Ersatz egocentrism: A reply to H. Borke.

Abstract

This study, prompted by an earlier and seemingly contradictory report by Borke, presents information which sharply differentiates between role or perspective taking skills and the more primitive and developmentally prior ability to sometimes correctly anticipate the thoughts and feelings of others. In contrast to the data of Borke, which attributed perspective taking skills to children as young as 3 years of age, the present findings, based on the responses of 86 children between the ages of 6 and 12, suggest that errors in this process of social decentration persist well into middle childhood and occur despite apparent skills in accurately predicting the affective responses of others.

Consumer Neoteny

“…The items are based on neoteny, child cognition, and more generally psychology literature, and they cover the following six neoteny-related characteristics: play (P. G. Bateson, 1976;Bekoff, 1972;Bjorklund, 1997;Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2000;Dansky, 1980;Fagen, 1981;Klinger, 1969;Lorenz, 1971;Pellegrini & Bjorklund, 2004;Pellegrini & Smith, 1998;Piaget, 1945Piaget, /1999Vygotsky, 1930Vygotsky, /2004Vygotsky, , 1931Vygotsky, /1991Vygotsky, , 1933Vygotsky, /1967, attachment (Bowlby, 1969(Bowlby, /1982Cairns, 1976;Fraley, Brumbaugh, & Marks, 2005;Fraley & Shaver, 2000;Hazan & Shaver, 1987Insel, 2000), regression (Fischer, 1987;Lindahl, Heimann, & Ullstadius, 2003;Plooij & van de Rijt-Plooij, 1989;van de Rijt-Plooij & Plooij, 1992), egocentrism (Arnett, 1992;Arnett & BalleJensen, 1993;Bjorklund, Gaultney, & Green, 1993;Buss, 1997;Chandler & Greenspan, 1972;Elkind, 1967Elkind, , 1978Gnepp, 1983;Greene, Krcmar, Walters, Rubin, & Hale, 2000;Harter & Pike, 1984;Looft, 1972;…”

The development of children's cognitive and affective role-taking abilities in relation to aggressive behavior in the classroom

“…Social cognitive theory (Selman & Byrne, 1974;Fiavell, 1968) and research (Chandler & Greenspan, 1972;Greenspan, Barehboim & Chandler, 1976) offer some evidence for hypothesizing that social role-taking skill might improve considerably between first and third grade. Therefore, there is reason to believe the ability to apply cognitive and affective role-taking skills when observing aggressive interactions will improve between these ages.…”

“…Children between the ages of four-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years of age respectively, gave the correct response to "sad" and indicated the results demonstrated that very young children were capable of anticipating another person's feelings. Chandler and Greenspan (1972) criticized Borke's (1971) results as reflecting a stereotype based on projection, instead of insight as a function of role-taking. In an attempt to differentiate between a more primitive ability to sometimes correctly anticipate the thoughts and feelings of others, and a role-taking skill based on decentration.…”

“…There is research evidence (Chandler & Greenspan, 1972;Deutsch, 1974; Kurdeck et al,, 1975;Greenspan et al, 1976) demonstrating the development of cognitive role-taking and affective role-taking abilities. These skills undergo the kind of qualitative structural reorganization which cognitive developmental theorists such as Piaget (1970) and Kohlberg (1969) have posited for cognition in general and for the area of social cognitive development.…”

“…However, the youngest children's performance was significantly below that of the older children on the perspectivetaking task (Cochran's ^ = 12.3, £< .001). Chandler and Greenspan (1972) Deutsch (1974), however, presented a decentering measure as an empathy instrument to assess whether 48 female preschoolers were able to focus on more than one stimulus element in making judgments of another's affective state. To achieve this, there were two story episodes in volving positive interpersonal behavior followed by negative affect, and two episodes of negative interpersonal behavior followed by positive affect.…”