Egocentrism In Adolescence Research Paper

The concept of egocentrism during adolescence along with the challenges experienced

Adolescents often believe that others are always observing and evaluating them all the time (). This type of behaviour leads to adolescence feeling self-conscious around people and they worry about the way the look when they go out to certain places, labelled the imaginary audience and personal fable (). These two concepts are features on the development of adolescence and explanation of self-awareness and risk-taking. The purpose of this paper is to describe in in greater detail the definition and nature of egocentrism in adolescence. In particular the discussion of with a brief review of physical changes adolescence goes through along with the relationships

Egocentrics see themselves and their own opinions as being the most important (). To them self-relevant information is perceived to be more important in influencing ones judgments than those of others and other relevant information (). Egocentric people are unable to fully recognise other people’s opinions and the fact that reality can be different from what they are ready to accept (). According Elkind the terms used to describe egocentric behaviour shown by adolescence which is called the imaginary audience and personal fable. Imaginary audience refers to the idea that most adolescence believes that there are spectators constantly present around them and are very interested in what the individual has to say or do(). However, personal fable refers to the idea that teenagers believe that they are the only ones who are capable of feeling the way they do. Egocentrism in adolescence become consumed with them and are unable to effectively function in society due to their skewed version of reality

This leads to greater awareness of others, and their thoughts and judgments (). Adolescents also develop the ability to think about future possibilities and the ability to consider multiple possibilities at once (). Adolescents can gain insight to long-term possibilities and consequences of their choices. Differentiation occurs as an adolescent recognizes and distinguishes the contextual influences on their own behaviour and the perceptions of others (). Adolescents begin to identify their traits when describing themselves. Differentiation becomes fully developed by mid-adolescence. The recognition of unpredictable content in the self-concept is a common source of distress in these years, but this distress may benefit adolescents by encouraging further structural development