Question

1. Explain what adolescent egocentrism is and how it affects a teen’s thinking. Then, utilize an additional source (other than your text) to provide tips for how frustrated parents can best deal with their teenager’s instances of poor judgment.

Answer 1

Adolescent egocentrism refers to adolescents' inability to distinguish between their perception of what others think about them and what people actually think in reality. It is the result of cognitive limitations and is manifested in adolescents' belief that others are highly attentive to their behavior and appearance. McCue (2018) makes the following recommendations for parents to deal with their teenagers' poor decision making:

• Being aware of upcoming events that may present teenagers with decisions that need to be made and listening to the teenagers' expectations of them.
• Present scenarios which may present a risk, or will require a decision and discuss healthy, or safer choices.
• Encouraging teenagers to stop and think during potentially problematic situations.
• Providing a decision-making compass for teenagers to consider all of the potential consequences of a situation,
• Reminding teenagers to ask for help and ensuring that they save contact details of reliable adults.
• Using mistakes as examples of learning opportunities and exploring possibilities of what can be done instead in the future.

References:

McCue, J. (2018). A parent’s guide to why teens make bad decisions. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/a-parents-guide-to-why-teens-make-bad-decisions-88246