Perspective Getting

Perspective Getting is an approach towards understanding the mind of another person by directly getting information about that person's perspective. It is directly related to another approach towards interpersonal understanding called perspective taking, which involves making inferences about another person's perspective by adopting that person's point of view. Perspective Getting was conceptually developed after research on perspective taking found that perspective taking did not increase a person's ability to accurately understand the mind of another person. and subsequently highlight the importance of Perspective Getting as an approach to accurately understand another person. This is in contrast to perspective taking, which is considered a top-down cognitive process because it requires a person to shift cognitive attention from their own perspective in an effort to understand another person's perspective.
Perspective Getting—direct inquiry
Perspective Getting can also be achieved through direct inquiry. A very intuitive and practical way of getting the perspective of another person is by directly asking that person about their perspective. In the context of close relationships, for example, if a person is attempting to understand how their partner feels in a particular situation, they can get an understanding of their partner's perspective by directly asking their partner how they felt in that particular situation. Prior to the formal conceptualization of Perspective Getting, research on perspective taking alluded to perspective taking's ability to increase interpersonal accuracy. Thinking about the perspective of another person has, for example, the potential to focus a person's attention on situational cues that facilitate the accurate judgement of that other person and the situation they are in. Embodying or mimicking another person's bodily movements or facial expressions has similarly been found to potentially increase a person's ability to accurately recognize the emotions of those they are mimicking. Perspective taking can also create a sense of similarity between the thoughts, feelings, motivations and behaviors of the person taking the perspective and the person whose perspective is being taken, strengthening their interpersonal connection. Although this research alludes to perspective taking's ability to increase interpersonal accuracy, researchers note that this research does not explicitly measure interpersonal accuracy.
The limited amount of perspective taking research that explicitly investigates perspective taking's connection to interpersonal accuracy reveals entirely different results. When studying perspective taking's effect on interpersonal accuracy, researchers found that perspective taking did not increase interpersonal accuracy.
After research revealed that perspective taking did not increase interpersonal accuracy, despite the fact that previous research suggested it did, social psychologists theorized Perspective Getting as an approach towards interpersonal understanding that would increase interpersonal accuracy. People are also more likely to accurately predict another person's experience during a physically painful procedure after being subjected to that same physically painful procedure. Research also reveals that Perspective Getting through simulation leads people to more accurately understand their own minds in future situations: a person can more accurately predict how they themselves will feel in a given situation after they get the perspective of someone who has already experienced that situation. For example, able-bodied individuals attempting to understand the experience of those who are blind by simulating blindness were more likely to inaccurately perceive the adaptability and capability of those who are blind.
Perspective Getting—direct inquiry
Getting another person's perspective by directly asking that person about their perspective also has a positive effect on interpersonal accuracy. Measuring participant attitudes through direct self-report (where a participant is directly asked to report their attitude towards something) proves to be effective in getting an understanding of participant attitudes which resulted in accurate prediction of participant behavior based on those attitudes. Similarly, in the context of racial attitudes, self-report measures involving more direct assessments of people's racial attitudes prove to be the best method of measuring people's racial attitudes.
Overview
Perspective Getting through simulation and direct inquiry both increase interpersonal accuracy, but in different ways. Perspective Getting via simulation is only successful when enough similarity is generated between the perspective of the perceiver and the target. Perspective Getting through direct inquiry is considered a more feasible approach in situations involving perspectives that are difficult to simulate. Despite the fact that Perspective Getting via simulation and direct inquiry both increase interpersonal accuracy compared to perspective taking, people still tend to underestimate Perspective Getting as an approach towards accurately understanding the minds of others. It is difficult for a person to have an accurate sense of how much their own perspective effects their inferences and general understanding of another's perspective. Researchers claim this is likely one of the reasons people tend to overestimate top-down approaches to understanding others, like perspective taking, and underestimate bottom-up approaches like Perspective Getting.<ref name":2" /> People's general underestimation of Perspective Getting implies people are more inclined to use strategies that do not necessarily promote accurate interpersonal understanding, which can negatively impact the way people interact with each other as well as the outcomes of those interactions. Social psychologists therefore find it important to study and communicate findings on Perspective Getting as an approach to accurately understand the psychological experiences of others.<ref name":6" />
See Also
* Perspective-taking
* Theory of mind
* Empathic accuracy
* Top-down vs Bottom-up processes (neuroscience and psychology section)
* Attitude (social psychology definition)
* Introspection (psychology section)
References
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