EAR-20 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Attribution Bias, Active Child, Social Cognition
Keenan Lieu
Spring 2020
Child Growth and Development
● Learning Theories: Current Perspectives
○ Contributions:
■ Based on principles derived from empirical research
■ Generated much research & many practical applications (e.g. therapy,
parenting)
○ Weaknesses:
■ Limited attention to the impact of biological factors and (excepting
Bandura's theory) cognition on social development
● Theories of Social Cognition (Selman's Theory, Dodge’s Theory & Dweck’s Theory)
○ Major Themes of the Social Cognitive Perspective
■ Focus on children's ability to think and reason about their own and other
people's thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors
■ Emphasis on self-socialization→ children’s active shaping of their own
development through their own activity preferences, friendship
choices, and other behaviors
■ Active child and individual differences are major themes
■ Some social cognitive theories emphasize stages while others emphasize
continuity
○ Selman's Stage Theory of Role Taking:
■ Focused on the development of role taking- the ability to think about the
perspective of another’s point of view
● Preschoolers, for example, cannot take the perspective of another
and hence have very limited social cognition.
● Said that before the age of 6, children are virtually unaware that
there is any perspective other than their own
■ Selman proposed that children progress through 4 increasingly complex
and abstract stages in their thinking about other people
○ Selman’s Stages of Development:
■ Stage 1: ages 6-8
● Children come to appreciate that another person can have a
different perspective from their own, but they attribute this to the
other person’s not having the same information they do
■ Stage 2: ages 8-10
● Children become able to think about the other person’s point of
view
■ Stage 3: ages 10-12
● Children can systematically compare their own POV and the
other’s points of view
Document Summary
Based on principles derived from empirical research. Generated much research & many practical applications (e. g. therapy, parenting) Limited attention to the impact of biological factors and (excepting. Theories of social cognition (selman"s theory, dodge"s theory & dweck"s theory) Major themes of the social cognitive perspective. Focus on children"s ability to think and reason about their own and other people"s thoughts, feelings, motives, and behaviors. Emphasis on self-socialization children"s active shaping of their own development through their own activity preferences, friendship choices, and other behaviors. Active child and individual differences are major themes. Some social cognitive theories emphasize stages while others emphasize continuity. Focused on the development of role taking- the ability to think about the perspective of another"s point of view. Preschoolers, for example, cannot take the perspective of another and hence have very limited social cognition. Said that before the age of 6, children are virtually unaware that there is any perspective other than their own.
