Development of Social Relations: Role-Taking Skills and Classification Abilities

Abstract

Summary Ninety-seven white children, approximately an equal number of males and females in kindergarten, first, second, and third grades participated in the study. The social role-taking skills were measured with cartoons in the tradition of Flavell et al., and classification abilities were assessed with two measures of classification. On some cartoons the role-taking questions required different types of cognitive operations. As hypothesized, transitional Ss found it easier to decenter when they were shown the beginning of a cartoon and were asked to think how another person might think that the story ended. Analysis of the relation between classification structures and role-taking ability supported the hypothesis that operational responses to the measure of the concrete operational grouping structure I were a necessary but not sufficient condition for decentered thinking in social role-taking at each grade level. The other classification task (a measure of concrete operational grouping structure III) wa...