| Social perspective taking (SPT), or discerning the thoughts and feelings of others, is a fundamental skill for effective social behavior. SPT is also thought to impact outcomes such as conflict resolution and historical empathy. Using Richard Snow's framework, this study defines SPT as a multidimensional aptitude comprised of "performance" and "commitment" pathways and addresses three research questions: (1) What cognitive, motivational, and situational elements predict SPT ability and the propensity to engage this ability among adolescents? (2) Which components of SPT aptitude predict important educational outcomes, specifically, conflict resolution, historical empathy (as an ability and as a propensity), and social studies achievement for teenage youth? (3) How do adolescents with different profiles of SPT abilities and propensities compare on these educational outcomes?; Two hundred-forty 9th and 10th-grade students from high achieving high schools participated in this study. Measures included performance tasks of SPT ability, conflict resolution, and historical empathy. Surveys assessed the propensities to engage in SPT and historical empathy, personality traits, emotion-regulation, motivation to take perspective of others, task engagement, and perceptions of the classroom environment. Results indicated that the ability to accurately take the others' perspectives was best predicted by cognitive elements of SPT aptitude (i.e., the performance pathway). Personality and motivational elements of the commitment pathway best predicted SPT propensity. SPT aptitude related to all four educational outcomes. Both the performance and commitment pathways related to conflict reasoning, historical empathy propensity, and social studies achievement. Historical empathy ability related to only the performance pathway. Students who were high in SPT ability and propensity performed best on all four educational outcomes. Students high on only SPT ability or SPT propensity achieved at average levels for most outcomes. As a whole, these results suggest that SPT aptitude is related to valued educational outcomes and that a multidimensional assessment of SPT is necessary to gain complete picture of these relationships. Teachers wanting to develop SPT in their students are encouraged to cultivate both SPT ability and propensity. |
