Developmental levels of social cognition in head-injury patients

Ten adults, who had sustained a closed head injury, were interviewed regarding their self-understanding, concepts of persons, and interpersonal negotiation strategies. Responses were evaluated in terms of developmental levels of social cognition. Levels of interpersonal negotiation strategies were significantly lower than levels of self-understanding, descriptions of psychological characteristics of self were at a significantly higher level than descriptions of active and physical characteristics of self. Within interpersonal conflict situations, proposed solutions were at a significantly lower level than the justifications offered for the solutions. In general, developmental levels of social cognition were comparable to levels exhibited by non-clinical samples of adolescents. The two areas in which the head-injury patients appeared to perform at a significantly higher level than adolescents were their justifications for their proposed solutions to the interpersonal conflict situations and their ability to express the emotional consequences of interpersonal conflict.