The question of childhood egocentrism: the co-ordination of perspectives in relation to operational thinking

Abstract

To what extent is the concept of 'childhood egocentrism' valid? Piaget presents an account in which a child's ability to appreciate different points of view is intimately related to his capacity for operational thought. To examine this hypothesis, children aged from 3 to 7 years were presented with tasks requiring the co-ordination of visuo-spatial perspectives, and tests of operational thinking. Subjects in the pre-operational stage demonstrated an ability to co-ordinate viewpoints, but found certain forms of visuo-spatial problem relatively difficult. The significance of this for the concept of egocentrism and the analysis of role-taking is considered.