Defining and measuring perspective taking: Not just a rose by another name

The ability to take another person’s perspective is stressed as a central attribute of the socially successful and astute person. However, definitional clarity has eluded much of the systematic psychological investigation of perspective taking. Issues pertaining to this relate to two areas. The first, and undoubtedly most widely discussed, is its relationship to empathy. Early theoretical discussion used the term empathy to describe any process that involved consideration of others. Later on, the term empathy came to denote both what is referred to as perspective taking, as well as emotional reactions to another person. As a result, definitional issues arise when attempting to identify how perspective taking can be demarcated from the broader construct of empathy and related terms such as sympathy and compassion. The second issue relates to how perspective taking should be measured, with tools not taking account of the process nature of the construct. In this presentation, I provide a critical review of theory and research into perspective taking. I will examine the roots of the construct, which can be traced to conceptions from 18th century moral philosophy, 19th and early 20th century aesthetics, and early 20th century psychology. From this, I examine the main ways that perspective taking has been defined and measured in psychology, focusing on work from the 1940s to the present day. In concluding, I discuss ways in which we can understand perspective taking and empathy, as well as the ways we can more systemically investigate and measure this process.