Abstract
Background/Context A growing literature describes multiple benefits of social perspective taking—many of which are particularly important for schools. Despite these potential benefits for administrators, counselors, teachers, and students, little is known about social perspective taking as a process. Purpose/Research Question If educational researchers are ultimately to design interventions to help improve the perspective-taking capacities of those in schools, they need to fully understand the underlying process. Particularly important is the need to understand: What initially motivates individuals to take the perspective of others? Participants To investigate this question, a sample of 18 adults from an array of different professions (who were nominated as adept perspective takers) and 13 high school students (who were nominated as struggling with social perspective taking) participated in the study. Research Design Participants completed a survey, a performance task, and in-depth interviews as part of this mixed-method exploratory study. The interviews served as the primary source of data and were coded for evidence of what triggered (or inhibited) participants’ motivation to engage in the social perspective-taking process. Findings The interview data established the existence of 13 specific factors that impacted participants’ motivation to engage in social perspective taking across a wide array of contexts. Seven factors generally enhanced individuals’ motivation to engage in social perspective taking; three factors were mixed; and three factors inhibited their motivation. Conclusions/Recommendations This research indicates that not only might individuals be motivated to engage in social perspective taking through multiple pathways, but these pathways might be combined and/or interact with one another. These motivating factors raise important issues for further research. In addition, at a practical level, they provide a foundation for developing structures to motivate individuals in schools to engage in perspective taking more often.
Highlights
The interview data established the existence of at least thirteen specific factors that impacted participants’ motivation to engage in social perspective taking across a wide array of contexts
We ask: What specific factors motivate individuals to engage in social perspective taking (SPT)? After establishing the importance of SPT within school contexts, we review past work on SPT motivation to situate our study within the larger SPT literature
SPT Motivation – A Focus on Specific Motivational Factors People engage in SPT because the combination of specific environmental or personal factors interacting with a perceiver’s general personality traits overcomes whatever barriers might inhibit that perceiver from engaging in SPT. Of these two aspects of the SPT process we focus on first part of that process – what types of factors trigger people to engage in SPT initially? many facets of the SPT process are ripe for investigation, we explore which specific factors trigger SPT motivation for three reasons
Summary
To meet the study’s goals of documenting and understanding what specific factors motivate individuals to engage in SPT, we developed a two-pronged methodological approach. We structured our interviews to provide a detailed understanding of how these specific factors functioned, e.g., what contextual factors were present during the SPT attempt, what were participants’ goals for a given interaction, etc. This methodological approach allowed us to glean insights into the inception of the SPT process across a wide variety of individuals, situations, and types of interpersonal interactions
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