Selman's Role-Taking Theory

Role-taking = the ability to mentally adopt another person’s point of view and understand how one’s own actions are perceived by others.

There are 5 stages of development:

Selman Stage	Core Perspective-Taking Capacity	Leadership Maturity	Moral Intelligence Assessment
Level 0 – Egocentric	Cannot reliably distinguish own perspective from others; projects own feelings onto others	Pre-leadership / reactive actor; poor feedback reception; blames others; weak team function	Low moral scope; ethics framed as self-protection or impulse; limited empathy; harm often unrecognized
Level 1 – Subjective	Recognizes others have different views but cannot coordinate perspectives; differences explained by different information access	Directive, authority-based leadership; manages simple roles; limited empathy; assumes agreement if others had same information	Rule-based morality; fairness framed as equal treatment without context; intent of others underweighted
Level 2 – Self-Reflective / Reciprocal	Can take another’s perspective and reflect on how self appears to others	Relational leadership; capable of feedback, coaching, negotiation, and trust repair	Interpersonal moral intelligence; considers intent and impact; emerging accountability; capable of apology and repair
Level 3 – Mutual / Third-Person	Coordinates multiple perspectives simultaneously; can take an impartial observer view	Systems-aware leadership; facilitates dialogue, resolves conflict, aligns stakeholders, balances competing interests	Contextual moral reasoning; integrates multiple values, tradeoffs, and second-order effects; equity over simple equality
Level 4 – Societal / In-Depth	Embeds perspectives within social systems, institutions, and cultural roles	Civilizational / institutional leadership; designs rules, norms, and incentive systems; orients action toward long-term public good	High moral intelligence; integrates structural justice, externalities, long-term consequences, and stewardship of commons