Adolescent egocentrism describes the phenomenon during which adolescents cannot differentiate between their own perception of themselves and the perception of others (Elkind, 1967). It has been looped in with Piaget’s cognitive development theory (Kesselring & Müller, 2010). Though there have been many criticisms over specific details in Adolescent egocentrism regarding Piaget’s theory, people generally seem to agree on two subtopics of adolescent egocentrism: imaginary audience and personal fable. Many sources also agree on a single constant: egocentrism affects adolescents more than people in other phases of their lives.
Imaginary audience is when an adolescent believes that everybody is watching her and that she is under constant scrutiny, …show more content…
Per David Elkind, who wrote on adolescent egocentrism in 1967, it is “a complex of beliefs in uniqueness of one’s feelings and immortality…[a] story one tells oneself that is not true.” There is evidence of personal fable in the diaries of adolescents. They log and track things that happen in their life that they find significant. They share their true feelings in their diaries, and sometimes take notes of imagined evidence to support their personal fable (Elkind, 1967). Adolescents believe that the bad things they see or hear about cannot happen to them. Therefore, they engage in risky behavior such as irresponsibility during sexual encounters or reckless driving (Schwartz et. al., 2010). This could lead to things like pregnancy and car accidents, which can sometimes be …show more content…
Riley was considered a popular boy at my high school. He was a good student with many friends. He was an athlete. The personal fable of he and his friends led them to believe nothing bad could happen to them (Elkind, 1967). Much like the other high schoolers in the area, they sped around the town in which we lived because most of the roads were country back roads with no police monitoring. One night, they learned the hard way that they were not invincible. Riley’s friend flipped his truck due to speeding and taking too sharp of a turn. Only one person in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt. She suffered minor injuries. Two of the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle, along with the driver. These three were rushed to the hospital with broken limbs. Riley, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was crushed under the weight of the flipped truck. He was killed on impact. Because he was a popular boy at my school, administration used what happened to him and his friends as an example. They used it as a reminder to the rest of us that we were not invincible, that we could be hurt, and that there are sometimes fatal consequences to our actions. Our high school had seen its fair share of teen deaths in car accidents and teen pregnancies, but we did not think it would happen to us. Because we thought that we were invincible, we became reckless, as referenced in Paul Schwartz’s article on
Imaginary audience is when an adolescent believes that everybody is watching her and that she is under constant scrutiny, …show more content…
Per David Elkind, who wrote on adolescent egocentrism in 1967, it is “a complex of beliefs in uniqueness of one’s feelings and immortality…[a] story one tells oneself that is not true.” There is evidence of personal fable in the diaries of adolescents. They log and track things that happen in their life that they find significant. They share their true feelings in their diaries, and sometimes take notes of imagined evidence to support their personal fable (Elkind, 1967). Adolescents believe that the bad things they see or hear about cannot happen to them. Therefore, they engage in risky behavior such as irresponsibility during sexual encounters or reckless driving (Schwartz et. al., 2010). This could lead to things like pregnancy and car accidents, which can sometimes be …show more content…
Riley was considered a popular boy at my high school. He was a good student with many friends. He was an athlete. The personal fable of he and his friends led them to believe nothing bad could happen to them (Elkind, 1967). Much like the other high schoolers in the area, they sped around the town in which we lived because most of the roads were country back roads with no police monitoring. One night, they learned the hard way that they were not invincible. Riley’s friend flipped his truck due to speeding and taking too sharp of a turn. Only one person in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt. She suffered minor injuries. Two of the passengers were thrown out of the vehicle, along with the driver. These three were rushed to the hospital with broken limbs. Riley, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, was crushed under the weight of the flipped truck. He was killed on impact. Because he was a popular boy at my school, administration used what happened to him and his friends as an example. They used it as a reminder to the rest of us that we were not invincible, that we could be hurt, and that there are sometimes fatal consequences to our actions. Our high school had seen its fair share of teen deaths in car accidents and teen pregnancies, but we did not think it would happen to us. Because we thought that we were invincible, we became reckless, as referenced in Paul Schwartz’s article on