Taking Another's Perspective: Role-Taking Development in Early Childhood

SELMAN, ROBERT L. Taking Another's Perspective: Role-taking Development in Early Childhood. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1721-1734. 60 middle-class subjects (10 boys and 10 girls each of ages 4, 5, and 6) were administered a role-taking task specifically designed to enable the S (role taker) to make and explain predictions about a peer's responses in a situation in which S has information not available to the peer. Results suggested a 4-level progression in role-taking skill across the age range examined. The significant correlation between the role-taking levels and both chronological age and another age-related role-taking measure supported the hypothesis that conceptual role taking is an age-related social-cognitive skill and implied the possible existence of an ontogenetic sequence of roletaking stages.