Adolescense
Adolescent Egocentrism
Adolescent egocentrism is when a child does not seem to be able to see other people’s viewpoints (O’Connor, 1990). These adolescents think that everybody is watching them. Once kids hit this stage they have an imaginary audience. A child that is in the stage of cognitive development thinks the way they see the world is the way others see it as well. This is normal and can’t be fixed. This can starts to occur around the age of 11 and usually stops around 16, but adults have been known to be egocentric or tend to show actions that can be called egocentric (O’Connor, 1990). During this period adolescents can spend hours looking at themselves because they feel everybody can tell if they have a hair out of place. They also tend to be very upset if they are embarrassed because in their minds everybody will remember it for the rest of their life. For example, a little boy that takes another little boys truck is wrong but he does not see that taking the truck would hurt the other boy’s feelings (O’Connor, 1990). Egocentrism mainly occurs during early childhood development and is known to happen during adolescence (O’Connor, 1990). The first person to notice egocentrism in adolescence was David
Elkind. Elkind thought due to physiological metamorphosis the child only thinks of themselves.
Since the child can’t seem to see the difference in what other people are thinking and what they think, the child believes that others care as much about them as they do. Adolescents think that everybody around them especially their friends are watching them, paying attention to them and have the same interest as they do. This is proof the child is exhibiting egocentrism because they can’t understand the other persons perception (O’Connor, 1990).
There are different reasons why adolescents experience egocentrism. They can be introduced to a different social environment like starting a different school which leads
Adolescent egocentrism is when a child does not seem to be able to see other people’s viewpoints (O’Connor, 1990). These adolescents think that everybody is watching them. Once kids hit this stage they have an imaginary audience. A child that is in the stage of cognitive development thinks the way they see the world is the way others see it as well. This is normal and can’t be fixed. This can starts to occur around the age of 11 and usually stops around 16, but adults have been known to be egocentric or tend to show actions that can be called egocentric (O’Connor, 1990). During this period adolescents can spend hours looking at themselves because they feel everybody can tell if they have a hair out of place. They also tend to be very upset if they are embarrassed because in their minds everybody will remember it for the rest of their life. For example, a little boy that takes another little boys truck is wrong but he does not see that taking the truck would hurt the other boy’s feelings (O’Connor, 1990). Egocentrism mainly occurs during early childhood development and is known to happen during adolescence (O’Connor, 1990). The first person to notice egocentrism in adolescence was David
Elkind. Elkind thought due to physiological metamorphosis the child only thinks of themselves.
Since the child can’t seem to see the difference in what other people are thinking and what they think, the child believes that others care as much about them as they do. Adolescents think that everybody around them especially their friends are watching them, paying attention to them and have the same interest as they do. This is proof the child is exhibiting egocentrism because they can’t understand the other persons perception (O’Connor, 1990).
There are different reasons why adolescents experience egocentrism. They can be introduced to a different social environment like starting a different school which leads