Elkind's Manifestations of Adolescent Egocentrism

¶ … Elkind's Manifestations of Adolescent Egocentrism

Adolescent egocentrism is the belief of teens that other people are attentive to their appearance and behaviors. In other words, egocentric adolescents generally believe that all eyes on them. Typically, adolescence egocentrism characteristics appear between the age of 11 and 12 and may taper off between the 15 and 16 years of age. Egocentrism features on adolescents because they see things from their perspectives rather than the perspectives of others. Typically, adolescent egocentrism is characterized by some behaviors, for example, adolescents may spend hours admiring themselves behind the mirror because they think everybody will notice them if they do not look good. The theory of adolescent egocentrism is proposed by Elkind (1978) who argues that the resurgence of adolescent egocentrism appears during the earlier childhood and is expressed through personal fable and imaginary audience. (Elkind, Bowen 1979). Elkind argues that adolescents always focus on their perceptions especially on their appearance and behaviors because at this stage they are experiencing physiological metamorphosis. Their physiological development make them believing that people are attentive to their behaviors and appearance as they are attentive to themselves. Elkind pointed out that personal fable and imaginary audience are the two consequential adolescent mental constructions. (Elkind Bowen, 1979).

Objective of this paper is to reflect the Elkind's manifestations of adolescent egocentrism: personal fable and imaginary audience.

Imaginary Audience

"The imaginary audience, that is, the adolescent's tendency to believe that others are preoccupied with his or her appearance and behavior, that he or she often performs as an actor in front of an audience." ( Galena, 2012, p 457).

According to the Elkind theory, the concept of imaginary audience is a belief of teens that they are of the center of attention in the same way they are the center of their own attention. At this stage, they are always self-conscious the way their body looks. Moreover, they are always concerned about the way they look rather than the way other people look. One of the typically examples of imaginary audience is that teens may be dancing alone at a party thinking everybody is looking at her and believes she is looking cool. Moreover, teens may decide to skip schools because their hair looks bad. In essence, adolescents anticipate other people reactions to himself in a social situation. Elkind argues that this type of anticipation is based on adolescent's preoccupation that other people are admiring him, and the result makes the adolescent to believe that he is the focus of attention. (Vartanian, 2000).

However, the thinking is imaginary in actual situation, and adolescents may not be focus of attention. The imaginary audience plays an important role in the thinking of adolescents since the audience is based on his own construction. Elkind points out that the concept of imaginary audience assists in explaining why adolescents usually seek privacy or feel reluctant to express themselves in public because they believe that they are always under a critical scrutiny. (Elkind, 1978).

Personal Fable

Elkind pointed out that personal fable is the believe held by teenagers that their experience is very unique and is different from the experience of other people. "The personal fable, that is, the adolescent's inner belief that he or she is special/unique, omnipotent, and invulnerable and therefore he or she can take risks." (Galanaki, 2012, p 457). Based on the concept personal fable, teenagers believe that their feelings are unique, special and immortal. Since teens are unable to differentiate their focus from the focus or perceptions of the others, they believe that they are important to so many people and believe that their feelings are special and unique. However, belief about his invincibility and personal uniqueness become an illusion, which can be rated above laws, rules, and disciplines. (Michelle, 1997). Based on the presence of personal fable, an adolescent tends to substitute his role to that of a hero. However, personal fable may constitute a risky behavior. For example, an adolescent may understand the effect of alcohol, nevertheless, he may decide to drive recklessly because he believes that he is a good driver and can drive drunk and nothing will happen. Moreover, a teen may understand the risk involved in having an unprotected sex, nevertheless, she may still believe that she will not get pregnant and believe other people get pregnant because they are careless.

Case Study of Imaginary Audience

This section provides a case study of imaginary audience. Tina is a girl of 14 and attending a high school. However, Tina is sometimes late to school, and the major reason for her lateness is that imaginary audience is affecting her and she is always worry about what other people think of her. Before leaving for school, she will change her clothes several times to be certain she will be presentable to other people watching her. She also spends nearly an hour on a make-up to be sure that she is able to appeal and impress the audience. In essence, Tina always believes that everyone at school is looking at her, and based on this reason she always feel obliged to look perfect. In reality, only a small percentage of students at school are interested in her.

Galanaki, (2012) argue adolescents fail to cognize the thinking and thoughts of others. Moreover, they fail to differentiate what other people are thinking. Based on the physiological metamorphosis that the adolescents are undergoing, they are always concerned about themselves. In essence, they fail to differentiate between their mental preoccupation and what other people thinking about them.

Case Study of Personal Fable

Peter is a boy of 15 and is presently attending a high school. However, Peter always like playing music at home. The first thing he will do when arriving home from school is to starting playing his guitar instead of reading his books. His parents always complain that he should stop playing music when arriving from school and he should study first to prepare for his exam. However, his reply is that he is going to become a great musician because he believes his music is unique and better that the music of other musicians. He argues that he is going to become a very good musician and his music will make him to be known globally and travel all over the world. However, in reality, the music he plays is not so interesting because he does not have a talent for music. His parents have noticed that he does not have a talent of a good musician. However, if he continues facing his study he is likely to excel in schools.