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Examining perspective-taking in the severely head-injured
M V Spiers1, J A Pouk, J M Santoro
1Neuropsychology Program, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Brain Injury
|July 1, 1994
Summary
Severely head-injured individuals, particularly high self-monitors, struggle with perspective-taking. This difficulty may stem from egocentric thought processes linked to frontal lobe dysfunction.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Perspective-taking deficits are anecdotally reported in brain-impaired individuals.
- Direct empirical study of social perspective-taking in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To directly examine perspective-taking ability in individuals with severe head injuries.
- To investigate the relationship between self-monitoring, perspective-taking, and TBI.
Main Methods:
- Assessed perspective-taking using role-playing (salesperson profile on MMPI) and mood scales.
- Utilized the Revised Self-monitoring Scale to measure self-perceived ability to understand others.
- Compared severely head-injured (n=15) and control (n=15) subjects.
Main Results:
- Normals and head-injured low self-monitors successfully adopted the salesperson role.
- Head-injured high self-monitors demonstrated significant difficulty in perspective-taking.
- Impaired subjects may have relied on self-reference and overestimated their social understanding.
Conclusions:
- Severe head injury, especially in high self-monitors, impairs social perspective-taking.
- Findings align with frontal lobe theories linking egocentricity and problem-solving flexibility.
- Deficits in perspective-taking may relate to self-referential processing and overestimation of social cognition abilities.