Citation

Lerner E. Am. J. Sociol. 1937; 43(2): 249-269.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1937, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/217683

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Egocentric beliefs and reasoning methods of young children can be dynamically conceived in terms of illusions of perspective. Starting from this general postulate, three specific factors of perspective in psychosocial space are here distinguished and scrutinized: empathic capacity, the ability to resist various prestige suggestions, and the ability to resist various sociocentric suggestions. The ability to anticipate or guess the likely interests and relative positions of observation of various dramatis personae in a social situation increases progressively from about eight years on-at about the time when the child's reasoning in general is about to become less absolutist. Resistance to the prestige of majority opinion increases but slightly, as does resistance to the prestige of seniority. Absolute valuations, favorable and unfavorable, concerning members of various in-groups and out-groups show a differential decrease which is apparently in inverse proportion to the degree of intimacy in such group relations. The relatively static role of certain psychosocial factors which distort moral perspective suggests the essentially limited scope of the process of socialization. The correlative configuration of the three factors in individual cases may offer a clue to social personality types in young children, in terms of specific cultural conditions to which the influence of these factors may be functionally related.