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ABSTRACT
This study sought to determine whether adolescent egocentrism is displayed during adolescence in the same patterns as when the constructs were first defined in 1967. We empirically revisited the constructs of personal fable and imaginary audience in contemporary adolescents, hypothesizing a decrease in egocentrism with increasing age. Adolescents (N = 2,390) responded to a self-report measure of adolescent egocentrism. Results revealed significant interactions between age and sex for both imaginary audience and personal fable. The results deviated from the original conceptualization discussed in 1967 and supports more recent findings suggesting the existence of adolescent egocentrism in late adolescence. Implications of these findings for those who work with adolescents are discussed.
Elkind (1967) defined adolescent egocentrism to include the imaginary audience (i.e., adolescents' belief that those around them are as concerned and focused on their appearance as they themselves are) and the personal fable (i.e., the belief that the individual is special, unique, and invulnerable to harm). In Elkind's original conceptualization, these constructs were thought to emerge in early adolescence and then decline in middle adolescence (ages 15-16).
Past research has supported the earlier conceptualization that adolescent egocentrism peaks in early adolescence and then begins to decline (Elkind & Bowen, 1979). The implications of egocentrism during adolescence have been previously discussed in terms of educational settings (Muuss, 1982) and other "pressured" situations (Tice, Buder, & Baumeister, 1985). It was also noted early on that adolescent egocentrism is most certainly not born of a single dimension, but is a multi-faceted aspect of development, with different pieces being expressed at different times during the adolescent period (Muuss, 1982).
Given that many variables related to adolescent behavior may be dependent upon societal and historical conditions and the fact that imaginary audience and personable fable are mentioned in literally every contemporary text on adolescence (Vartanian, 2000), we decided to revisit these constructs almost 40 years after the initial conceptualization. We hypothesized that both imaginary audience and personal fable would decrease with increasing age from early to late adolescence.
METHOD
Participants
The sample of 2,390 adolescents included 1,211 females and 1,179 males (M = 15.15 years, SD = 2.61 years) from 16 public middle schools, junior high schools, high schools, and three colleges (two private, one public). The school...