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Is the presence of egocentrism a good thing?

  • Schwartz, Maynard and Uzelac (2008) believed that egocentrism can be viewed as an internal learning mechanism and has a central role to play in learning language.

A quote from Piaget

'There is little mysticism without an element of transcendence, and conversely, there is no transcendence without a certain degree of egocentrism.'

From The Moral Judgement of the child (1932)

References

  • Deutsch, F. (1974). Observational and sociometric measures of peer popularity and their relationship to egocentric communication in female preschoolers. Developmental Psychology, 10, 745-747
  • Flavell, J.H Perspectives on perspective taking H. Beilin, P. Pufall (Eds.), Piaget’s theory: Prospects and possibilities, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Hillsdale, NJ (1992), pp. 107–137
  • Isaacs, S Intellectual growth in young children. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London (1930)
  • Piaget, J- (1931) The Moral Judgement of the Child. Philosophy / Volume 8 / Issue 31 / July 1933, pp 373-374Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1933
  • Piaget, J- (1951) Egocentric and sociocentric thought J. Piaget (Ed.), Sociological studies, Routledge, London (1951), pp. 276–285
  • Rycek, R. F., Stuhr, S. L., McDermott, J., Benker, J., & Swartz, M.D. (1998). Adolescent egocentrism and cognitive functioning during late adolescence. Adolescence, 33(132), 745-749.
  • Schwartz, P. D., Maynard, A. M., & Uzelac, S. M (2008). Adolescent egocentrism: A contemporary view. Adolescence, 43(171), 441-448.
  • Vygotsky, Lev. 1986. Thought and Language (translated by Alex Kozulin). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (Original work published 1934.)

Examples of Egocentrism in the Classroom

Example 2.

Example 3: Child A is cying and upset. Child B notices this and grabs Child B's favourite toy to give to Child A,thinking that since they love it, Child A will also love it and not to cry anymore.

Explanation: Child B is trying to help Child A, but due to their inability to see other situations, Child B assumes that Child A will be soothed with the same toy that would soothe Child B.

Examples of Egocentrism in the Classroom

Example 1

Some theorists believe that girls are more egocentric than boys because sometimes girls prefer to play by themselves more often then boys do.

Criticisms of Piaget's Egocentrism

Example 2: While examining a 3-dimensional block structure together, the child assumes that you have the same perspective she does even though you are on the other side of the structure.

Explanation: As seen before, the child cannot process yet that other people can be in a different situation to her and therefore she thinks everyone can see the same part of the block structure that she can see.

Flavell (1992) believed that Piaget considerably underestimated the perspective taking skills of young children.

Many critics including Isaacs (1930) believed that children are often self- centred at a young age which could make Piaget's egocentrism invalid.

This theory is actually conflicted by Piaget himself because he said that an infant lives in and is affected by the social world from birth which would completely disregard this theory (1951).

Vygotsky had a different definition of what he believed egocentric speech was, he believed it was just a way of thinking, but out loud because the children were not developed enough to think internally.

Does Egocentrism diminish with time?

  • Piaget (1951) suggests that one of the main environmental factors towards diminishing egocentrism is a child's interaction with peers.
  • While Deutsch (1974) similarly found a correlation between a child's level of interaction with peers and the number of times they show signs of egocentrism. The more a child interacts with their peers, the less egocentric thought and speech are seen.
  • While Rycek, Stuhr, McDermott, Benker and Swartz (1998) found that in some cases egocentrism does not completely diminish and signs of it can be seen in adolescents.

What is Egocentrism?

Egocentrism can be split into two parts: egocentric speech and egocentric thought.

Egocentric thought is the process that occurs in a child's mind when they are trying to look at perspectives. While egocentric speech is the verbal responses the child elicits after having egocentric thoughts.

'Egocentrism' was part of Piaget's Pre-operational stage which occurred around 2 to 7.

'Egocentrism' is the child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view.

Children between 3-5 years old assume that everyone hear, sees and feels exactly what they themselves do .

Piaget believed that children of this age could not interact with other people and would use 'egocentric speech' for self-centred purposes.

The act of egocentrism was seen as immature- a sign that the child in question is not fully developed yet.

Egocentrism in an Early Years Classroom

A discussion of Jean Piaget's Egocentrism

A Discussion of Egocentrism

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