Currently, in psychological science, adolescence is considered the most critical in the mental development of a person. In youth, the negative impact of personality egocentrism on the relationship of a teenager with people clearly manifests. Different studies note that the severity of egocentrism in adolescents affects the nature of interpersonal relationships and the effectiveness of their interaction with others. Relationships are formed spontaneously, they are complex and not stable enough, more often they are situational in nature, so egocentrism poses a significant threat to their healthy development. Hanna (2016) states that “the adolescents’ metacognitive ability is more fine-tuned, so that they not only understand and recognize their own thoughts, but also are cognizant of the thoughts of others” (p. 30). However, this recognition often leads to the conviction that the people around the teenager are, too, overly cognizant of his or her behavior. This phenomenon reflects the adolescent’s feeling that he or she is constantly under the critical attention of those around him. Since this “audience” is created by their own ideas, it knows everything about him or her that he or she knows.
Another aspect of adolescent egocentrism is the “personal fable”, which reflects adolescents’ belief in the uniqueness of their experiences and also stems from the affective sphere. Adolescents’ cannot always distinguish the subject of their thinking from the subject of the thoughts of others, so they concentrate only on their assessment, reflection, and experience. The teenager views these feelings as unique and, in fact, inaccessible to anyone else. Tyler (2020) states that “This uniqueness in one’s emotional experiences reinforces the adolescent’s belief of invulnerability, especially to death, so they feel they will not suffer any negative consequences from risky behavior” (p. 765). Finally, the third variant of the adolescent egocentrism is the “foundling fantasy”. It manifests in the adolescent’s critical assessment of their parents. Tyler supports the claim, stating that “because of their idealism, they may become critical of others, especially adults in their life” (p. 765). As a teenager sees the shortcomings of their parents, they cease to be aware of themselves as a descendant of these people. In their eyes, their own uniqueness deserves the best parents, therefore, the people with whom they live, either adopted them, or the doctors replaced them in the hospital.
References
Hanna, J. L. (2016). Adolescents, egocentrism, and mortality. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 90(1), 30–33.
Tyler, S. (2020). Cognitive development in adolescence. In Human Behavior and the Social Environment I (pp. 763–786). Essay, University of Arkansas Libraries.