Psychology
2012. Vol.3, No.6, 457-466
Published Online June 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2012.36065
Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 457
The Imaginary Audience and the Personal Fable: A Test of
Elkind’s Theory of Adolescent Egocentrism
Evangelia P. Galanaki
Department of Special Education and Psychology, Faculty of Primary Education,
University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Email: egalanaki@primedu.uoa.gr
Received February 24th, 2012; revised April 2nd, 2012; accepted May 5th, 2012
The aim of this research was to test empirically Elkind’s (1967, 1970, 1978) Piagetian theoretical formu-
lation for the developmental nature of adolescent egocentrism. The contribution of this study is threefold
because it includes: 1) Pubertal development (with a distinction between status and timing), which has
been systematically ignored by other investigators; 2) a broad age range (11 - 18 year-old adolescents);
and 3) a variety of manifestations and dimensions of egocentrism. The association of the two main forms
of adolescent egocentrism—the imaginary audience and the personal fable—with age, gender, pubertal
development, and formal operational thought was investigated. Participants were 314 adolescents who
completed the Physical Development Scale (Petersen, Crockett, Richards, & Boxer, 1988), a battery of
cognitive tasks (Demetriou, Efklides, & Platsidou, 1993), the Imaginary Audience Scale (Elkind & Bo-
wen, 1979), the New Imaginary Audience Scale (Lapsley, Fitzgerald, Rice, & Jackson, 1989), the Per-
sonal Fable Scale (Elkind, personal communication, August 10, 1993), and the New Personal Fable Scale
(Lapsley et al., 1989). Findings provided partial support for Elkind’s hypothesis. Only the imaginary au-
dience in the form of self-consciousness was associated with grade. Systematic gender differences
emerged for several dimensions of imaginary audience and personal fable. For only a few dimensions of
imaginary audience and personal fable the expected associations with pubertal and cognitive development,
as well as interesting interaction effects, were found. Results are discussed in terms of their implications
for Elkind’s theory and for alternative interpretations of imaginary audience and personal fable.
Keywords: Imaginary Audience; Personal Fable; Pubertal Development; Formal Operational Thought
Introduction
The concept of egocentrism or centration was introduced and
described by Jean Piaget (e.g., 1926, 1929; Piaget & Inhelder,
1956) as a differentiation failure between the subjective and the
objective, a negative by-product of any emergent cognitive
system. In the beginning of each cognitive stage, the develop-
ing abilities become sources of egocentric errors, as the indi-
vidual incorporates the world through a process of egocentric
assimilation. During adolescence in particular (Inhelder & Pia-
get, 1955/1958), formal operational thought enables the ado-
lescent to think about the possible and about his own thought
and the thought of others. Using the newly acquired cognitive
abilities, and in his or her attempt to adjust the environment to
his or her ego, the adolescent fails to distinguish between his or
her own theoretical constructions and the point of view of the
society which he or she hopes to reform through these constru-
ctions.
Following Piaget, David Elkind has elaborated further on
adolescent egocentrism and his hypothesis about the develop-
mental nature of egocentrism, a hypothesis that includes both
the pubertal and the cognitive changes taking place during ado-
lescence, is as follows (Elkind, 1967):
[The] egocentrism emerges because, while the adolescent can
now cognize the thoughts of others, he fails to differentiate be-
tween the objects toward which the thoughts of others are di-
rected and those which are the focus of his own concern. Now,
it is well known that the young adolescent, because of the phy-
siological metamorphosis he is undergoing, is primarily con-
cerned with himself. Accordingly, since he fails to differentiate
between what others are thinking about and his own mental
preoccupations, he assumes that other people are as obsessed
with his behavior and appearance as he is himself. It is this
belief that others are preoccupied with his appearance and be-
havior that constitutes the egocentrism of the adolescent (p.
344).
Elkind described two manifestations of adolescent egocen-
trism: 1) The imaginary audience, that is, the adolescent’s ten-
dency to believe that others are preoccupied with his or her
appearance and behavior, that he or she often performs as an
actor in front of an audience; and 2) the personal fable, that is,
the adolescent’s inner belief that he or she is special/unique,
omnipotent, invulnerable and therefore he or she can take risks.
The imaginary audience and the personal fable account for a
large number of typical adolescent behaviors, for example,
self-consciousness, daydreaming, shyness, desire for aloneness,
tendency to conform to the group norms, exhibitionism, keep-
ing of a diary, risk taking behavior (e.g., Galanaki, 2002), etc.
Decentration takes place and egocentrism declines with age,
through the biological maturation of cognitive structures and
the accumulating social experience.
Empirical Tests of Elkind’s Model of Adolescent
Egocentrism
Elkind’s interpretation of adolescent egocentrism has been
E. P. GALANAKI
partially examined in a series of empirical studies. Quite sur-
prisingly, the association between pubertal development and
egocentrism has been investigated in only one study (Cohn et
al., 1988). Imaginary audience was higher among those adoles-
cents with more advanced pubertal status, but this weak asso-
ciation disappeared when age was statistically controlled. In a
relevant study (Hansell, Mechanic, & Brondolo, 1986), where
tendency for introspection and not egocentrism per se was as-
sessed, a similar finding emerged, although the correlations
were rather low: adolescents with more advanced pubertal de-
velopment were those who were more inclined towards intro-
spection. It seems, then, that physical changes and the accom-
panying heightened social expectations may lead adolescents to
turn their attention to the self.
The expected association between cognitive development
and egocentrism has received only partial empirical support.
Elkind himself has not assessed formal operational thought in
his own research. The expected peak of egocentrism in the first
phases of the stage of formal operations and the expected de-
cline when these abilities have been consolidated was found in
a few studies (Hudson & Gray, 1986, only for the imaginary
audience; Rycek, Stuhr, McDermott, Benker, & Swartz, 1998,
although the association was weak). In some other studies, no
association between formal operations and egocentrism was
found (Goossens, 1984, study 3; Jahnke & Blanchard-Fields,
1993; Kelly, Jones, & Adams, 2002; O’Connor & Nikolic,
1990; Peterson, 1982). The unexpected finding that egocen-
trism is high during the concrete operational stage and declines
afterwards emerged from some other studies (Gray & Hudson,
1984; Pesce & Harding, 1986; Riley, Adams, & Nielsen, 1984).
And, finally, an unexpected negative correlation between ego-
centrism and formal operations emerged in another research
(Lapsley, Milstead, Quintana, Flannery, & Buss, 1986, study
1).
Similarly, research data on the association between the ima-
ginary audience/personal fable and age are contradictory. Ac-
cording to Piagetian theory, a decline of egocentrism is ex-
pected during the end of adolescence, as a consequence of the
consolidation of formal operations in combination with the
establishment of interpersonal intimacy. This decline was found
in a number of studies (Enright, Lapsley, & Shukla, 1979; En-
right, Shukla, & Lapsley, 1980; Galanaki, 1996; Goossens,
1984, study 2; Goossens, Seiffge-Krenke, & Marcoen, 1992,
study 2; Lapsley et al., 1986, study 2; Lapsley, Jackson, Rice,
& Shadid, 1988; Lapsley, Fitzgerald, Rice, & Jackson, 1989;
Lechner & Rosental, 1983; Markstrom & Mullis, 1986; Varta-
nian & Powlishta, 1996). Also, Elkind and Bowen (1979) found
the expected curvilinear relationship for the imaginary audience
from the fourth to the twelfth grade, with a peak in the eighth
grade; the peak in the eighth grade was also found by Alberts,
Elkind, and Ginsberg (2007). And Hauck, Martens, and Wetzel
(1986) found a peak in the 12 - 14 year-old group in contrast to
younger and older adolescents. However, there is also the un-
expected increase with age (Adams & Jones, 1981; Cohn et al.,
1988; Goossens et al., 1992, study 1; Rycek et al., 1998), as
well as the finding that young adults experience heightened
egocentrism (Frankenberger, 2000; Peterson, & Roscoe, 1991;
Schwartz, Maynard, & Uzelac, 2008). And, finally, no associa-
tion was found with age in some other investigations (Goossens,
1984, study 1; Gray & Hudson, 1984; Hudson & Gray, 1986;
Jahnke & Blanchard-Fields, 1993; Lapsley et al., 1986, study 1;
Peterson, 1982; Montgomery, 2005; Richter, Reaves, Deaver,
& Lacy, 1982).
Furthermore, consistent gender differences in the experience
of the imaginary audience and personal fable phenomena are
incongruent with a cognitive interpretation of adolescent ego-
centrism. Females tend to exhibit more imaginary audience
ideation than males, as has been shown in a quite large number
of investigations (Elkind & Bowen, 1979; Goossens, 1984,
study 2; Goossens et al., 1992, studies 1 and 2; Gray & Hudson,
1984; Hauck et al., 1986; Hudson & Gray, 1986; Markstrom &
Mullis, 1986; Montgomery, 2005; Pesce & Harding, 1986;
Richter et al., 1982; Riley et al., 1984; Ryan & Kuczkowski,
1994; Rycek et al., 1998). Fewer studies have shown that males
have higher imaginary audience (Anolik, 1981; Greene, Rubin,
Walters, & Hale, 1996; Lechner & Rosenthal, 1984) and per-
sonal fable scores than females (Goossens, Beyers, Emmen, &
van Aken, 2002; Lapsley et al., 1989). More recently, an at-
tempt to discover whether there are gender differences in the
dimensions of the personal fable indicated that girls experience
invulnerability and omnipotence more frequently than boys,
whereas boys score higher on uniqueness (Aalsma, Lapsley, &
Flannery, 2006); in another investigation (Alberts, Elkind, &
Ginsberg, 2007) boys were found to experience invulnerability
more frequently than girls. No gender differences were found in
a few other investigations (Adams & Jones, 1981; Enright et al.,
1979; Jahnke & Blanchard-Fields, 1993; Lapsley et al., 1988;
Peterson, 1982; Vartanian & Powlishta, 1996).
It appears, then, that only contradictory results have been
found for the developmental nature of adolescent egocentrism
due, partly at least, to the different measures used and to the
restricted age ranges in some investigations. Also, quite surpri-
singly, the original hypothesis formulated by Elkind and in-
cluding both pubertal and cognitive development has not been
tested yet. This gap in the literature has not been pointed out
even by critical reviewers of the field (e.g., Vartanian, 2000),
although some investigators (Adams & Jones, 1981; Goossens,
1984; Lapsley, 1993) have proposed that the role of puberty
should be a goal for future research. In addition, as is evident in
the above literature review, the imaginary audience and the
personal fable phenomena are rather neglected research topics
in the last decade.
Aims and Hypotheses
The aim of this research was to test empirically Elkind’s
(1967, 1970, 1978) Piagetian theoretical formulation for the
developmental nature of adolescent egocentrism, that is, the
relation of egocentrism to pubertal development and formal
operational thought. The contribution of this study is: 1) The
inclusion of pubertal development which was ignored by other
researchers; 2) the distinction between pubertal level, that is,
the adolescent’s current level of pubertal development, and
pubertal timing, that is, the timing of pubertal onset relative to
peers (these two concepts are often confused); 3) the broad age
range of the sample (11 - 18 years)—in many studies the sam-
ple was seriously restricted as to the age range; and 4) the study
of different manifestations and dimensions of egocentrism—
also, in all studies only one or two of the existing instruments
measuring the manifestations of egocentrism have been used.
Imaginary audience and personal fable are expected to de-
cline with age (Hypothesis 1). Girls are expected to have higher
imaginary audience scores than boys, whereas boys are ex-
pected to have higher personal fable scores than girls (Hy-
Copyright © 2012 SciRes.
458
E. P. GALANAKI
pothesis 2). This has been found in other studies, although it is
not predicted by Elkind’s formulation. Adolescents in the first
pubertal levels are hypothesized to have higher imaginary au-
dience and personal fable scores than the others, according to
Elkind’s hypothesis (Hypothesis 3). Early- and late-maturing
adolescents are expected to have higher imaginary audience and
personal fable scores than the others, because they are “differ-
ent” from their peers with respect to external appearance,
preparation for puberty, subjective feelings about their changes,
and significant people’s reactions to the changes (the “devi-
ance” hypothesis; Petersen, 1988; Petersen & Crockett, 1985);
for these reasons they are likely to be preoccupied by them-
selves and place much emphasis on the opinion of others about
them (Hypothesis 4). Adolescents in the first formal operational
level are expected to have higher imaginary audience and per-
sonal fable scores, according to Elkind’s hypothesis (Hypothe-
sis 5). Interactions between pubertal development and cognitive
development are also expected, as adolescents who are in the
first pubertal levels, or are early or late maturers, and, at the
same time, are in the first formal operational level, may be
more likely to experience the imaginary audience and personal
fable ideations than all other subgroups of adolescents (Hy-
pothesis 6).
Method
Participants
The sample consisted of 314 adolescents from Athens and
semi-rural areas of Greece; 123 of them were boys and 191
were girls. Seventy one of them were from the first grade (mean
age: 12.4 years) and 83 from the third grade (mean age: 14.4
years) of the lower secondary school (from now on referred to
as seventh graders and ninth graders, respectively); 84 were
from the second grade (mean age: 16.4 years) and 76 were from
the third grade (mean age: 17.3 years) of the upper secondary
school (from now on referred to as eleventh graders and twelfth
graders, respectively). From Athens (the capital of Greece)
were 159 adolescents (5.6%) and from other large cities were
155 (49.4%). Five schools participated in the study. The
schools were randomly selected, with the use of random selec-
tion process, from the catalogue of schools provided by the
Ministry of Education. Participants came mainly from low-to-
middle socioeconomic background. Parental consent was ob-
tained for all of them.
Measures
1) Physical Development Scale (PDS; Petersen, Crockett,
Richards, & Boxer, 1988). The adolescent assesses his or her
own pubertal development, that is, the observable physical
changes and secondary sex characteristics, which have psycho-
logical significance and have been found to be related to vari-
ous indices of psychological adjustment more strongly than the
non-observable pubertal events. Two variables were distin-
guished: a) pubertal status and b) pubertal timing. Three levels
of pubertal status were distinguished based on the criteria pro-
posed by Tanner (1962): i) first pubertal (early pubertal + mid-
pubertal) (n = 84), ii) late pubertal (n = 168), and iii) postpu-
bertal (n = 62). Early pubertal (n = 16) and midpubertal level (n
= 68) were collapsed into the first pubertal level, due to the
small number of adolescents in the early pubertal level. For
pubertal timing, three categories were distinguished on the
basis of their deviation (1 SD) from the sample’s mean: i) Early
maturers (n = 48), ii) on-time maturers (n = 220), and iii) late
maturers (n = 46). The internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) of
the PDS is satisfactory: .81.
2) Battery of Cognitive Tasks (BCT; Demetriou, Efklides, &
Platsidou, 1993; Demetriou, Platsidou, Efklides, Metallidou, &
Shayer, 1993). The battery assesses propositional reasoning,
verbal analogies (i.e., understanding of categorical relations),
mathematical analogies (i.e., understanding of second-order
relations), and experimental thinking (i.e., combinatorial think-
ing, hypothesis testing, isolation of variables, recognition of
causal relations). Three levels of formal operational thought
were distinguished by means of discrimination level analysis
(Shayer, Demetriou, & Pervez, 1988): i) early formal level (n =
70), ii) middle formal level (n = 124), and iii) late formal level
(n = 120). Initially, five levels were distinguished, but the first
(n = 8) and the fifth (n = 4) level were collapsed with the sec-
ond and the third level, respectively, due to the small number of
adolescents in each one of them. The internal consistency
(Cronbach alpha) of the BCT is satisfactory: .83.
3) Imaginary Audience Scale (IAS; Elkind & Bowen, 1979).
The scale consists of 12 short vignettes assessing self-cons-
ciousness, a consequence of the imaginary audience, and, more
specifically, the adolescent’s reluctance to reveal aspects of self
to others. The scale has two subscales: a) the Abiding Self sub-
scale, which assesses potentially self-revealing situations (e.g.,
talking about your hobby in front of the class); and b) the Tran-
sient Self subscale, which assesses potentially embarrassing
situations of a momentary sort (e.g., going to a party with a
grease spot on your trousers). The internal consistency (Cron-
bach alpha) of the IAS is .62 (.53 for the Abiding Self and .52
for the Transient Self subscale).
4) New Imaginary Audience Scale (NIAS; Lapsley et al.,
1989). The scale consists of 30 items assessing object rela-
tional ideation or interpersonal fantasies, for example, day-
dreaming about others’ reactions to one’s accomplishments
(e.g., “How often do you imagine yourself rescuing a friend
from danger?”). The content of this scale is based on the
psychodynamic theories of Blos, Mahler and Josselson. The
internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) of the NIAS is satisfac-
tory: .82.
5) Personal Fable Scale (PFS; Elkind, personal communica-
tion, August 10, 1993). The scale consists of 18 items assessing
three dimensions of personal fable: a) speciality (e.g., believing
that one of your teachers thinks of you as special and different
from the other kids); b) invulnerability (e.g., believing that you
get away with a lot of stuff, other kids get in trouble for); and c)
risk taking (e.g., a lot of times not studying for exams because
you feel confident you will do well anyway). Both positive and
negative sides of each dimension are assessed (i.e., feeling spe-
cial for positive and negative personality traits and behaviors,
feeling vulnerable or invulnerable, and taking risks when esti-
mating that the consequences will be positive or negative). The
internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) of the PFS is .52 (.49 for
speciality, .44 for invulnerability, and .48 for risk taking). The
internal consistency of the PFS is rather unsatisfactory, and
this should be taken into account when interpreting the re-
sults.
6) New Personal Fable Scale (NPFS; Lapsley et al., 1989).
The scale consists of 46 items assessing three dimensions of
personal fable: a) uniqueness (e.g., “No one has the same
thoughts and feelings I have”); b) omnipotence (e.g., “I believe
Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 459
E. P. GALANAKI
Copyright © 2012 SciRes.
460
I can do anything I set my mind to”); and c) invulnerability
(e.g., “I am not afraid to do dangerous things”). The internal
consistency (Cronbach alpha) for the NPFS is satisfactory: .78
(.77 for uniqueness, .69 for omnipotence, and .65 for invulner-
ability).
Procedure
Participants completed the measures in group sessions in
their classrooms. The measures were administered by three re-
search assistants. To reduce order effects, measures were ran-
domized across portions of the sample; however the Pubertal
Development Scale was always administered in the end because
of its more “personal” nature than the other instruments. Par-
ticipants were informed that they were going to participate in a
research examining what people of their age think and feel
about themselves and others. They were encouraged to write a
code name of their choice on the questionnaires they completed.
All adolescents agreed to participate in the study. The proce-
dure lasted about 90 minutes, with a break in between.
Results
A series of multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA), as
well as analyses of variance (ANOVA) only for the imaginary
audience as operationalized by Lapsley (i.e., as a unidimen-
sional phenomenon), were done to examine the associations
among imaginary audience/personal fable and age, gender,
pubertal development and cognitive development. Due to the
large number of empty cells, it was not possible to include all
four “independent” variables in the same analysis, therefore a
series of analyses of variance were done with three of the above
factors on all possible combinations. For the sake of brevity,
only statistically significant or marginally significant (probabil-
ity level up to .08) results will be reported.
Imaginary Audience/Personal F abl e and Age
Means and standard deviations of all variables as a function
of age (grade) and for the total sample are presented in Table 1.
Only one analysis yielded statistically significant results for
age. A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Level MANOVA for the
Imaginary Audience (Abiding Self and Transient Self) showed
a statistically significant multivariate effect of Grade: Pillai’s
trace = .09, F(6, 586) = 4.34, p < .001. Univariate tests indi-
cated a significant effect of grade only on Abiding Self: F(3,
293) = 7.86, p < .001. Post-hoc Scheffé comparisons indicated
that eleventh and twelfth graders had significantly higher scores
than seventh and ninth graders on self-consciousness as regards
abiding personality traits.
Imaginary Audience/Personal F able and Gender
Means and standard deviations of all variables as a function
of gender are presented in Table 1.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Level MANOVA for the
Imaginary Audience (Abiding Self and Transient Self) showed
a statistically significant multivariate effect of Gender, Pillai’s
trace = .03, F(2, 292) = 4.64, p < .001. Univariate tests indi-
cated a significant effect of gender on Abiding Self, F(1, 293) =
6.62, p < .01; and on Transient Self, F(1, 293) = 5.30, p < .05.
Girls had significantly higher scores than boys on self-con-
sciousness as regards their reluctance to reveal abiding person-
ality traits and transient aspects of the self.
Table 1.
Means and standard deviations of all forms and dimensions of egocentrism as a function of gender, grade and for the total sample.
Gender Grade Total
Scales-Variables Boys
n = 123
Girls
n = 191
7th grade
n = 71
9th grade
n = 83
11th grade
n = 84
12th grade
n = 76 n = 314
M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD
Imaginary Audience
Scale 1.72 .32 1.83 .21 1.71.27 1.77 .31 1.82 .31 1.83 .31 1.78.31
Abiding Self 1.69 .37 1.81 .38 1.62.32 1.71 .36 1.84 .41 1.88 .37 1.77.38
Transient Self 1.74 .42 1.84 .35 1.80.38 1.83 .39 1.80 .38 1.79 .37 1.80.38
New Imaginary
Audience Scale 2.27 .35 2.20 .35 2.26.39 2.25 .34 2.15 .29 2.25 .37 2.23.35
Personal Fable
Scale 1.82 .27 1.72 .23 1.76.28 1.79 .25 1.73 .23 1.77 .25 1.76.25
Speciality-Positive 1.86 .51 1.75 .48 1.71.46 1.85 .54 1.73 .50 1.88 .48 1.79.49
Speciality-Negative 1.89 .47 1.91 .48 1.91.48 1.97 .48 1.91 .48 1.81 .45 1.90.47
Invulnerability-Pos. 1.86 .47 1.75 .46 1.85.53 1.77 .47 1.79 .43 1.78 .44 1.79.46
Invulnerability-Neg. 1.53 .48 1.59 .45 1.54.50 1.58 .46 1.58 .44 1.55 .46 1.56.53
Risk Taking-Pos. 1.87 .57 1.58 .47 1.63.54 1.73 .54 1.66 .49 1.76 .55 1.70.46
Risk Taking-Neg. 1.86 .49 1.61 .49 1.77.51 1.71 .49 1.68 .52 1.68 .51 1.71.51
New Personal Fable
Scale 2.54 .34 2.46 .36 2.47.38 2.52 .36 2.52 .34 2.45 .36 2.49.36
Uniqueness 2.63 .59 2.71 .58 2.62.61 2.70 .58 2.70 .56 2.68 .59 2.68.58
Omnipotence 2.68 .51 2.56 .45 2.52.50 2.61 .50 2.69 .44 2.60 .46 2.61.48
Invulnerability 2.33 .35 2.14 .41 2.28.36 2.27 .39 2.19 .45 2.11 .37 2.21.40
Note: Imaginary audience scale, Personal fable scale: 1 - 3; New imaginary audience scale, New personal fable scale: 1 - 4.
E. P. GALANAKI
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Level ANOVA for the Imagi-
nary Audience as object relational ideation (NIAS) showed a
marginally significant effect of gender, F(1, 293) = 3.32, p
< .07. Boys had significantly higher scores than girls on the
imaginary audience ideation.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Level MANOVA for the Per-
sonal Fable (Speciality-Positive, Speciality-Negative, Invulner-
ability-Positive, Invulnerability-Negative, Risk Taking-Positive,
Risk Taking-Negative) showed a statistically significant multi-
variate effect of Gender, Pillai’s trace = .06, F(6, 288) = 2.81, p
< .05. Univariate tests indicated a statistically significant effect
of gender on Speciality-Positive, F(1, 293) = 4.47, p < .05; In-
vulnerability-Positive, F(1, 293) = 5.32, p < .05; Risk Taking-
Positive, F(1, 293) = 6.98, p < .01; and Risk Taking-Negative,
F(1, 293) = 7.12, p < .01. Boys had significantly higher scores
than girls on all the above dimensions of the personal fable.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Level MANOVA for the Per-
sonal Fable (Uniqueness, Omnipotence, Invulnerability) showed
a statistically significant multivariate effect of Gender, Pillai’s
trace = .08, F(3, 291) = 8.22, p < .01. Univariate tests indicated
a statistically significant effect of gender on Omnipotence, F(1,
293) = 5.35, p < .05; and Invulnerability, F(1, 293) = 16.90, p
< .01. Boys had significantly higher scores than girls on these
two dimensions of the personal fable.
Imaginary Au d i e n ce / P e r so n a l Fable and Pubertal
Level
Means and standard deviations of all variables as a function
of pubertal level are presented in Table 2.
Only one analysis yielded statistically significant results for
pubertal level. A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Level MANOVA
for the Personal Fable (Speciality-Positive, Speciality-Negative,
Invulnerability-Positive, Invulnerability-Negative, Risk Taking-
Positive, Risk Taking-Negative) showed no statistically signi-
ficant multivariate effect of Pubertal Level, Pillais = .06, F(12,
578) = 1.51, ns. However, univariate tests indicated a statisti-
cally significant effect of Pubertal Level on Risk Taking-Nega-
tive, F(2, 293) = 3.13, p < .05. Post-hoc Scheffé comparisons
indicated that adolescents in the first pubertal and late pubertal
level had significantly higher scores than those in the postpu-
bertal level on the tendency towards risk behaviours even when
the consequences are anticipated to be negative.
Imaginary Au d i e n ce / P e r so n a l Fable and Pubertal
Timing
Means and standard deviations of all the variables as a func-
tion of pubertal timing are presented in Table 2.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Timing MANOVA for the
Imaginary Audience (Abiding Self and Transient Self) showed
a marginally significant multivariate Gender × Pubertal Timing
interaction: Pillais = .03, F(4, 580) = 2.30, p < .06. Univariate
tests indicated a marginally significant interaction effect on
Abiding Self, F(2, 290) = 2.58, p < .08; and Transient Self, F(2,
290) = 2.99, p < .05. Figures 1 and 2 show that late maturers
have lower scores on these two dimensions of the imaginary
audience, respectively, than on-time and early maturers, but this
holds only for boys, whereas there seems to be no such differ-
rence among girls.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Timing ANOVA for the Ima-
ginary Audience as object relational ideation (NIAS) showed a
statistically significant Grade × Pubertal Timing interaction,
F(6, 290) = 2.87, p < .05. As shown in Figure 3, only for
twelfth graders late maturation is linked with higher levels of
imaginary audience ideation than on-time and early maturation.
Table 2.
Means and standard deviations of all forms and dimensions of egocentrism as a function of pubertal status (level and timing).
Pubertal Level Pubertal Timing
Scales-Variables First Pubertal
n = 84
Late Pubertal
n = 168
Post Pubertal
n = 62
Early Maturation
n = 48
On-Time Maturation
n = 220
Late Maturation
n = 46
M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD M SD
Imaginary Audience Scale 1.74 .29 1.77 .30 1.88.33 1.87 .29 1.78 .30 1.74 .34
Abiding Self 1.68 .33 1.76 .37 1.89.42 1.81 .32 1.76 .38 1.76 .44
Transient Self 1.80 .42 1.78 .36 1.87.38 1.92 .42 1.79 .37 1.72 .39
New Imaginary Audience Scale 2.26 .39 2.21 .33 2.24.35 2.15 .37 2.23 .35 2.30 .33
Personal Fable Scale 1.76 .28 1.79 .25 1.69.20 1.75 .26 1.77 .25 1.72 .25
Speciality-Positive 1.73 .47 1.84 .50 1.77.51 1.76 .48 1.80 .49 1.80 .52
Speciality-Negative 1.90 .45 1.92 .48 1.84.47 1.87 .46 1.92 .47 1.83 .49
Invulnerability-Pos. 1.81 .50 1.81 .47 1.74.39 1.70 .46 1.82 .46 1.75 .47
Invulnerability-Neg. 1.53 .51 1.60 .45 1.53.42 1.62 .50 1.56 .46 1.53 .46
Risk Taking-Pos. 1.69 .58 1.74 .52 1.60.48 1.76 .50 1.71 .52 1.57 .51
Risk Taking-Neg. 1.76 .49 1.74 .51 1.56.48 1.65 .48 1.72 .51 1.75 .54
New Personal Fable Scale 2.46 .34 2.52 .36 2.45.38 2.46 .33 2.51 .34 2.45 .44
Uniqueness 2.57 .60 2.73 .57 2.69.58 2.66 .65 2.71 .57 2.56 .58
Omnipotence 2.57 .50 2.63 .47 2.60.48 2.62 .48 2.61 .46 2.56 .57
Invulnerability 2.28 .33 2.22 .43 2.10.39 2.14 .40 2.22 .39 2.24 .46
Note: Imaginary audience scale, Personal fable scale: 1 - 3; New imaginary audience scale, New personal fable scale: 1 - 4.
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E. P. GALANAKI
Figure 1.
Means of abiding self subscale as a function of gender and puber-
tal timing.
Figure 2.
Means of transient self subscale as a function of gender and puber-
tal timing.
Figure 3.
Means of imaginary audience as a function of grade and pubertal
timing.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Timing MANOVA for the
Personal Fable (Speciality-Positive, Speciality-Negative, Invul-
nerability-Positive, Invulnerability-Negative, Risk Taking-Posi-
tive, Risk Taking-Negative) showed a marginally significant
multivariate Gender × Pubertal Timing interaction: Pillais
= .07, F(12, 572) = 1.65, p < .07. Univariate tests indicated a
statistically significant interaction effect only on Speciality-
Positive: F(2, 290) = 4.21, p < .05. Figure 4 shows that,
whereas among girls there are no mean differences for pubertal
timing, among boys late maturers have higher speciality scores
than on-time and early maturers.
Figure 4.
Means of speciality-positive as a function of gender and pubertal
timing.
A Gender × Grade × Pubertal Timing MANOVA for the
Personal Fable (Uniqueness, Omnipotence, Invulnerability)
showed no statistically significant multivariate Gender × Pu-
bertal Timing interaction: Pillais = .03, F(6, 578) = 1.48, ns.
However, univariate tests indicated a marginally significant
interaction effect on Omnipotence: F(2, 290) = 2.89, p < .06.
Figure 5 shows that, whereas among boys late maturers have
higher scores on omnipotence than early and on-time maturers,
among girls late maturers have lower scores on this dimension
of the personal fable than early and on-time maturers.
Imaginary A u di e n ce / P e rs o nal Fable and Formal
Operational Level
Means and standard deviations of all variables as a function
of formal operational level are presented in Table 3.
A Gender × Grade × Formal Operational Level MANOVA
for the Imaginary Audience (Abiding Self and Transient Self)
showed a marginally significant multivariate effect of Formal
Operational Level: Pillais = .03, F(4, 582) = 2.18, p < .07.
Univariate tests indicated a statistically significant main effect
only on Transient Self, F(2, 291) = 4.38, p < .05. Post-hoc
Scheffé comparisons indicated that adolescents in the middle
formal level had significantly higher scores than those in the
early formal and late formal level on self-consciousness as re-
gards transient aspects of the self.
A Gender × Grade × Formal Operational Level ANOVA for
the Imaginary Audience as object relational ideation (NIAS)
showed a marginally significant effect of Formal Operational
Level, F(1, 291) = 2.47, p < .08. Post-hoc Scheffé comparisons
indicated that adolescents in the early formal level had signifi-
cantly higher scores than those in the middle formal level on
object relational ideation.
Discussion
The contribution of this study was to test Elkind’s (1967,
1970, 1978) model of adolescent egocentrism, by assessing
both the role of pubertal development (level and timing), which
has been systematically neglected by other researchers, and
formal operational thought.
The expected age trends for imaginary audience and personal
fable (Hypothesis 1) were not found. Self-consciousness as
regards the adolescent’s reluctance to reveal more permanent
aspects of the self appeared to increase with age—and this is an
unexpected finding, although it is found in some other studies
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462
E. P. GALANAKI
Table 3.
Means and standard deviations of all forms and dimensions of egocentrism as a function of formal operational level.
Formal Operational Level
Scales-Variables Early Formal
n = 70
Middle Formal
n = 124
Late Formal
n =120
M SD M SD M SD
Imaginary Audience Scale 1.74 .28 1.83 .28 1.76 .33
Abiding Self 1.68 .37 1.78 .36 1.80 .40
Transient Self 1.81 .38 1.88 .35 1.72 .40
New Imaginary Audience Scale 2.32 .38 2.19 .32 2.21 .35
Personal Fable Scale 1.76 .24 1.76 .25 1.77 .25
Speciality-Positive 1.78 .43 1.75 .51 1.85 .50
Speciality-Negative 1.91 .48 1.93 .48 1.86 .46
Invulnerability-Positive 1.85 .50 1.75 .45 1.81 .46
Invulnerability-Negative 1.54 .48 1.64 .49 1.50 .42
Risk Taking-Positive 1.70 .52 1.63 .50 1.77 .56
Risk Taking-Negative 1.72 .50 1.73 .52 1.69 .50
New Personal Fable Scale 2.54 .35 2.44 .39 2.51 .32
Uniqueness 2.74 .58 2.62 .60 2.70 .60
Omnipotence 2.61 .48 2.56 .49 2.65 .46
Invulnerability 2.29 .33 2.18 .43 2.20 .40
Note: Imaginary audience scale, Personal fable scale: 1 - 3; New imaginary audience scale, New personal fable scale: 1 - 4.
Figure 5.
Means of omnipotence as a function of gender and pubertal timing.
(Adams & Jones, 1981; Cohn et al., 1988; Goossens et al., 1992,
study 1; Peterson, & Roscoe, 1991; Rycek et al., 1998). It
seems that there is a heightened preoccupation with the self at
the end of the adolescent period and the beginning of adulthood,
a quite normative reaction of the adolescent in front of the de-
velopmental tasks of identity formation and individuation.
The absence of any systematic age trend for all other mani-
festations and dimensions of egocentrism is a disturbing result,
but similar to other research findings (Goossens, 1984, study 1;
Gray & Hudson, 1984; Hudson & Gray, 1986; Jahnke & Blan-
chard-Fields, 1993; Lapsley et al., 1986, study 1; Peterson,
1982; Richter et al., 1982). This finding and the fact that self-
consciousness increases with age support the view that the ima-
ginary audience at least may fluctuate during adolescence as a
function of the individual’s attempt to cope with developmental
transitions and life events (Aalsma et al., 2006; Bjorklund &
Green, 1992; Lapsley & Aalsma, 2006). These fluctuations are
not accounted for by Elkind’s (1967, 1970, 1978) model.
Systematic gender differences emerged from the data of this
study, confirming in general Hypothesis 2. Self-consciousness
is higher among girls, and this is consistent with findings from
several other investigations (Elkind & Bowen, 1979; Goossens,
1984, study 2; Goossens et al., 1992, studies 1 and 2; Gray &
Hudson, 1984; Hauck et al., 1986; Hudson & Gray, 1986;
Markstrom & Mullis, 1986; Montgomery, 2005; Pesce &
Harding, 1986; Richter et al., 1982; Riley et al., 1984; Ryan &
Kuczkowski, 1994; Rycek et al., 1998). Object relational idea-
tion and various dimensions of the personal fable (i.e., special-
ity, invulnerability, omnipotence, and risk taking) are higher
among boys, independent of age (similar findings by Anolik,
1981; Goossens et al., 2002; Greene et al., 1996; Lapsley et al.,
1989; Lechner & Rosenthal, 1984). These findings may be
attributed to the differential socialization of boys and girls,
which is still common in the Greek society. Girls are usually
brought up to place much emphasis on interpersonal relation-
ships, on feelings about relationships and about self in rela-
tionships, therefore they have higher self-consciousness scores
than boys. On the other hand, boys are expected to value
strength, physical power, athletic abilities, risk taking and lead-
ership in the peer group. Therefore, they have higher personal
fable scores and marginally higher imaginary audience scores
than girls—when the imaginary audience is in the form of ob-
ject relational fantasies that include the above domains of life.
Elkind (1967, 1970, 1978) hypothesized a peak of egocen-
trism in the beginning of the adolescent’s “physiological meta-
morphosis” (Hypothesis 3). This peak was found, but only for
one dimension of the personal fable, that is, risk taking with
negative anticipated consequences. This finding is contrary to
existing research data (Cohn et al., 1988; Hansell et al., 1986)
indicating a peak of the imaginary audience, personal fable, and
introspection in the more advanced pubertal levels, although
Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 463
E. P. GALANAKI
this peak may simply reflect an age effect.
Pubertal timing, though, is a stronger correlate of the imagi-
nary audience and the personal fable experience than the level
of pubertal development per se. Surprisingly, there is no other
research examining this association. The hypothesis that ima-
ginary audience and personal fable are higher among adoles-
cents who deviate from their age mates as to their pubertal de-
velopment (Hypothesis 4) is partially confirmed. Early pubertal
maturation was associated with increased self-consciousness
both for permanent and for transient aspects of the self, but only
among boys. Self-consciousness was higher among girls and
was found to increase with age, perhaps showing a more mature
response to the challenges of adolescence. Thus, the finding
that early-maturing boys are those who experience the most
heightened self-consciousness may simply reflect that these
boys are, in general, more mature than their age mates whose
pubertal development remains behind. This explanation is fur-
ther supported by the frequent finding of other investigations
that early maturation is an advantage for boys (and not for girls)
(Silbereisen & Kracke, 1993; Simmons & Blyth, 1987; for a
recent review see Susman & Dorn, 2009).
Imaginary audience, in the form of interpersonal fantasies, is
more common among late-maturing adolescents, but this holds
only for late adolescence (twelfth grade). It is reasonable to
hypothesize that older adolescents feel more vulnerable than
younger ones when they face late maturation, and develop
compensatory mechanisms, such as fantasies of admiration and
acceptance, with which they attempt to cope with this deviance
from the age norm.
Furthermore, late maturation is associated with facets of the
personal fable, such as, among boys, speciality for positive cha-
racteristics and omnipotence. In contrast, late maturation
among girls is associated with less intense omnipotence than
early and on-time maturation. The fact that late pubertal matu-
ration is a more negative situation for boys than for girls has
long ago been documented by several research studies in
Europe and the USA (e.g., Alsaker, 1992; Brooks-Gunn, 1988;
Simmons & Blyth, 1987; for reviews see Brooks-Gunn &
Reiter, 1990 and Susman & Dorn, 2009). The link between
deviant pubertal timing and egocentrism among boys holds
only for personal fable, as this form of egocentrism is more
frequent among boys than girls. However, we should take into
account that the above interactions between gender and pubertal
timing are marginally significant.
This study failed to find the expected links of egocentrism
with formal operations (Hypothesis 5), yet some expected links
were found and were all independent of age. Only self-con-
sciousness as a reluctance to reveal transient aspects of the self
in front of an audience seemed to be higher among adolescents
functioning at the middle formal operational level than at the
early formal and late formal level. This curvilinear pattern is
consistent with Elkind’s hypothesis: formal operations have
emerged, but they are not yet consolidated, therefore they be-
come sources of egocentric errors. The imaginary audience in
the form of interpersonal fantasies is somewhat heightened
among adolescents in the early formal level. This finding can
also be accounted for by Elkind’s theory, as the onset of formal
operations may also play an important role in the emergence of
egocentrism. However, one must take into account that in this
level were classified adolescents who were likely to operate
still in the concrete level, at least on some occasions. Concrete
thought has been regarded as adequate for the adolescent’s
psychosocial adjustment (Bart, 1983; Blasi & Hoeffel, 1974)
and, besides, not all adolescents reach the level of formal op-
erational thought. We should also remember that this finding is
marginally significant.
The hypothesized interaction between pubertal development
and cognitive development (Hypothesis 6) was not supported
by the data of this study. The observed links of these two vari-
ables with imaginary audience and personal fable appear to be
independent of one another, and this finding is contrary to El-
kind’s (1967, 1970, 1978) hypothesis about the joint role pu-
berty and thought play in the emergence of egocentrism.
In this study, which was conducted in the Greek culture, El-
kind’s hypothesis received partial support. The expected con-
nection between adolescent egocentrism on the one hand and
pubertal and cognitive development on the other was found, but
only for some forms and dimensions of egocentrism. Elkind’s
theory cannot explain the fact that nearly all the egocentrism
dimensions are differentially associated with age, gender, pu-
bertal development and formal operational thought. This im-
plies that adolescent egocentrism is a multifaceted-multidi-
mensional construct, and that its dimensions need further con-
ceptual clarification. Also, Elkind’s theory cannot account for
the increase of the imaginary audience in the form of self-con-
sciousness during late adolescence, and for the systematic gen-
der differences in imaginary audience and personal fable.
Results imply the necessity of a broader model for the ex-
planation of adolescent egocentrism than that of Elkind, one
that possibly includes psychodynamic changes and social fac-
tors. If we assume, for example, that late-maturing boys who
have high omnipotence scores seem to use some kind of com-
pensatory or defensive mechanism (Hill & Lapsley, 2011), and
that differential socialization seems to be responsible for the
gender differences, which are not predicted by Elkind’s hy-
pothesis, we understand why it is important to include other
factors in the explanatory model of imaginary audience and
personal fable. Therefore, the findings of this study justify the
search for an alternative model, such as the “New Look” model
described by Lapsley and his associates (Lapsley, 1993; Lap-
sley & Rice, 1988), a model that includes such factors (and
received support in a recent study among Greek adolescents;
Galanaki & Christopoulos, 2011). At the same time though, we
should not ignore the findings of investigations such as this one,
which provide some support for the contribution of pubertal
and cognitive factors in the emergence of the imaginary audi-
ence and personal fable experience, and thus point the necessity
of including these factors in a future integrative model.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank N. Lianou, E. Papageorgiou,
and G. Papagiannopoulos for their assistance in data collection
and coding.
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