Adolescent+Egocentrism

media type="youtube" key="Mn37ns89j3w" height="385" width="480" This is a great video about the imaginary audience and how adolescents worry about what their peers think about them. []

Adolescents frequently practise their new thinking skills on themselves, a process that makes them lose some of their detachment. They worry about how they are regarded by others; they try to sort out their own conflicting feelings about parents, school and close friends; they think deeply but not always realistically about their future possibilities; they reflect, at length, on each day's experiences. Analyzing their private thoughts and feelings, forecasting their future, and reflecting on their experiences underlie the greater reflection and self-awareness - and enhanced capacity for self-centeredness - that distinguishes adolescence. However, these new ventures in introspection are often distorted by adolescent egocentrism, //a self-view in which adolescents regard themselves as much more socially sig////nificant than they actually are//. Adolescent egocentrism can lead to false conclusions:

One is the **invincibility fable**, by which young people feel that they will never fall victim, as others do, to dangerous behaviour.

Another false conclusion resulting from adolescent egocentrism is the **personal fable**, through which adolescents imagine their own lives as unique, heroic, or even mythical. They perceive themselves as different from others, distinguished by unusual experiences, perspectives, and values.

A third false conclusion stemming from egocentrism is called the **imaginary audience**. This arises from many adolescents' assumption that other people are as intensely interested in them as they themselves are; this results in acute self-consciousness.

(Berger, 2000, p. 475)

media type="youtube" key="r_DYRAIgbcc" height="385" width="640"

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_DYRAIgbcc