Table of Contents
Definition of Egocentric
According to the Oxford Dictionary, egocentric means “thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings or desires of others, centred in or arising from a person’s existence or perspective.” Here are a few examples of how the term egocentric is commonly used:
- “As a consequence, this advance in consumerism has led to a selfish, egocentric culture where one’s own needs come first at the exclusion of the needs of others.”
- “I don’t want to sound egocentric, but I was the reason we won the game.”
Egocentric Derivatives
Egocentric has a few derivatives that are used frequently. Here are a few examples:
- Egocentrically, adverb: “As people will tend to view information egocentrically, how objective one’s perspective is on this information helps apply it to whatever it may be at hand.”
- Egocentricity, noun: “If you give to charity 100 times, the repetition breaks down your egocentricity.”
- Egocentrism, noun: “Studies have found adolescent egocentrism to be more prevalent among females than males.”
Egocentric synonyms
Direct synonyms of egocentric are:
- self-centred
- egomaniacal
- egoistic
- self-interested
- selfish
- self-absorbed
- narcissistic
- vain
Egocentric Antonyms
Antonyms for the opposite of egocentric are:
- Altruistic
- Humble
- Modest
- Reserved
- Selfless
- Shy
- Submissive
- Timid
What is an Egocentric Predicament?
Egocentric predicament, a term coined by Ralph Barton Perry in an article titled “Journal of Philosophy 1910”, is defined as the problem of not being able to view reality outside of our perceptions. In the egocentric predicament, Who cannot make direct contact with reality outside of our minds, so we cannot be sure that reality even exists? From this comes our perceptual world, and we are each entitled and limited.
Egocentric Thinking
With egocentric thinking comes more than a few different egocentric thought processes defined by CriticalThinking.org.
- Egocentric Memory: to “forget” information which does not support our thinking and to “remember” knowledge which does
- Egocentric Myopia: to think in an absolutist way within an overly narrow point of view
- Egocentric Infallibility: to think that our beliefs are true because we believe them
- Egocentric Righteousness: to feel superior in our confidence that we have the truth
- Egocentric Hypocrisy: to ignore flagrant inconsistencies between what we profess to believe and the actual beliefs our behavior imply
- Egocentric Oversimplification: to ignore real and important complexities in the world in favor of simplistic notions when consideration of those complexities would require us to modify our beliefs
- Egocentric Blindness: not to notice facts or evidence which contradict our favoured beliefs or values
- Egocentric Immediacy: to over-generalize immediate feelings and experiences–so that when one event in our life is highly favourable or unfavourable, all of life seems excellent or negative as well
- Egocentric Absurdity: to fail to notice thinking which has “absurd” consequences when catching them would force us to rethink our position
Egocentric Bias
Egocentrism can also cause people to make incorrect assumptions about other people’s thoughts and feelings. According to the “assumed similarity bias,” we will believe that others agree with our views, even when there is little objective reason for thinking they agree. We might be right in any situation, but there’s also a good chance we’re incorrect. We also display signs of egocentrism when we fail to communicate in ample detail.
Online communications and social media present many opportunities for egocentrism to take over. On Facebook, for example, you may be experiencing bullying at school, and the situation makes you depressed, so you immediately share your view about that situation with a cryptic posting. Without any explanation in the post, it’s doubtful that any close family or friends will get what you are referring to.
Egocentrism in Children
Egocentrism in children has a few different approaches that are greatly influenced by the works of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Piaget and Vygotsky contributed to egocentrism psychology in children by offering details of children’s cognitive learning styles and abilities. Even though Piaget and Vygotsky may differ in how they view cognitive development in children, both offer great insight and examples of egocentrism in children.
Piaget’s Theory
In Piaget’s opinion, children were not born naturally social and could not relate to others. Instead, Piaget believed that children are born focused solely on themselves. For example, when a child is talking to themselves while they play alone, they do it for self-centred purposes. Since the child has not yet developed their full social abilities, they don’t consider others and are likelier to act on egocentric speech. To Piaget, this shows the child’s immaturity, and he has not yet learned how to interact with others. As the child grows, their egocentric tendency would therefore fade away.
Vygotsky’s Theory
Vygotsky offered an alternative to Piaget’s belief of children’s cognitive development stages. Vygotsky’s theory acknowledged that children learn through their culture and the social interactions they experience, which is much different from Piaget’s theory that children act on their environment to learn. Through what Vygotsky named “dialogues,” children socially interact with others to learn about society’s cultural values, and since human activities occur in cultural settings, our culture shapes our cognition.
Egocentrism in Adolescence
Elkind’s Theory
David Elkind dedicated his career to understanding children and adolescents’ cognitive, perceptual, and social development. Much of Elkind’s work is seen as an attempt to duplicate, build upon, and explore Piaget’s theory.
According to Piagetian theory, the ability to separate oneself from one’s thoughts and to analyze them develops during the young adolescent years. Elkind describes how young adolescents are preoccupied with themselves because, during this time in their life, they undergo significant physiological changes.
The leading cause of egocentrism in adolescence is the feeling that we are constantly being observed and critiqued by an audience and that we cannot evade the scrutiny of others. The egocentric tendency of adolescents lies in their belief that others are just as preoccupied with their appearance and behaviour as they are. Consequently, the adolescent anticipates other people’s responses and thoughts which leads to constantly creating what Elkind calls an “imaginary audience” because it exists only in our mind.
Example of Egocentrism
A teenage boy may tend to bully other classmates because he wants to impress a special girl in his class by appearing “tough”, while this girl may spend hours on her makeup and hair, thinking she will get his attention.
The Obvious Truth
Many of you probably realize that we never wholly outgrow the imaginary audience. You would know this if you have ever decided to start taking new yoga or CrossFit classes or had to make an important presentation at work. You may often feel that everyone’s eyes are on you, but you still fail to realize that they’re not looking at you because they’re too worried about their performance.
Egocentric Bullies
If your child is driven, assertive, independent, competitive, has a sense of time urgency and is egocentric. They will become a bully with egocentric personalities unless further prevented.
Recognizing the personality traits above in children will help identify those at risk of becoming bullies. Without a clear understanding of the people around them, the child will likely use harsh words and have high expectations that will push others beyond their capabilities. If the child does not respect the differences of others, they are also more likely to ridicule other children.
There is hope, though. Utilizing leadership training and opportunities for these children will teach them how to use their personality traits in a supportive way. Knowing that being egocentric, independent, driven and assertive is likely to lead a child to become a bully shows us that, no matter the child’s age, respect and empathy are skills that should be a part of any leadership training.
How to Counteract Egocentric Personality Disorder
- Make an honest assessment of your egocentric behaviours. Take accountability for the behaviors caused by ordinary egocentrism that may get out of hand and decide whether you’re letting your internal views alter your social interactions.
- Check out how other people feel. Put yourself in other people’s shoes by using active empathic listening to see not just from the inside out but from the outside in.
- Build up your inner sense of self. Find ways to build your self-esteem that doesn’t involve the attention of others by developing a system to reward yourself for your accomplishments.
- Squelch your imaginary audience. You may feel that everyone is looking at and judging you, but most people are just as concerned about themselves as they are about you.
- Practice counter-egocentrism. For example, read over your e-mails or text messages before sending them to ensure you haven’t missed any critical details.
