Egocentrism
Introduction
Egocentrism is a concept derived from Jean Pageant’s theory of development. Egocentrism mainly refers to the lack of differentiation of the aspect of self and another. The inability to understand other people’s views or opinions may be different from their own. According to the theories, egocentrism is evident at childhood and somehow spreads to adolescence and later diminishes when one develops a mature mind of adulthood. Everybody possesses egocentrism even though the levels vary from one individual to another. The egocentric individuals feel that their behavior draws attention to many and they always think of what others say about them. Egocentric people believe that their opinion is right and the other people do not deserve to give their views. Egocentrism and narcissism seem to be similar in many ways, but they don’t mean the same. Narcissist individual views himself extra worth and essential and can manipulate others to suit his interests.
How egocentric interests me
Egocentric to some extent is of great interest when one studies it in depth. The aspect of not recognizing other people’s opinions by egocentric people makes them look perfect on their thinking and decisions they make are always right. Of interest, the close friends, family members, and partners felt inferior and devalued since they are not given a chance to give their views on a particular matter. Sadness, anger, low-self- worth and self- doubt comes as a result of being close to an egocentric person.
Egocentrism has an impact on relationships wherein the person feels that every move or decision that he or she makes is noticed by others thus getting it difficult to create connections when their effort to do so fails. People in a relationship with egocentric people feel lonely in that relationship since their partners make critical decisions without involving them thus making them look devalued, useless and never seen in that relationship. They make plans and schedule without you, and of great interest, they seem uninterested when you need emotional comfort or encouragement. By so doing, the trust and intimacy are at risk besides the egocentric person feels that the relationship is smooth when the other partner feels excluded.
In most cases, I also get interested with the egocentric traits such as the course of knowledge whereby the experts of the topic tend to talk above others forgetting that there is a difference in the level of expertise they have compared to those around them. Again, the false consensus effect when we overestimate how much people share our perspective. Illusion transparency, on the other hand, when people feel others can see their emotional state through experience.
Outline of an argument
The newspaper editorial about kids these days are real egocentric; there is an argument that each generation thinks that the next is more self-centered. The evidence explains that America has steadily become egocentric over the years. An overall rise in economic prosperity has played an integral role in this egotism, people who were young adults during the financial hard times are less narcissistic compared to those from economic booms age.
Premises
The editorial has some assumptions that involve egocentrism. In this case, the core premise is that the kids these days are real egocentric. The young ones who are born when there is an economic boom in the nation their egotism are higher compared to the adults who were taken when the country was experiencing financial hardship.
What premises are missing?
The editorial beside highlighting the fundamental premises, some premises are missing. The minor assumptions such as the number of kids, the cities in which kids are egocentric and the social and economic background of the kids whose ego is high.
What is their conclusion?
The conclusion that is drawn from this editorial is that after an extensive studies conducted by many scholars concluded that from the text of the State of the Union addresses from 1790 to 22012, the egocentricity index for each speech from the president had increasing number of words that indicated self-interest such as “me”, “we”, or mother. After 1920 nearly all speech used interest words. Also, emerging adults during economic booms had a compensation that is 2.3 times higher than their second top executive and a difference of 1.7 for those who come of age in less prosperous times. The recent recession will probably temper narcissistic tendencies in today’s young adults.
The argument of the news-editorial can be said to be sound since it based on empirical studies that have a reliable outcome. Many kids in the digitalized error have a higher level of egocentrism compared to analog kids. The root of egotism is due to the economic boom that they are experiencing in their daily operations, unlike their counterparts who underwent financial hardship. The argument can be said to be a mixture of both inductive and deductive since it trains young adults on the necessary lifestyle free of ego and deduces the importance of avoiding narcissism and egocentrism.
Conclusion
People with egocentrism get it difficult to understand others opinion since they view their views as final and perfect. Relationships fail to work out especially when one partner is egocentric while the other is not. A partner without ego feel devalued, never involved in decision making and uncomfortable to operate with the egocentric partner since his views are of no value. In the workplace environment, the egocentric people get it challenging to create networks and work as a team because he differs with other teammates. According to Jean Pie giant development concept, ego is dominant in children, adolescent and young adults who mostly possess cognitive bias.