Person-Centered Communication and Social Perspective Taking

Concept analysis of perspective‐taking: meeting informal caregiver needs for communication competence and accurate perception

“…Perspective-taking is a concept that is rarely alluded to in nursing literature, with the exception of Kasch (1985), Kasch & Dine 1988) whose work has been influenced primarily by theoretical notions arising from psychology. In some psychological literature, 'role-taking' is used interchangeably with the concept of perspective-taking.…”

“…Role-or perspective-taking is a cognitive process that caregivers may engage in to be more aware of, to understand, or to know how patients are affected by the illness situation. More precisely, this is an imaginative process where caregivers symbolically or metaphorically 'place themselves in a patient's shoes' (Coutu 1951, Hogan 1969, Lauer & Boardman 1971, Kurdek 1978, Davis 1980, Higgins 1981, Kasch 1983, Spitzberg & Cupach 1984, Bryant 1987, Kasch & Dine 1988, Long & Andrews 1990) to obtain a multidimensional understanding of a patient's thoughts and feelings (Hogan 1969, Kurdek 1978, Davis 1980, Underwood & Moore 1982, Bryant 1987, Arriaga & Rusbult 1998. It is an interpersonal process that involves 'decentreing' or a conscious effort to differentiate one's personal view from the view of another (Hogan 1969, Kurdek 1978, Davis 1980, Underwood & Moore 1982, Kasch 1985, Arriaga & Rusbult 1998 and brings caregivers' viewpoints in closer alignment with patients' own viewpoints of their situations (Sarbin 1954, Turner 1962, Strayer & Roberts 1989 Consequently, perspective-taking allows caregivers to accurately predict patients' thoughts and feelings (Strayer & Roberts 1989).…”

“…Yes -Higgins (1981), Stephenson and Wicklund (1983), Kasch and Dine (1988) Uncertain -Flavell (1974), Davis et al (1996) interaction in daily life, such as in caregiving situations where caregivers are able to overcome a natural tendency to evaluate the feelings, thoughts and actions from a personal viewpoint and/or to comprehend the difference between themselves and patients (Franzoi et al 1985). Eisenberg et al (1997) have, however, pointed out that further work is required in terms of determining the stability of achievement in perspective-taking abilities and delineating the difference between a person's ability and their tendency to take the point of view of others.…”

“…Can the concept's experience be taught or enhanced in a classroom? Kasch and Dine (1988) implied that if caregivers are taught strategies to enhance their perspective-taking abilities, then information gathering and communication might improve between caregivers and patients. Although no evidence on the trainability of perspective-taking existed at the time of his writings, Flavell (1974) speculated that instruction might uncover buried capabilities in communication and perspective-taking abilities.…”

Counseling Hypertensive Patients: An Observational Study of 21 Public Health Nurses

“…The concepts of patient, person and client centredness are used interchangeably in the literature. Patient centredness is defined from a nursing perspective as a nursing action that encourages the patients to disclose how they see their own world, what they are experiencing and the meanings these experiences have for them (Kasch & Dine, 1988). The goals for patient centredness are to encourage the patients to express concerns, to help them to be more active in the consultation and to let them say what information they require (Rollnick et al, 2002).…”