Essay Sample on Adolescent Egocentrism

Introduction

Adolescent egocentrism relates to the teen's incapacity to find the difference between what other individuals think about them and the actual reality of how individuals think or perceive them. Egocentrism among adolescent revolves around the fact that people are around us and their presence is to observe and judge us, and we cannot avoid it. Growing up and especially during my teen years, I at times felt self-conscious when around my age mates. I can vividly recall instances where I was invited to parties and kept wondering what my peers thought of me after my arrival. At school, I remember noticing if other students were looking at me and if they were solely focusing on how I carried myself, for instance, my cladding style or my hairstyle. The features of egocentrism among adolescents include imaginary audience, personal fables, and social sensitivity among other features.

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An imaginary audience in association with adolescent egocentrism involves a situation whereby an adolescent has the belief that his or her peers have the same interest or consciousness as the adolescent has. It entails what other individuals thought of the adolescents, and it was not a real, but what the adolescent perceived to be real and an individual is the main focus of the peer's thinking and attention. Individually, I have experienced cases of an imaginary audience when in high school. An instance was when the teacher asked me to answer a quiz on the board. I always felt that my classmates were looking keenly on what I was wearing, my hairstyle or how my back view looked. My mind was always telling me that my classmates were judging me harshly. The phenomenon was always scary depicted in my mind.

Another feature of adolescent egocentrism I had an experience with is personal fables. The situation involves a person believing that no other individual has the capacity to understanding one's emotional feeling because experiences are always unique. As an adolescent, he or she feels like the first person to have a particular experience. As a teenager, I used to believe that when I did not perform well at certain exams, I understood that I had the problem and not that learning at times becomes hard.

An illusion of invulnerability entails the belief that bad occurrences do not happen towards a person and only happen to other people. One believes that even after seeing other people failing in doing something, they go ahead and do the same thing hoping to achieve a result which is not similar. This mainly applies to a risky activity. An example is seeing your friend trying to climb over a small cliff without the correct gear fails and gets hurt; you also try the same and get hurt similarly. A simple example is when before an exam or an assessment without proper preparation I used to think that I would not fail in a test and only for me to perform dismally.

Conclusion

Adolescent egocentrism is a normal stage of life during the cognitive development of an individual. The instances of adolescent egocentrism are harmless but usually have a distressing effect on the teen or the adolescent. Henceforth, the parents should understand and offer support when dealing with their young adolescents because most adolescents showcase levels of self-focus. A supportive guardian will always assist during this time.