DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL COGNITION: SELMAN'S

PERSPECTIVE-TAKING
Introduction
The social cognition refers to the concept of the child developing a sense of who they are and how they
fit into society. This topic looks at how these mental processes come about and the factors that shape
social cognition. Although there are many factors involved, we are focusing on the following 3
approaches:
 Perspective taking
 Theory of mind
 Mirror-neuron theory
Selman's Levels of Perspective-Taking
Perspective-taking concerns the ability to assume another person's perspective and understand their
thoughts and feelings. Being able to differentiate between people's perspectives and one's own enhance
the understanding of other and oneself.
Very young children don't understand that other people have different feelings and experiences from
their own. But this perspective-taking ability develops over time until it's quite sophisticated in adults.
Robert Selman, a psychoanalyst, developed a 5-stage model to describe the development of perspective-
taking.
As children mature, they take more information into account. They realize that different people can react
differently to the same situation. They develop the ability to analyze the perspectives of several people
involved in a situation from the viewpoint of an objective bystander, and they can even imagine how
different cultural or social values would influence the perceptions of the bystander.
Selman's 5-Stage Model
 Egocentric - Undifferentiated role-taking (3-6 yrs): Children recognize that the self and others can have
different thoughts and feelings, but they frequently confuse the two.
 Social-informational role-taking (6-8 yrs): Children understand that different perspectives may result
because people have access to different information.
 Self-reflective role taking (8-10 yrs): Children can 'step in another person's shoes' and view their own
thoughts, feelings, and behavior from the other person's perspective. They also recognise that others
can do the same.
 Mutual third-party role-taking (10-12 yrs): Children can step outside a two-person situation and imagine
how the self and other are viewed from the point of view of a third, impartial party.
 Societal and conventional system role-taking (12-15 yrs): Individuals understand that third-party
perspective-taking can be influenced by one or more systems of larger societal values.
Supporting Research Evidence
Selman (1971) got 40 children aged 4 and 6 years to predict a child's behavior after being given
information about a situation that wasn't available to the child answering the question. The younger
participants tended to make a prediction based on the information they had received. This suggests and
egocentric viewpoint; supporting Selman's stage theory, as the children were still in the egocentric stage.
Selman's Research
Selman looked at changes that occurred with age in children's response to scenarios. In these scenarios
they were asked to take the role of different people in a social situation.
"Holly is an 8year old girl who likes to climb trees. She is the best tree climber in the neighborhood. One
day while climbing a tree she falls off the bottom branch but doesn't hurt herself. Her father sees her fall
and is upset. He asks her to promise not to climb trees anymore, and Holly promises.
Later that day, Holly and her friends meet Sean. Sean's kitten is caught up in a tree and cannot get down.
Something has to be done right away or the kitten may fall. Holly is the only one who climbs trees well
enough to reach the kitten and get it down, but she remembers her promise to her father."
If children of different ages are presented with this situation and asked such questions as, 'If Holly climbs
the tree, should she be punished?' 'Will her father understand if she climbs the tree?' 'Will Sean
understand why Holly has trouble deciding what to do?' The children gave answers relevant to their age
group:
 Egocentric - Undifferentiated role taking: The child predicts that Holly will save the kitten because she
doesn't want it to get hurt and believes that Holly's father will feel just as she does about her climbing
the tree: 'Happy, he likes kittens.'
 Social-information role taking: When asked how Holly's father will react when he finds out that she
climbed the tree, the child responds, 'If he didn't know anything about the kitten, he would be angry.
But if Holly shows him the kitten, he might change his mind.'
 Self-reflective role taking: When asked whether Holly thinks she will be punished, the child says, 'No.
Holly knows that her father will understand why she climbed the tree' This response assumes that
Holly's point of view is influenced by her father being able to 'step in her shoes' and understand why
she saved the kitten.
 Mutual third party role taking: When asked whether Holly should be punished, the child says, 'No
because Holly thought it was important to save the kitten. But she also knows that her father told her
not to climb the tree. So she'd only think she shouldn't be punished if she could get her father to
understand why she had to climb the tree.' This response steps outside the immediate situation to view
both Holly's and her father's perspectives simultaneously.
 Societal and conventional system role taking: When asked if Holly should be punished, the individual
responds, 'No. The value of humane treatment of animals justify Holly's action. Her father's
appreciation of this value will lead him not to punish her.'
Evaluation
 Strength: Perspective-taking has practical applications as a means of conflict resolution. Walker and
Selman (1998) used perspective-taking to reduce aggression levels by getting individuals to empathize
with other peoples' feelings and viewpoints.
 Strength: Selman's theory has a practical application in physical education, as it has been used to
ascertain the ages at which children can understand others' viewpoints and roles within competitive
sports. There's little point in trying to teach team sports to children before they're less egocentric and
can appreciate others' viewpoints.
 Limitation: Selman's theory has been criticized for focusing too much on the effect of cognitive
development on perspective taking and social cognition and downplaying the role of non-cognitive
factors. For example, social factors such as arguments between friends have been seen to promote
perspective-taking skills.
 Strength: The developmental claims of Selman's model are supported by research evidence - individuals
progress gradually to higher stages over time, with little evidence of any regression to lower stages.
 Strength: Selman's use of interpersonal dilemmas has provided researchers with an objective means of
assessing social competence that has become a paradigm (accepted) method of studying the
development of perspective-taking.