This study examines a new method for conceptualizing and measuring roletaking
ability. Role-taking is defined in a manner that facilitates further theory building
and testing. The task of designing and validating a measure of role-taking that departs
from the self-evaluative measures currently used is undertaken and validated with an
experimental design. A computer-based survey instrument is created consisting of video
and written vignettes designed to test subjects’ ability to predict their study partner’s
behavior. It is found that one type of vignette is more suitable for measuring role-taking
accuracy than is the other. Females, regardless of experimental condition, record higher
role-taking scores than do their male counterparts. Subjects’ self-reported role-taking
accuracy is not correlated with their actual role-taking accuracy scores. Because this is
the case, it leads to a re-thinking of the meaning of studies that use self-reported ability
as the sole measure of role-taking ability. An additional finding is that participants seem
to overestimate individual differences. Personality factors measured by the Big Five
Inventory were not correlated with role-taking accuracy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3249 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Love, Tony Paul |
| Contributors | Sell, Jane |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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