ABSTRACT
According to Feffer’s (1959) theory, interpersonal decentering is an aspect of operational thinking that involves an ability to be aware of, respond to, and anticipate another person’s ideas, thoughts, feelings, or actions. In stories, it is represented by two main levels of interaction: (1) preinternalization, representing preoperational one-dimensional and sequential thinking (scores 1–4), in which characters act and react with each other; and (2) internalization, reflecting operational multidimensional and simultaneous thinking (scores 5–9). In these latter levels, characters first conceptualize others, who might not be present, via internal representation, independently of overt action (scores 5–6) and then may envision other characters as having their own internalized states (scores 7–9). The scoring process involves first identifying and isolating instances of interaction between story characters—which may occur in the imagination of one—and then assigning a decentering category score that represents one of the nine levels.
