Egocentrism In Children And Adults

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Recently, I began to pay attention to how many manifestations of egocentrism are in the world around us. Not egoism, but egocentrism. Egocentrism is a childish, infantile attitude to the world, a sincere idea that “I am the navel of the earth” and that everyone thinks the same way

The saleswoman behaves egocentrically, who, while serving visitors, is suddenly distracted from the goods that the buyer has laid out on the tape of the cash register, and starts a conversation with the lady administrator who has approached. Women discuss something clearly interesting and important for them, emotionally support each other, laugh and joke. A customer who is overtly ignored becomes nervous. The cashier turns indignantly to him: “Well, you can't wait! - she declares with pressure, - We are talking about the case! Really. As you may not have guessed, stupid customer. They're talking about serious work issues. They are discussing what is happening in the store. How could you not know what is going on in this supermarket, how can you not guess right away? Something important is happening in her life. She looked away from you - you must disappear. Apologize, ask to wait? What for? Don't you understand yourself?

The metro passenger behaves egocentrically, who, having jumped into the car, stop with relief. Fuf, in time. Jumped, that's it, now you can go. Ahhh, why are you pushing, but where are you getting into the car? Are there any other people on the platform? Want to go too? Why do you need, where are you all rushing - I've already entered! Who would have thought that someone else could ride in the Moscow metro besides me, my beloved? And he is not joking, he sincerely did not expect that there would be more people in the metro of the multimillion city and they would have their own interests. For example, take the same carriage.

Egocentric a man who, when asked by his girlfriend to go to a cafe, is sincerely surprised: why, I don’t want to eat? To think that she is from work and she, perhaps, wants - this already requires serious intellectual work. Here I am, here I want. Or I don’t want to. I just didn't think about other things.

Selfishness differs from egocentrism in that the egoist just imagines that others are really different, separate from himself. They may want or achieve something, but the priorities of the egoist will be higher. The egoist "sees" other people, but consciously puts himself and his needs higher. And the egocentric is a child in terms of the level of self-awareness. He really sincerely does not imagine that other people have other desires, needs, requests. The egocentric simply does not notice others, “does not see”, does not perceive them as equal, but different subjects.

Egocentrism as a feature of children's thinking was first described by the French psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget's experiments have since been reproduced many times, and children of new generations have shown the same way of thinking. You can see it yourself (in the video). Here the child is shown a toy landscape: a mountain, trees, animals, and asked to list what he sees. The child honestly describes what is in front of his eyes. Then he is asked to change seats so that they can see what was previously hidden behind the "mountain" and describe this already. The child copes with this task. But when asked to describe what the other person, sitting opposite and seeing what the child saw before, and now is covered by a mountain, sees what is seen by the other person - again follows a description of what is right now in front of his eyes. A child is not able to put himself in the place of another, to imagine himself not as the “center of the world”. What I see is what everyone sees.

Normally we are all self-centered at a certain age. - from the earliest preschool to 12-14 years old. In adolescence, the understanding is somehow acquired that other people are not exactly like you, and may want something different. The kid sincerely believes that the world revolves around him. For example, it is precisely for this reason that young children have a hard time enduring the divorce of their parents: they believe, cannot but believe that they are the reason for the separation. "Dad left because I misbehaved." Little children charmingly run to the guest and ask him a question, sweet in its naivety: "What did you bring me?" Candy, toy, entertainment - what is for me? Adults are already aware that guests come in different ways and for different purposes, but kids sincerely believe that the world revolves around them. And where, then, is my treat? This means that a young mother who kicks a child in the street and shouts: "Yes, you are doing everything to spite me!" - she herself did not grow out of an egocentric state. A child can be capricious and resist well, not at all in order to annoy mom. A child, even a very small child, has its own reasons. But such an angry mother - she believes that everything that happens in the world and her family is an insidious conspiracy against her personally. She herself is still an immature egocentric in her soul.

Living in a big city supports the habit of self-centeredness in many ways. In fact, confess, how often did you yourself not just burst into a specialist (doctor, salesman, consultant): “I just have to ask!”, But also apologized and explained something to the queue standing next to you? No, the queue seems to disappear, from living people it turns into objects of furniture, which must be pushed aside and walked to the desired window. The most that is done is to notice at least the one to whom you are addressing. A group of living people who wait patiently becomes invisible.

Egocentric the owner of a car who requires a parking space (free of charge!) under the windows, so much so that his "swallow" can be seen from the window of his own apartment. "Well, I have to park!" Is it okay that the rest of the residents of the house need lawns with greenery to breathe, they need space for a walk, you need to calmly reach the house, without pushing in a clean coat between closely parked dirty cars? Have you ever heard such arguments from car owners (who are going to rallies these days)? No. Because they see themselves and their problems, but they simply do not notice others and their problems. This is it, egocentrism.

Another widespread egocentrism of this type, which can be called "professional". Well, this is when a person studied for a long time, mastered a profession, acquired the terminology and principles of work - and now it seems to him that the whole world, by definition, knows what he has been studying for more than one month.

One of my acquaintances, an employee of a large advertising agency, was indignant: how is it, why are clients such idiots? Why don't they know the simplest principles of creating an advertising campaign? Why do they need to explain why there are certain moves in the commercial? Why are they so dull and ask such stupid questions all the time? That is, the girl was specially hired to do a job for which she studied for a very long time (they hired large companies for a lot of money). And people who were going to pay very, very substantial sums for this work asked to explain why? What exactly is that kind of money for? Why, the advertiser was indignant. Do I really need to explain to you? Why do I know a lot about advertising and you don't? In general, talking with non-professionals, sprinkling speech with specific terms is egocentrism, this is the inability to take the point of view of another. This is very, very common for many professionals in different professions.

From the same opera, by the way, and the behavior of sellers, who to the question: "What is it in the window?" or "And how much? …" they roll their eyes in response and make claims: they say, everyone walks and walks, asking and asking, the twentieth time in a day already, well, is it really difficult to remember? For the twentieth time, I must say, it is not the same person who asks, but twenty different visitors. And this is for the saleswoman, "they walk and walk," and they keep jerking and jerking about the same thing. Me, me, the buyer, the person on the other side of the counter - everything is seen differently. In general, five minutes ago I went into your establishment, for the first time in my life I saw you, and now I need to listen to claims about “twenty times a day” and “is it really incomprehensible”. I do not understand. I shouldn't know. You must. This is your job, twenty times a day to open your eyes to the cost and quality characteristics of the goods. Egocentrism will greatly hinder you in this - of course, when it seems that everyone entering the trading floor “came to spite me and asked the same thing,” then life will seem hard and unpleasant. But we are not out of spite. We're really not in the know and would like to know.