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• Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development- 6 marks A01- the role of schemas


  Piaget's Theory suggests that children think entirely different ways from adults, this is because they have not yet developed an accurate schema. Children have a profound motivation to learn when our existing schemas do not allow us to make sense of something new. Therefore when not understanding this new information, this leads us to an unpleasant situation of disequilibrium until they have the ability to do this new task. For example, when a child believes that all animals that have four legs and a tail are dogs, they will be assimilated (when experiencing something new) like seeing a golden retriever or husky as they understand this is still a dog, thus achieving equilibrium. However, when a child see's a cat, they will undergo accommodation (a dramatically new experience never seen before) this will cause disequilibrium as it does not fit the original schema. Therefore, having to develop a whole new schema as although cats have four legs, they meow and do not go on walks.
• Explain how babies undergo cognitive development through the development of schemas, assimilation and accommodation - Through the process of sucking


  •Initially, first babies suck everything they come into contact with in the same manner

  •This is called assimilation = fitting new environmental experiences into existing schemas

  •Secondly, babies come into contact with something new that they cannot suck in usual way (e.g. drinking from a cup) they experience disequilibrium (the other part of equilibration)

  •This results in an unpleasant state of imbalance until they are able to do this task- therefore creating a new schema such as knowing you have to drink from a cup and suck a bottle.
• Piaget's theory of cognitive development- role of schemas


  - Children do not simply know less than adults do but Piaget think in entirely different ways from adults.

  - As children develop they construct schemas- more detailed and complex mental representations of the world- stored in the form of schemas.

  - Schema's for people (including ourselves), objects, physical actions and also for more abstract ideas like justice and morality.

  - Children a born with a small number of schemas, just enough to allow them to interact with other people.

  - The 'me schema' - all of the child's knowledge about themselves is stored.

  
• Explain one strength of Piaget's Theory?

  One strength of Piaget’s theory is that his ideas had real life application in the way that we support children.

  Piaget’s view that knowledge develops through equilibration means that self discovery is important in learning. This has led to an activity orientated classrooms where children are active learnings. For example, in reception and nursery learning is focused aroundplay and discovering new aspects of the world.This is a strength because it shows the positive impact it has on education which is still reflected in teaching today.

  However, this ‘discovery learning approach’ has been criticised. Bennett found that children taught bytraditional formal methods did better in Maths and English a counterargument to this evidence could be that children do better in the core subjects that were studied because more time is spent on them. Also, teachers need to be experienced to teach this way.

  Therefore it may just be that the application of the theory is a problem, not the theory itself.
• Explain another strength of Piaget's Theory?

  A strength of his theory is that there isevidence to support the idea that face schemas are innate.

  Fantz (1961)showed infants are asyoung as 4 days old preferred the picture that looks like a face, rather than the same features all jumbled up-the second face was a control as it was the same complexity.This facial ‘preference’finding has been replicated in many studies.

  This is a strength as it supports the idea that babies are born with some schemas and the fact that studies have been replicated shows the replicability and generalisability of findings. However, infant preference was assessed by the amount of time a baby spent looking at each face so this may have indicated interest rather than recognition due to innate schemas.
• Explain a limitation of Piaget's Theory?

  A limitation of Piaget’s theory is that itdoes not consider the role of language or other people in cognitive development.

  Piaget suggest that language is a cognitive ability that develops in the line with other abilities. However other researchers likeVygotsky argue language is a crucial part of cognitive development so language contributes to cognitive development.Vygotsky viewed language as an essential tool for communicationand that culture and behaviour was understood through language. Vygotsky says that social interactions help children develop their ability to use language. Vygotsky also argues thatother people play an important role in learning.For example, he suggests more advanced learning isonly possible with the help of experts and peers.
• Explain another weakness of Piaget's Theory?

  Another weakness, is thatequilibrium is difficult to demonstrate.Piaget believed allchildren are motivated to remove the discomfort that equilibrium brings. However, Piaget studiedmiddle class childrenwho may be more motivated to learn rather than other children. Thus demonstratingthe lack of population validityas it under represents other classes of children, which may not have the education or money to learn faster. In addition, aspects of the theory like equilibration and accommodation are concepts which are hard to operationalise.

  This is a problem because it means they are hard to test. These limitations mean the validity of the theory is weakened. These factors suggest Piaget’s theory is limited in its explanation of the cognitive development process.

  If the role of other people and language are important in cognitive development, the fact they are not considered limits the validity of it.
• Piaget's Stages of cognitive development:

  Sensorimotor StageAges: Approx 0-2 years

  -A baby's early focus on physical sensations and on developing some basic physical coordination- eg: putting everything in their mouth.- Children learn by trial and errorthat they can deliberately move their body in particular ways, and eventually that they can move other objects.- The baby also develops an understanding during the first two years that other people are separate objects and acquires some basic language.- By 8 months old,the child is capable of understandingobject permanence.This is the understanding that objects still exist when they are out of sight.Piaget observed babies looking at objects as they were removed from sight throughout the year.- He noted that before 8 months, children immediately switched their attention (eg: when the toy was taken out of sight) away from the object once it was out of sight.-However, from around 8 months, they will continue to look at it. This led Piaget to believe that it was from this age that children understood that objects continue to exist when removed from view.
• Research into object permanence (sensorimotor stage)

  Research into object permanence tested infants individually where:-Piaget waited until the child was playing with an object and then removed the toy from its grasp and hid it beneath a blanket when the child looked on.- If the child searched for it, thiswould suggest that the child could understand that the object continuedto exist even when out of sight, indicatingobject permanence.-Infants less than 8 monthsdidn’t search for the toy, apparently forgetting that the toy existed out of sight.- Children at approximately 8 monthssearched for the hidden toy however when Piaget moved it from the blanket to another place, the child looked for it where they last found it not where they last saw it.- At around12 months the infant then begins to look for the toywhere they last saw it being hidden, showing a more complex object permanence.
• Piaget's Stages of cognitive development:

  Pre operational stageAges:Approx 2-7 yearsBy age two a toddler is mobile and can use language but still lacks reasoning ability. This means that display somecharacteristic errors in reasoning.

  Conservation –is thebasic mathematical understanding that quantity remains constant even when the appearance of objects changes.Piaget demonstrated this in a number of situations in his conservation experiments wherehe places two identical rows of counters side by side.Most were able to correctly reason that each row had the same number of counters.However, when they rows were pushed closer together, pre-operational children struggled to conserve and usually said there were fewer counters.

  In hisliquid conservation procedure, he found that when two containers were placed side by side with thecontents at the same height most children spotted they contained the same volume but when the liquid waspoured into a taller, thinner vessel,younger children believed there was more volume in it.

  Egocentrism –means to see theworld only from one’s own point of view.Piaget and Inhelder (1956)describedhow egocentrism was demonstrated in thethree mountains task.Children were shown three model mountains,each with adifferent feature: a cross, a house or snow. A doll was placed at the side of the model so that it facedthe scene from a different angle and the child was asked to choose what the doll would see from a range ofpictures.Pre-operational children found this difficult and often chose the picture that matched the scene fromtheir own point of view.

  Class inclusion –earlypre-operational children begin to understand that objects fall into categories (classification)e.g. Pugs and Jack Russels fall under the same category as a dog. However,Piaget and Inhelder (1964) found thatchildren under the age of seven struggle with the idea that classifications have subsets.So when they showed 7-8year olds pictures of 5 dogs and 2 cats, and asked are there more dogs or animals, children tended to respond thatthere were more dogs.He interpreted this as meaning that younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class AND the animal class.
• Piaget's Stages of cognitive development:

  Stage of concrete operationsAges: Approx 7-11 years

  -From the age of 7 most children perform much better on tasks of egocentrism and class inclusion operations (applying skills to physical objects the child can see in the moment), theystill struggle to reason about abstract ideasand to imagine objects and situations they cannot see.- Children with ASC (autism) will struggle with the ability of abstract ideas.
• Piaget's stages of cognitive development:

  Stage of formal operationsAges: 11+ years

  -From around 11 years old, children become capable of formal reasoning where they can focus in the form of an argument and not be distracted by its content.- Formal reasoning can be tested by means of syllogisms. For example 'all yellow cats have two heads, i have a yellow cat called Charlie, how many heads does Charlie have?' The correct answer is two.- Piaget found that younger children would get distracted by the content and would answer that cats do not have two heads. Piaget believed that once children can reason formally they are capable of specific scientific reasoning and become able to appreciate abstract ideas.
• Explain one strength of Piaget's stages of intellectual development?- research support

  One of the biggest strengths of Piaget’s stages of intellectual development is there is much research evidence to support the concepts in the pre operation stage. For example,Piaget and Inhelder (1956)used the ‘Three Mountains Task’ to demonstrate egocentrism. They used 3 different conditions, a mountain with a cross, house or snow. Pre operational children found it difficult to identify the doll on the side of the mountain from their own point of view. Thus supporting the concept that ages of 2-7 children will only see the world from other point of view. Furthermore, research into the idea of class inclusion.Piaget and Inhelder (1964) found that children under the age of seven could not grasp the idea of subsets. When asked, is there more animals children tended to respond that here were more dogs. Thus showing that younger children cannot simultaneously see a dog as a member of the dog class AND animal class. Therefore, further research reinforces that egocentrism and class inclusion are present between the ages of 2-7 years
• Explain one weakness of Piaget's stages of intellectual development?- contradictory evidence -


  conservationDespite there being much evidential support there are many issues with Piaget’s research, as many of the stages are seen as incomplete. For example,McGarrigle and Donaldson (1974) researched the pre operational stage, using a number conservation experiment where they firstly, in a control condition replicated Piaget’s counter task with a 4-6 year old and found that most children answered incorrectly. However, when a ‘naughty teddy’ appeared and knocked the counter’s closer together, 72% answered correctly that there were the same number as before. This suggests that children aged 4-6 could conserve and that the children in Piaget’s experiment were influenced by seeing the experimenter (experimenter effects) changing the appearance of the counters or liquid. Thus, suggesting Piaget’s conclusions about conservation in his research into the preoperational stage lacked internal validity and therefore lacks support for this stage.
• Explain another weakness of Piaget's stages of intellectual development- contradictory evidence for


  class inclusionFurther to this, Piaget conclusions on class inclusion may be dubious based on research provided by evidence that in fact children were capable of understanding an object can be a member of two classes.Sieger and Sventina (2006) tested 100 5 year olds from Slovenia who undertook 3 sessions of 10 class inclusion tasks, receiving an explanation of the task after each session. They found that the scores of the three sessions improved more for the latter group suggesting that they were able to acquire real understanding of class inclusion in the pre operational stage questioning the validity of this stage, as rather than children not understanding the concepts between the ages 2-7, rather they have not been taught. This in turn, changes the way that teaching is performed in schools, as they can teach class inclusion from an early schooling experience. Therefore, countering Piaget’s findings and support for class inclusion in the pre operational stage questioning the validity of this stage in his theory of intellectual development.
• Explain further contradictory evidence -

  children's ability to decentre- Piaget's theory can underestimate a child's ability to decentre and see things from another point of view.

  - Hughes (1975)-tested this by using two intersecting walls, three dolls, a boy and two police officers in a similar method to the 3 mountains task.- Once familiar with the task, children as young as 3 1/2 years were able to position the doll where one police officer couldn't see it 90% of the time, and four years old equally 90% of the time but with two police officers.

  - This challenges Piaget's conclusions and overall questions the validity of his earlier 1956 research supporting the concept that children are egocentric until they are closer to 7 years old.
• Discuss Piaget’s theory of cognitive development. (Total 16 marks)- A01

  Piaget suggested that children did not simply know less than adults do but think differently to them, as the children grow older they develop schemas to the world around us. This means they can assimilate - fitting new environmental experiences into existing schemas and accommodate adjust to these by either radically changing current schemas or forming new ones to move out of disequilibrium, thus being able to form new schemas. Piaget also suggested that children go through stages of cognitive development. Initially, the sensorimotor stage (approx. 0-2 years), where children learn through trial and error. Before 8 months they have no understanding of object permanence (not understanding that objects still exist even if they are out of sight). The preoperational stage (approx. 2-7 years) see's children developing conservation (mathematical understanding that quantity remains constant even when appearance is different), egocentrism (only seeing the world from one's own point of view) and class inclusion. (understanding that objects fall into different categories). By the ages of approx. 7-11 they have entered the 'stages of concrete operations', mastering all these concepts. By 11 years and above, they are in the stages of formal operations where they are formally capable of scientific reasoning and appreciating abstract ideas.
• Vygotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development- A01

  Vygotsky saw cognitive development as a social process of learning from more experienced other’s (experts) as well as the importance of language in CD. Knowledge is firstly intermetal between the more and less experienced expert, when taught how to do something, knowledge becomes intramental. Vygotsky accounts for cultural differences in cognitive abilities, as children pick up tools from experts which are most relevant to their physical, social and work environments. Vygotsky emphasised that in order to gain intramental knowledge, they needed to cross the Zone of Proximal development (the gap between a child’s current level of development and what they could potentially understand after interaction with experts. Experts also allow children to acquire more advanced reasoning abilities, as higher mental functions through formal reasoning could only be acquired with experts. Vygotsky suggested that ‘scaffolding’ was key to crossing the ZPD – this refers to all help which adults/advanced peers give you . Bruner and Ross (1976) identified 5 aspects of scaffolding- recruitment, reduction of freedom, direction maintenance, marking critical feature and demonstration. By the time the child has reached the 5th stage they have crossed the ZPD, no longer needing scaffolding techniques as expert has gradually withdrawn level of help.

  
• Explain one strength of Vygotky's theory of Cognition Development?

  A strength of Vygotsky’s cognitive explanation is that there is clear evidence to support the benefit of expertsin developing a child’s level of reasoning.Roazzi and Byrant (1998) gave 4-5 year old children the task of estimating the number of sweets in a box. In one condition worked alone and most children failed to give a good estimate. In another condition, they worked with the help of an older child (expert) children were offered prompts, pointing the 4-5 year old’s receiving this kind of help successfully mastered the task. This supports Vygotsky’sidea that children can develop additional reasoning abilities when working with a more expert individual.This in turn suggests the zone of proximal development in a valid concept, thus strengthening his theory further.
• Explain another strength of Vygotky's theory of Cognition Development? with counter

  Another strength of Vygotsky’s theory is that is considers cultural difference,as it considers that if reasoning abilities are acquired from the experienced individualswith whom a child has contact, there may be cultural differences in cognitive development, with children picking up the mental tools that are most important for life within their physical, social and work environments.

  Although this is a vital strength of the theory, a major flaw is that itignores individual differences.Vygoktskyassumed that the process of learning are largely the same in all childrenas learning best during social interaction may not be true for everyone as personality and style of information processing may have powerful effects on what sort of activities and what sort of help works for different children.

  Moreover, children with ASC problems may find it hard/more difficult than other children to socially interact or work with other students or experts therefore different approaches may be needed to be taken in order for learning to be effective in all children. Eg: using different methods of 'recruitment
• Explain a further strength of Vygotky's theory of Cognition Development?

  A further strength is thatVygotsky presents real life application which has been highly influential in educationin the last decade. Crucially, there is evidence to suggest that these strategies are effective.

  For example, Hilde Van Keer and Jean Pierre Verhaeghe (2005) found that 7 years old tutored by 10 year olds. In addition, to their whole-class teaching, progressed further in readingthan controls who had standard whole-class teaching. A review of the usefulness of teaching assistants (Alborz et al. 2009) concluded that teaching assistants are very effective at improving the rate of learning in children provided they have received appropriate training. Thus, the idea that children can learn more and faster with appropriate scaffolding has raised expectations of what they should be able to achieve is fully supporting. Additionally, social interaction in learning, through group work, peer tutoring and individual adult assistance from teachers and teaching assistants, has been used to scaffold children though their zones of proximal development.
• Explain another research evidence
• Baillargeon- Violation of Expectation


  what is expected is not what happen.
• Baillargeon vs Piaget
• Baillargeon - reduce 6 marks a01= early infant abilities


  Baillargeon (2012)poses acompletely different theorytowards cognition development compared to Piaget, as she was a nativist – suggesting all children are born/it is an innate tendency to have a physical reasoning system (PRS).The ability of basic of basic understanding of the physical world, ability to learn details and develop is easy.

  Baillargeon demonstrated this through various ‘violation of expectation research’.For example,the impossible drawbridge study, Baillargeon et Al (1985),4/5-month-oldchildren were habituated [when what is expected to happen] to an 180 degree movement drawbridge. A ‘possible event’ was when the drawbridge stopped when it encountered a box whereas the ‘impossible event’ was when the drawbridge supposedly passed through the box.They found that a child will look at an impossible event for longer, as the PRS means they are predisposed to attend to new events that might develop their understanding of their physical world.around 8.3 second difference.

  Another study she conducted wasbased on occlusion(a process whereby something is hidden or obscured from view).Baillargeon and Graber (1975)studied 24 infants (5-6 months) where they were habituated to a toy rabbit which travelled along a track, half of the track was hidden by a window. The possible event, the rabbit was shorter than lower edge of window whereas the impossible event, the rabbit was taller and did not come into sight. They found that the infants looked longer at the impossible event as they were surprised, as they thought the tall rabbit should have reappeared in the window. Thus, demonstrating the understanding of object permanence.
• Baillargeon's Theory of infant understanding= A01

  Baillargeon (2012)poses a completely different theory towards cognition development compared to Piaget, as she was a nativist –suggesting all children are born/it is an innate tendency to have a physical reasoning system (PRS).The abilityof basic of basic understanding of the physical world, ability to learn details and develop is easy. Baillargeon demonstrated this through various ‘violation of expectation research’. For example, the impossible drawbridge study,

  Baillargeon et Al (1985), 5-month-old children were habituated to an 180 degree movement drawbridge. A ‘possible event’ was when the drawbridge stopped when it encountered a box whereas the ‘impossible event’ was when the drawbridge supposedly passed through the box. They found that a child will look at an impossible event for longer, as the PRS means they are predisposed to attend to new events that might develop their understanding of their physical world. Another study she conducted was based on occlusion (a process whereby something is hidden or obscured from view).

  Baillargeon and Graber (1975) studied 24 infants (5-6 months) where they were habituated to a toy rabbit which travelled along a track, half of the track was hidden by a window.The possible event, the rabbit was shorter than lower edge of window whereas the impossible event, the rabbit was taller and did not come into sight. They found that the infants looked longer at the impossible event as they were surprised, as they thought the tall rabbit should have reappeared in the window. Thus, demonstrating the understanding of object permanence.
• Explain one advantage of Baillargeon's explanation

  One clear strength of Baillargeon’s theory of infant understand of the physical world is that VOE is abetter method of assessing this compared to Piaget’s. Piaget assumed that when that when a baby shifted attention away from an out of sight object, this meant that the child no longer knew it existed. However, the child may have shifted attention simply because they lost interest. As VOE method eliminates confounding variables, it could arguably have better validity than Piaget’s methods of testing this. Thus, providing credible support for the theory of an infants understanding of the physical world.

  Objective- using timing and statistical rather than inferring.More structured/reliable/replicable-still a little unknown
• Explain another advantage of Baillargeon's explanation

  An additional key strength of Baillargeon’s explanation of infant understanding, particularly the PRS aspect, is that it explains whyphysical understanding is universal.Hespos and Marle (2012)point out that we all have a very good understanding of basic properties of physical objects regardless of what culture we are from. Anything which is innate is culturally

  For example, if we drop our keys, we expect it to hit on the flood. This would suggest that the PRS is in fact innate, otherwise we expect cultural differences but there is a lack of evidence to suggest every culture has this. This is a strength of Baillargeon’s ideas of PRS because its universal nature suggests that it is innate and can apply to all cultures, thus having cultural relativism .That being said, Baillargeon’s theory relies on the innate ability to understand things, it could be deemed deterministic, as it ignores the fact learning is influenced by a child’s environment. There are wider issues with this as it ignores the role of nature in the child’s development and doesn't suggest that why other people learn at different rates, where as Piaget. Some children have delayed development/deficits which only may develops object permanence at the 5/7 months.

  Therefore, in compared to Piaget who is an interactionist and take into account both the environment and innate ability, his theory could be deemed more credible.
• Explain a limitation of VOE research

  A limitation of the VOE research that supports the theory of how infants understand the physical world is that we can never really judge what they understand.As the research method relies on babies behaving in a way we might expect them to, there are too logical problems with this. Firstly, we areguessing and can never know how a baby might actually behavein response to a violation of expectation. Secondly, although the infantslook for different lengths of time at different events, this merely means that they see them differently so there maybe a number of reasons why they find one scene more interesting than another.These problems mean that the VOE method may not be an entirely valid way of investigating infant understanding of the physical world, although it is more valid than other methods.
• Selman's Stages


  of social cognitive development/ perspective taking- 6 marks A01Selman (1971) researched the change in age of children and the ability to take the role of other people when given various social situation scenarios. Selman conducted this through various 'interpersonal dilemma' studies, like the girl's name holly who wanted to climb up a tree to rescue the kitten even though she promised her father not to. Selman would ask the child how they would feel if they were holly. This therefore determined the role taking ability of that child, which Selman found correlated with age. For example, at Stage 0 (ages 3-6) they could be considered 'socially egocentric' whereby they cannot distinguish between their own emotions and others. At stage 2 (ages 8-10), they would be at the self-reflecting role taking stage and fully appreciate other perspectives but would only be able to take one view at a time. And at stage 4 (ages 12+) where they understand more than both viewpoints is not enough to reach agreement and social conventions are needed.
• Selman's Perspective Taking Research

  Selman (1971)looked at at changes that occurred with changes that occurred with age in children's responses to scenarios in which they were asked to take the role of different people in social situations.

  Procedure-30 boys and 30 girls took part in the study 20 aged four, 20 aged five and 20 aged six years.All were individually given a task designed tomeasure role-takingability.This involved asking themhow each person felt in various scenarios.

  One scenario featured achild called Holly who has promised her father she will no longer climb trees,but who then comes across her friend whose kitten is stuck up a tree. The task was to describe and explain how each person would feel if Holly did or did not climb the tree to rescue the kitten.

  Findings - A number of distinct levels of role-taking were identified (see below).Selman found that the level of role-taking correlated with age, suggesting a clear developmental sequence
• How is Selman's Theory different to Piagets?

  - Piaget believed physical and social cognition go hand in hand(domain general cognitive development)- Where as Robert Selman (1971,76) believed physical and social cognition are separate from each other(domain specific approach)
• Selman's stages of development- Stage 0

  Socially egocentric:Ages 3-6The child in this stagecannot reliably distinguish between their own emotions and those of others. They can generally identify emotional states in others but do not understand what social behaviour might have caused them
• Selman's stages of development- Stage 1

  Social information role-taking:Ages- 6-8The child cannow tell the differencebetween their own point of view and that of others, but theycan usually focus on only one of these perspectives
• Selman's stages of development- Stage 2

  Self-reflective role-taking:Ages- 8-10At this stage the childcan put themselves in the position of another personandfully appreciatetheir perspective. They can, however,only take on board one point of view at a time.
• Selman's stages of development- Stage 3

  Mutual role-taking:Ages- 11-12Children are now able to look at a situationfrom their own and another's point of view at the same time.
• Selman's stages of development- Stage 4

  Social and conventional system role-taking:Ages- 12+Young people becomeable to see that sometimes understanding others' viewpoints is not enoughto allow people to reach agreement. This is why social conventions are needed to keep order.
• Later developments to Selman's theory-


  Shultz, Selman and La Russo (2003)- could be used as A03Recognised that the above descriptions of cognitive reasoning do not fully explain social development. The psychologists later identified three aspects to social development:

  Interpersonal understanding:Taking on multiple roles- understand social situations.Interpersonal negotiation strategies: we have to develop skills to respond them- developing social skills such as alternating our position and manage conflictAwareness or personal meaning of relationships:reflect on social behaviour in the conflict of life history and full range of relationships -> violent gang members- they have have an advanced social understanding but simple understanding of conflict because of their role in a gang.
• A03 Selman (Schultz, Selman and Russo)


  One weakness of Selman’s stages of perspective taking is that It is not a full explanation of social development. This is because it does not consider other factors such as other roles people play in social cognition.

  However, his theory was later developed by Schultz, Selman and La Russo (2003) whereby the psychologists later identified three aspects to social development. Interpersonal understanding: Taking on multiple roles- understand social situations. Interpersonal negotiation strategies: we must develop skills to respond them- developing social skills such as alternating our position and manage conflict.

  Furthermore, Awareness or personal meaning of relationships: reflect on social behaviour in the conflict of life history and full range of relationships -> violent gang members- they have an advanced social understanding but simple understanding of conflict because of their role in a gang.

  Thus, showing that although Selman’s original theory was incomplete, the later developments adds credibility to his research, by going through the falsification process (able to prove something wrong and modify the theory).
• Explain a strength of Selman's research/theory

  However, it should be considered that Selman’s levels of perspective taking there isstrong research evidence.In one study (Selman. 1971) gave perspective taking tasks to children half boys half girls aged 4-6.

  Significant positive correlation were found between age and ability to take different perspectives in scenarios like that of holly and the kitten and then later re interviewed, gains had been made.

  Their levels of perspective taking and none had regressed the idea of an age related development through stages progress with age. Furthermore, a follow up study found that no boys had skipped any stages further supporting the stage model, therefore validating the theory.

  However as this research is correlational (as Selman was never actually manipulating anything, the ages occurred on their own), this makes it hard to establish cause and effect. Therefore we cannot be certain that it is the ages of the children which cause higher levels of perspective thinking rather than other factors like IQ.