Perspective-Taking – Exploring the Duration of the Relationship (Part 1)

Previous research has explored the development and establishment of perspective-taking. Perspective-taking is a behavior that has tremendous social significance; it impacts social relationships, workplace relationships, and more. Individuals with perspective-taking deficits are likely to suffer over the course of their lifetime, and indeed, this is what the research literature in this area shows. Therefore, it is important to understand factors that influence perspective taking repertoires so that perspective-taking might be facilitated more deliberately with individuals who show perspective taking deficits. The present study aims to contribute to the broad literature on perspective-taking by evaluating additional factors that may influence the extent to which someone may understand and predict the behavior of another person, specifically the length of time the observer has observed the target individual choose various items. Eight undergraduate students from California State University, Los Angeles observed a person complete a preference assessment. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to measure the effects of no duration or duration conditions on perspective taking abilities. Results suggested that more observation sessions resulted in improved perspective-taking skills, but that more observational sessions will only mildly improve generalization.