selman

• perspective taking is our ability to understand a situation from another persons view point
• in order to investigate the development of perspective taking selman asked children aged 4-6 how they felt in scenarios involving dilemmas
• one scenario involved a child called holly who promised not to climb trees preparing to climb a tree to save a kitten. Based on a Childs response they were categorized into a particular stage of perspective taking and this was found to correlate with age
• 3-6 - stage 0 - the child is unable to distinguish between themselves and others. They can do things like identify the emotions of others but they cannot tell the social behaviors that caused that emotion . This is because they are too focused on their own perspective
• 6-8 - social information role-taking - the child can now tell the difference between their own perspective and that of others so the child has developed differentiation. the child knows another person may know things they do not and vice versa
• 8-10 - self-reflective role-taking the child can now fully understand the perspective of another person. The child can understand other peoples perspectives but only one external perspective at a time
• 10-12 - mutual role-taking - a child can step out of a two person situation and imagine how both themselves and others look from a third person perspective. A child can consider 2 viewpoints simultaneously - integration
• 12-15 - societal role-taking - the child understands that thoughts and feelings are affected by social norms and beliefs and makes decisions affected by social conventions
• selman suggested that the development of perspective taking occurs due to both maturity and experience