Role-taking theory
Role-taking theory (or social perspective taking) is the social-psychological concept that one of the most important factors in facilitating social cognition in children is the growing ability to understand others’ feelings and perspectives, an ability that emerges as a result of general cognitive growth. Part of this process requires that children come to realize that others’ views may differ from their own. Role-taking ability involves understanding the cognitive and affective (i.e. relating to moods, emotions, and attitudes) aspects of another person's point of view, and differs from perceptual perspective taking, which is the ability to recognize another person's visual point of view of the environment. Furthermore, albeit some mixed evidence on the issue, role taking and perceptual perspective taking seem to be functionally and developmentally independent of each other. Robert Selman is noted for emphasizing the importance of this theory within the field of cognitive development. He argues that a matured role-taking ability allows us to better appreciate how our actions will affect others, and if we fail to develop the ability to role take, we will be forced to erroneously judge that others are behaving solely as a result of external factors. One of Selman's principal additions to the