Abstract
A standardized and objectively scored scale of adolescent egocentrism-sociocentrism (AES) and a self-consciousness scale were given to 44 subjects each in the sixth, eighth, tenth, and twelfth grades and college. The AES assesses three components of egocentrism including the personal fable, the imaginary audience, and general self-focuses, as well as sociocentrism and nonsocial subscales. As predicted, the personal fable and imaginary audience declined with age. The self-focus subscale showed a curvilinear relationship with age, while, again as predicted, sociocentrism increased and nonsocial focuses declined. Adolescent egocentrism, as expected, correlated positively with self-consciousness even with age controlled. Implications for the theories of egocentrism and sociocentrism in the adolescent years are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adelson, J. (1971). The political imagination of the young adolescent.Deadalus 100: 1013–1050.
Carver, C., and Glass, D. (1976). The Self-Consciousness Scale: A discriminant validation study.J. Personal. Assess. 40: 169–172.
Crain, W., and Crain, E. (1974). The growth of political ideas and their expression among young activists.J. Youth Adoles. 3: 105–133.
Elkind, D. (1967). Egocentrism in adolescence.Child Dev. 38: 1024–1038.
Elkind, D. (1978). Understanding the young adolescent.Adolescence 13: 127–134.
Elkind, D., and Bowen, R. (1979). Imaginary audience behavior in children and adolescents.Dev. Psychol. 15: 38–44.
Enright, R., Lapsley, D., and Shukla, D. (1979). Adolescent egocentrism in early and late adolescence.Adolescence 14: 687–695.
Fenigstein, A., Scheier, M., and Buss, A. (1975). Public and private self-consciousness: Assessment and theory.J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 43: 522–527.
Selman, R. (1976a). Social-cognitive understanding: A guide to educational and clinical practice. In Lickona, T. (ed.),Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Selman, R. (1976b). A structural approach to the study of developing interpersonal relationship concepts: Research with normal and disturbed preadolescent boys. In Pick, A. (ed.),Tenth Annual Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Tapp, J., and Kohlberg, L. (1971). Developing senses of law and legal justice.J. Soc. Iss. 27: 65–91.
Timm, N. (1975).Multivariate Analysis, Wadsworth, Belmont, Calif.
Turner, R., Scheier, M., Carver, C., and Ickes, W. (1978). Correlates of self-consciousness.J. Personal. Assess. 42: 285–289.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. Major interests are adolescent social cognition and social development.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Enright, R.D., Shukla, D.G. & Lapsley, D.K. Adolescent egocentrism-sociocentrism and self-consciousness. J Youth Adolescence 9, 101–116 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02087929
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02087929