FRHD 2280 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Imaginary Audience, Intelligence Quotient, Prosocial Behavior

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Family Relations and Human Development
• Course: FRHD 2280
• Professor: Carol Anne Hendry

Document Summary

In the u. s. adolescents under 18 are prohibited from making decisions about medical care. Social cognition is the term used to describe the way we think about other people, social relationships, and social institutions. Perspective taking: the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others, selman"s research. Adolescent egocentrism: having difficulty distinguishing your own thinking about yourself from the thoughts of others, elkind"s research. Is the ability to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. Selman"s theory of perspective taking is based on a stage approach that children and adolescents go through. The egocentrism of childhood gradually develops into the mature perspective-taking ability of adolescence. In early adolescence (ages 10 12) children become capable for the first time of mutual perspective taking. Just as you understand that another person has a perspective that is different from you own, you also realize that other persons understand that you have a perspective that is different from theirs.