This study investigated the interrelationships among the development of role-taking skills, moral judgments, and sharing behavior of boys and girls in K-3. A total of 160 lower middle class white children (20 boys and 20 girls from each grade) participated in the study. Data were collected on four measures: (1) sharing candy with a friend, (2)…

Compared the social cognitive styles of abused children with a control sample and found differences in perceived locus of control of social events and social role comprehensions. Similar trends emerged in perspective-taking skills and social sensitivity. Suggests these differences could not be attributed to IQ or class disparities. (Author)

Eighty children between the ages of 6 and 13 were asked to indicate and compare the needs and earnings of doctors, bus drivers, waiters, and shopkeepers. Youngest children did not perceive that unmet needs existed. Older children recognized the needs but sharply disagreed about inequalities. (Author/DB)

This paper examines the mental processes involved in inferring perspective changes resulting from the rotation of a spatial array or from the rotation of the viewer of that array. Under certain conditions, viewer-rotation problems become easy and array-rotation problems become difficult. Apparently, an array is fixed vis-a-vis the spatial context.…

Tested children's ability to compute perspectives from locational and structural descriptions of scenes. Children from 4 to 10 years of age were given perspective-taking problems that involved abstract multicomponent scenes; responses entailed the reconstruction of alternate views. Four-year olds were unsuccessful; 10-year olds were successful…

Comparison of 16 children (ages 9 to 12) with visual impairment to 16 sighted children found visually impaired children had a poorer understanding than did sighted children of characters in stories, as shown by fewer correct justifications based on mental states. Some subgroup patterns concerning congenital impairments and cognitive style were…

This paper presents the theory that altruistic motives develop out of the synthesis of empathic distress and the child's increasingly sophisticated cognitive development, especially his level of self-other differentiation. An examination of empathy and the sense of other is included, followed by a discussion of empathic distress, various forms of…

This paper describes a one-year longitudinal follow up study of the long term effects of role taking training procedures (in which children assumed a number of perspectives) on children's social and cognitive behaviors. Longitudinal and cross-sectional age effects were also analyzed. In an earlier study the effect of two types of role-taking…

Using a cross-sectional sample of 60 Caucasian adolescents, a study was designed to test the hypothesis that the observed changes in adolescent future-time perspective are due to the emergence of formal-operations reasoning. Data obtained through individual interviews provide only limited support for a cognitive hypothesis. (Author/LMO)

Defines and describes the concept of social cognition and its relationship to various psychological positions. Outlines Selman's stage theory of social cognition and the influence of Piaget's theory. Issues of interpersonal understanding are related to concepts of the individual, friendship, peer group and parent-child relations. (JAC)

Demonstrates that the manner in which fourth-grade students develop points of view in classroom writing is a function of the verbal interaction patterns these children maintain with their teachers. (HOD)

Two studies explored children's understanding of how the presence of conflicting mental states in a single mind can lead people to act so as to subvert their own desires. Study 1 analyzed explanations by children (4-7 years) and adults of behaviors arising from this sort of "Ulysses conflict" and compared them with their understanding of…

Intervention to enhance Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving (ICPS) skills has been shown to significantly reduce observable negative, impulsive and inhibited behaviors and increase positive qualities in young, low socioeconomic status (SES) children. An ICPS model for older children was implemented with 202 low SES fifth graders to test…

A study was made of the effects of role perspective and gender on the moral judgments of children. Because they represent a transitional period in cognitive development from heteronomy to autonomy, a total of 25 male and 38 female third-grade students of approximately 9 years of age were selected for participation. The effect of perspective taking…

Social cognition of adults, unlike children's social understanding, has rarely been addressed from a developmental viewpoint. To extend the developmental perspective to the study of adults' social cognitive skills in relation to other mental and social skills, 52 college students were compared in role taking performance and nonsocial cognitive…