Social Cognition and Interpersonal Affect: Correlates of Role-Taking Skills in Young Adulthood

Summary Social cognition of adults, unlike children's social understanding, has rarely been addressed from a developmental viewpoint. The present research extends the developmental perspective and assesses relationships between adults' social cognitive abilities and their skills in various other domains. Fifty-two college students were compared in role-taking performance and nonsocial cognitive performance. In addition, Ss' role-taking ability was assessed in relation to an interpersonal capacity for intimacy in friendship relations. As expected, the results revealed a weak and nonsignificant correlation between adults' role-taking skills and their nonsocial cognitive abilities. The results also revealed a strong positive association between role taking and level of intimacy in relations with same-sex peers. Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for theories of social cognition, especially for those emphasizing interpersonal and affective factors in social cognitive growth.