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Perspective shifting is the practice of recalling, recounting or analysing an event from a perspective other than your own present perspective. This can involve adopting:
an external observer (see self-distancing below) - this could be an anonymous observer or a specific known individual
another individual involved in the event (e.g. client, colleague, etc.)
yourself at different times (e.g. past you or future you)
an extended or limited time perspective (i.e. assuming you have loads of time ahead of you or very limited time left). This is linked to socioemotional selectivity theory, which means that you will tend to focus on different aspects of your environment depending on how much of your life is still ahead of you.
yourself when immersed in different life roles (e.g. worker, spouse, parent, child)
various explicitly defined roles (e.g. de Bono's six thinking hats)
As well as changing psychological perspective, it may help to change your physical perspective. This could involve using a physical artefact of reflection (journal, collage, story-board, video, concept-map, etc.) and...
backing away from it or standing above it may help to facilitate self-distancing and bringing it closer or standing below it may facilitate self-immersion
moving around it to look at it from different angles and see what different aspects and relationships you notice
You may even be able to do some of these things in a live situation to facilitate reflection-in-action.
Obviously, you can obtain a real external perspective by involving someone else in a dialogical approach or by obtaining feedback
Ken Wilbur identified four different perspectives from which one can view phenomena and what tends to be perceived/perceivable from that perspective. This is based on placing perspectives on two axes.
Interior–exterior — whether your perspective can be experienced subjectively on the inside or can be observed objectively from the outside.
Individual–collective — whether your perspective is that of a single person or the shared perspective of a group.
There is an additional axis 'from within–from outside' that can be useful for exploring potential differences in attentional focus.
This results in four quadrants.
Interior-individual. The 'I' perspective. Perceiving the internal state of the individual— thoughts, emotions, assumptions, motivations.
From within. What you perceive of your internal state.
From outside. What others may perceive or infer of your internal state.
Exterior-individual. The 'It' perspective. Perceiving the physical attributes and behaviours of the individual — physiological states, actions, habits, responses to stimuli.
From within. What you perceive of your external state or what you think others may perceive.
From outside. What others may perceive of your external state.
Interior-collective. The 'We' perspective. Perceiving the shared understandings, values and purposes of a group — shared cultural background, identities, narratives and expectations.
From within. What the group perceives of its internal state.
From outside. What others may perceive or infer of the group's internal state.
Exterior-collective. The 'Its' perspective. Perceiving the structures and procedures of the group — hierarchies, systems, roles, rules.
From within. What the group perceives of its external state or what it thinks others may perceive.
From outside. What others may perceive of the group's external state.
Self-distancing
Self-distancing
Self-distancing is the practice of recalling events you have experienced directly as if from the perspective of an external observer. This could involve:
visualising the events and your actions from the 'outside' (through someone else's eyes rather than through your own)
narrating the events in the third person (he/she and his/her) rather than first person (I and me)
The technique is frequently used to help people separate the memories of the event from the associated emotions, especially for traumatic experiences. Obviously, if you want to explore the emotional content of an experience, using a self-immersing approach might help. Immersing yourself in the first-person perspective of another person might also help with empathic appreciation of their emotions and motivations.
Self-distancing has also been associated with a higher construal level in narrative construction (see the section on Action Identification on the Self-confrontation page).
Kross, E., & Ayduk, O. (2017). Self-distancing: Theory, research, and current directions. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 55, pp. 81–136). Elsevier. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065260116300338
Libby, L. K., Shaeffer, E. M., & Eibach, R. P. (2009). Seeing meaning in action: A bidirectional link between visual perspective and action identification level. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(4), 503. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016795
https://effectiviology.com/self-distancing-rational-decisions/
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