domain specific approach where social perspective taking is a separate process. Perspective taking can be measured using dilemmas where a person has to look at a situation from someone else’s perspective. An example of this research is where children of varying ages were asked their views on the story about Holly. Holly was asked not to climb trees by her father but her friends cat got stuck up a tree and she was the only one who could get it down. Children were asked how the father and the friend would react. Selmans levels were made from this. Undifferentiated perspective taking (ages 3-6) is where children don’t understand perspectives other than their own and take an egocentric approach. Social informational perspective taking (age6-8) is where children understand there are other perspectives but think it’s due to other information given. Self reflective perspective taking (age8-10) is where children understand their own feelings and thoughts from another point of view. Mutual perspective taking ( age 10-12) is where children can understand viewpoints simultaneously. Social perspective taking (12+) is understanding decisions from own and other perspectives due to society.

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Furthermore > deterministic > suggests development of perspective taking mainly determined > although not entirely based on nature > nurture element something which the child does not have control of > e.g. dysfunctional family/maltreatment > for the child it is determined by others > others such as parents able to change this for the child > offering a more desirable environment and upbringing > Selman's theory has offered good practical applications for improved perspective taking

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Mainly based on nature > child progresses through stages at ages > but element of nurture > children with dysfunctional family/those who have been maltreated have poorer perspective taking skills > therefore perspective taking result of nature and nurture

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P - Evidence that perspective-taking becomes more advanced with age.

E - Selman (1971) gave perspective-taking tasks to 60 children (30 boys and 30 girls) aged 4-6 years using scenarios like Holly and the kitten. Significant positive correlations were found between the age and ability to take different perspectives. Longitudinal follow-up studies following children and recording their improvement in perspective-taking abilities have shown that perspective taking develops with age in each individual child.

E - This means there is solid support that perspective-taking improves with age.

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Perspective-taking is a cognitive ability, but there is more to social development than cognitive abilities. Selman’s approach fails to consider other factors that impact a child’s social development, including the development of empathy and emotional self-regulation. There are also external factors such as parenting style, family climate and opportunities to learn from peer interaction. This means Selman’s approach is too narrow.

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Selman believed social perspective taking an entirely separate process, whilst Piaget viewed physical and social perspective taking go hand in hand. Stage 0 is egocentrism, in which children aged 3-6 have trouble distinguishing between their own emotions and those of others. Stage 1 is the social informational stage, in which a child aged 6-8 can tell the difference between their own point of view and that of someone else, but can only focus on one at a time. Stage 2 is the self-reflective stage, in which a child aged 8-10 can place themselves in the position of another person's perspective, but can still only focus on one at a time. Stage 3 is the mutual stage, from ages 10-12 in which a child can focus on their own point of view and that of another at the same time. The final stage is the social and conventional stage, in which children 12+ can understand that appreciating perspectives of others is sometimes not enough to reach agreement. These stages depend on a child having maturity and experience.

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Selman (1971) looked at changes that occurred with age in children’s responses to scenarios in which they were asked to consider the feelings of different people in a situation. 30 boys and 30 girls (aged 4-6) were all individually given a task to measure perspective-taking, involving asking how each person felt in a dilemma. Example of one of the dilemmas - Holly has promised her father she will no longer climb trees, but then sees her friend’s kitten stuck in a tree. The task is to explain how each person would feel if Holly did or did not climb the tree to save the kitten. From this study, Selman identified a number of levels of perspective-taking that correlated with age, suggesting a clear developmental sequence.

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Children need ability to see situations from other's point of view > help communicate effectively, make friends & negotiate and resolve interpersonal conflicts > five levels > from 0 to 4 > egocentric viewpoint > social-informational role taking > self-reflecting role taking > mutual role taking > social and conventional system role taking