Compare and contrast the three components of Elkind’sadolescent egocentrism

Compare and contrast the three components of Elkind’sadolescent egocentrism: 1) imaginary audience, and 2) personal fable, with Piaget’s formal operational thought. Discuss both cognitive and physical changes that occur during these stages.

In Elkind’s imaginary audience, which is a consequence of adolescent egocentrism, an adolescent sees themselves as the object of others’ attention.  In his personal fable, adolescents believe they are unique in that nobody else feels the same way they do. Elkind claims they are part of adolescent development and a sign of cognitive immaturity, as it impairs their social judgment.  Adolescents begin to mature out of this stage as they move from the beginning stages of formal operations or early adolescence to middle adolescence around age 16 and formal operations are consolidated.  As adolescent’s mature and cognitive changes occur, they are able to take into account other people’s thoughts and differentiate those thoughts instead of focusing on their own concerns. Girls are more aligned with the imaginary audience in Elkind’s adolescent egocentrism with higher scores of enmeshment, engulfment and separation anxiety.  Boys are more concerned with personal fable and self-centeredness (Lapsley, 1993)

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Reference

Lapsley, D. K. (1993, Oct). Toward an integrated theory of adolescent ego development: the “new look” at adolescent egocentrism. The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 63(4), 562-571. Retrieved from

Re:Module 5 DQ 1

The structural of Piaget and Elkind’s theory of adolescents are foundationally similar in that they both see that adolescents have assumptions that are not connected to reality (Berger, 2013). They both stress that the adolescent age is an age about self. This can be good or bad as it is put into play but no matter what, it is all about themselves.

Elkind’s first component is that of imaginary audience. This position is that the adolescent believes that everyone is watching them on a continual basis. The audience could actually be there but the thoughts given to them may not be. Piaget’s position is foundational to this position but it seems that Piaget would argue that the adolescent would use more deductive reasoning than Elkind would stress. Elkind would root the adolescent egocentrism in fiction or fantasy. In some areas of their life this creativity can be very healthy, however, in many social setting it is very dangerous. Piaget’s hypothetical thought (Berger, 2013) is similar but stresses growing into more deductive reasoning which helps them move beyond the hypothetical to exact conclusions.

Elkind’s second/third component is that of personal fable along with invincible illusion. Both of these are about personal constructions of a legendary life (Berger, 2013). The personal fable is a belief that the adolescent life is absolutely unique; there is no one life them and their distinctive problems. This reflects Piaget’s stress of intuitive thought, which starts in the area of assumptions, which is similar to a fable. The invincible illusion is very similar to fable for it stresses that only bad things (death, disease) happens to others. Overall, the key here is that adolescents see themselves in a better light and those around them see them in a darker way.

Both Elkind and Piaget stress that this early stage can be a good thing for it brings about creativity and helps any given person grow their thinking. The problem is that this thinking left to itself leads to a boxed in life that keeps the person outside of reality. The goal is to move beyond the fables and into reality.

Berger, K. S. (2013). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.

Re:Module 5 DQ 1

Compare and contrast the three components of Elkind’sadolescent egocentrism: 1) imaginary audience, and 2) personal fable, with Piaget’s formal operational thought. Discuss both cognitive and physical changes that occur during these stages.

The adolescent years are often believed to be some of the toughest years in development. Elkind developed the theory of adolescent egocentrism.  He believed that there were two related ideation patterns known as imaginary audience and personal fable.  According to Vartanian (2000), the imaginary audience refers to adolescents’ tendency to believe that others are always watching and evaluating them; the personal fable refers to the belief that the self is unique, invulnerable and omnipotent.  These are the years that an adolescent is believed to be self- conscious and become risk takers.  Elkind believed that adolescents felt that others were just as concerned with their appearance as they are.  They don’t realize that others there age are experiencing the same things.  Cognitively they believe that bad things can’t and won’t happen to them.  Piaget believed that adolescence used formal operational thought, which means they think about the real and the possible.  As reported by Ojose (2008), reasoning skills within this stage refer to the mental process involved in the generalizing and evaluating of logical arguments and include clarification, inference, evaluation, and application.  Therefore while Elkind theory focuses more on the surface level type of thinking, Piaget’s believed this stage showed the adolescent’s ability to reason and think more critically.

Ojose, B. (2008).  Applying Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development to Mathematics Instruction.  The Mathematics Educator, 18(1), 26-30.

Vartanian, L. R. (2000).  Revisiting the imaginary audience and personal fable constructs of adolescent egocentrism:  A conceptual review.  Adolescence, 35(140), 639.