Egocentrism In Children

6 Pages 1493 Words

LAB REPORT-
EGOCENTRISM IN CHILDREN: ‘COPS & ROBBERS STUFF’

ABSTRACT
This report sought to examine whether a change in the response required -given that the materials utilized remained constant- would effect the degree of egocentrism exhibited by children within, either the pre-operational (3-5 years old) or concrete (9-11 years old) phases of cognitive development. This experiment was designed to correct or reinforce Piaget’s theory of conservation of matter, and used a modified version of Hughes police and robbers task. This was achieved by changing the response required from a straightforward verbal response to a visual response in which cue cards were applied. It was able then to be contrasted with Piaget’s 3 mountains task. The results given by the 507 subjects (228 male and 279 female) showed on average that egocentrism became more evident, particularly in pre-operational age bracket when asked to view the object (robber) form an opposite perspective rather than a similar one. Despite this however the experiment dispeled Piaget’s theory by suggesting that not all pre-operational children are egocentric.










Throughout this century scientists have pondered on the egocentric tendencies of humans and have tried to pinpoint its prenuptial foundations by examining cognitive development in children. Donaldson (19??) defines egocentrism as: “a self-centered viewpoint”(p.17) and suggests that this failure to realize the world form another stance leads to lack of knowledge.
Although Piaget (1932) -the forefather of modern cognitive psychology- established a theory to explain this condition of egocentrism in children, the experimental data which he used to support this; namely the 3 mountains task, was somewhat flawed. This was because, it suggested that children participants aged between two and seven; which he categorized in a stage labeled the pre-operational stage, were egocentric because they fai...