According to Alberts, Elkind, and Ginsberg the personal fable "is the corollary to the imaginary audience. Thinking of themselves as the center of attention, the adolescent comes to believe that it is because they are special and unique". It is found during the formal operational stage in Piagetian theory, along with the imaginary audience. Feelings of invulnerability are also common. The term "personal fable" was first coined by the psychologist David Elkind in his 1967 work Egocentrism in Adolescence.
Feelings of uniqueness may stem from fascination with one's own thoughts to the point where an adolescent believes that their thoughts or experiences are completely novel and unique when compared to the thoughts or experiences of others. This belief stems from the adolescent's inability to differentiate between the concern(s) of their thoughts from the thoughts of others, while simultaneously over-differentiating their feelings. Thus, an adolescent is likely to think that everyone else (the imaginary audience) is just as concerned with them as they are; while at the same time, this adolescent might believe that they are the only person who can possibly experience whatever feelings they might be experiencing at that particular time and that these experiences are unique to them. According to David Elkind (1967), an adolescent's intense focus on oneself as the center of attention is what ultimately gives rise to the belief that one is unique, and in turn, this may give rise to feelings of invulnerability. Ultimately, the two marked characteristics of personal fable are feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability. Or as David Elkind states, "this complex of beliefs in the uniqueness of (the adolescent's) feelings and of his or her immortality might be called a 'personal fable', a story which he or she tells himself and which is not true."
Early literature on adolescent egocentrism and cognitive development Elkind's work with the personal fable stemmed from Piaget's theory of cognitive development, which describes egocentrism as a lack of differentiation in a given area of subject-object interaction.Piaget, J. (1962). Comments on Vygotsky's critical remarks concerning "The language and thought of the child" and "Judgment and reasoning in the child". Cambridge Mass: M.I.T Press. According to Elkind, in conjunction with Piaget's theory, adolescent egocentrism is to be understood in the context of ontogeny (referring to the development of an organism across its lifespan). These ontogenetic changes in egocentrism are thought to drive the development of logical and formal operational thinking. Elkind described an operation as a "mental tool whose products, series, class hierarchies, conservations, etc., are not directly derived from experience." However, a child in the concrete operational stage is not able to differentiate between these mental constructs and reality (their experiences). For instance, a child in the concrete operational stage may understand that a dog is an animal, but not all animals are dogs; however, the child is not able to grasp a hypothetical concept such as "suppose that dogs were humans". The child is likely to respond "but dogs aren't humans, they are animals."
According to Elkind, the onset of adolescent egocentrism is brought on by the emergence of the formal operational stage, which allows the adolescent to mentally construct hypotheses that are contrary to reality.Inhelder, Barbel, and Jean Piaget. The growth of logical thinking from childhood to adolescence. New York: n.p., 1958. It is at the onset of adolescence that the individual is "freed" from the confines of concrete thought, and begins to be able to grasp abstract or hypothetical concepts (thus the formal operational way of thinking arises). Here, the individual is now able to imagine the hypothetical situation involving dogs as humans and not animals. Thus, the individual is also able to imagine, and even come to believe, hypothetical situations in which everyone is as concerned with them as they are, and in which they are unique and invulnerable when compared to others. Such contrary-to-fact propositions are what characterize the personal fable.
Egocentrism and the formal operational stage of cognition
ElkindSmetana, J. G., & Villalobos, M. (2009). Social Cognitive Development in Adolescence. In Lerner, R. M., & Steinberg, L. (Eds.). (2009). Handbook of adolescent psychology. Volume 1: Individual bases of adolescent development (3rd Ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc proposed the concept of teenage egocentrism, which he believes occurs during the transition to Piaget's formal operational stage of cognition (the ultimate stage in which the individual is capable of abstract thinking: hypothetical and deductive reasoning). Although the construct is still widely used in research today, there is no evidence that adolescent egocentrism follows any age-related pattern (as would be implied by the assumption that it disappears when adolescents enter the formal operational stage, a stage that some individuals never reach).
In early, middle, and late adolescence
The onset of adolescent egocentrism tends to occur at about age 11–13 which is considered early adolescence. Since an adolescent is thought to develop the formal operational stage of thinking during this time, the personal fable phenomenon is thought to develop as well. There are studies that support this hypothesis, showing that it is during early adolescence that the personal fable is most prominent (this includes both the uniqueness and invulnerability aspects of personal fable). It has also been shown that both feelings of uniqueness and invulnerability increase significantly from age 11 to age 13.
Middle adolescence is generally considered to be around the age range of 14–16. Past research has demonstrated that personal fable peaks at about age 13 during early adolescence. It has also been speculated that the personal fable phenomenon ought to decline as one moves into middle and then late adolescence.
Late adolescence is considered to range from the age of 17 to about 23. Although Elkind (1967) speculated that the personal fable tends to decrease in late adolescence, there had been evidence of a possible re-emergence of the personal fable (or at least adolescent egocentrism) during late adolescence. It is hypothesized that this re-occurrence of adolescent egocentrism may act as a coping mechanism during the transition to new educational and social contexts (moving away to college, for example). Current research into the prevalence of the personal fable in late adolescence is not conclusive on this point. An additional study was done to analyze whether or not personal fable (and imaginary audience) decreased, increased, or remained stable across an age range from sixth grade to college. The results showed that there was no significant difference between age groups with regards to the personal fable phenomenon, although it did seem to decline slightly. Also, the results showed that the imaginary audience phenomenon seems to decrease as one ages, more so than personal fable. Furthermore, there was a study conducted to analyze the gender differences with regards to the chronicity (the pattern of the behavior across time) of the personal fable phenomenon across early, middle, and late adolescence. The results showed that the personal fable phenomenon, including invulnerability and uniqueness, tends to decrease as an individual moves into middle and late adolescence more so for females than for males.
Gender differences
There has been conflicting evidence of a slight difference between genders in the uniqueness aspect of personal fable. Specifically, females seem to have a higher sense of uniqueness than male adolescents. However, there has also been conflicting evidence suggesting that adolescent boys tend to feel unique more often than adolescent girls. The study which found this conflicting evidence also found that male adolescents also felt more omnipotent (where the adolescent may feel that he is in complete control, all-powerful, and knows everything) when compared to girls. There is presently no knowledge of replication of this finding. Another study found that there was no significant difference between male and female adolescents with regards to the personal fable in general. In regards to the invulnerability aspect of the personal fable, it appears that boys tend to have higher instances of feelings pertaining to invulnerability and risk-taking than girls do. With feelings of invulnerability, it can be said that an adolescent is more likely to participate in risk behavior. A study was done to analyze the role gender plays in sexual risk-taking. The results indicated that females had a higher instance of sexual risk taking (which involved sexual intercourse at a younger age and not using contraception). This finding is somewhat incongruent with the finding that boys tend to have higher feelings of invulnerability (and thus risk-taking behavior) than girls.
Risk-taking in adolescence
Adolescence was once believed to be a time of stress and turmoil. Although this is sometimes the case, research has shown that most adolescents rate their experiences as enjoyable and that the storm and stress of adolescence actually occurs at a fairly low rate and discontinuously.Vargas Lascano, D. (2012). Adolescents' Cognitive Development [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from University of Alberta PSYCO 327 eClass site. Nonetheless, adolescence is still a time of significant change and development on all levels (psychological, social and biological). Along with all these changes adolescents are faced with situations in which they must make important choices and decisions. Namely, decisions made regarding risky behaviors become more prevalent at this time. Adolescents are faced with decisions on whether to make an effort to have safe sex and how to react to peer pressure regarding substance abuse.
Research suggests that when faced with a decision, adolescents perceive risks but they do not incorporate these into their decision making process. It has been suggested that egocentrism plays a significant role in this lack of risk evaluation. The widespread effect of the correlation between the personal fable and risk-taking behaviors is evident when we consider it has been identified in various cultures, such as the Japanese culture. A study done among Japanese college students found a direct path from egocentrism to health-endangering behaviors. Thus, even though universality can in no way be assumed, it is noteworthy that the correlation has been identified in different parts of the world.
Support for the hypothesis that egocentrism, and the personality fable more specifically, predict risk-taking behaviors is considerable in North America. In fact, the personal fable is commonly associated with risk-taking in research It has been established that speciality and invulnerability are significant predictors of risk. Research has found that egocentrism increased significantly with age and that the personal fable was positively correlated with risk-taking. Male students revealed significantly higher rates of invulnerability. The correlation between the personal fable and risk taking is considered to be of utmost importance. A valid and reliable measure of the personal fable would be an invaluable aid to assessing adolescent risk-taking potential and preventive intervention.
Potential positive factors of the personal fable