Reduction of Egocentricity (AQA GCSE Psychology): Revision Note
Exam code: 8182
Piaget's study of egocentrism
Egocentrism refers to the inability to see/understand that other people may have a different viewpoint to that of your own
This ‘different viewpoint’ can be:
physical (e.g. ‘I can see the cat from here so you must be able to see the cat too’)
psychological (e.g. ‘I want the cat to be my pet, why won’t you let me take the cat home with me?’)
Egocentrism is another marker of the pre-operational stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
Piaget claimed that children in the pre-operational stage cannot decentre, i.e. they cannot appreciate that not everyone will see/feel/think/want the same as them
Piaget & Inhelder (1956) tested egocentrism via a test known as the 3 Mountains Task, which runs as follows:
A child is shown a 3-D model of a landscape which includes three mountains and other features, e.g., an animal
A doll is placed opposite the child so that it is 'looking' at the model from a different perspective to that of the child
When asked what the doll sees, the child selects one picture from a collection of images that depict the mountains from various angles and describes the scene
Piaget and Inhelder found that four-year-olds almost always chose a picture that represented what they could see showing that children of this age were egocentric
Only at seven or eight years old did children consistently choose the picture that matched the doll’s viewpoint
The 3 Mountains Task tests a key developmental milestone because to pass it, the child must be able to decentre, which shows more maturity and sophisticated thinking
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners report that most students are able to describe theories/studies/explanations with accuracy and detail but their evaluation (AO3) is weaker - across all of the exam papers.
Some exam responses offer no evaluation at all, even when the question was specifically worded as ‘evaluate.’ So, remember to read each question carefully, and weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of a theory/study/explanation if you are asked to evaluate.
Hughes' (1975) ‘policeman doll’ study
Hughes (1975) devised this re-working of the classic 3 Mountains task as they thought that most children are not used to looking at mountain views hence the original task probably confused them (Piaget was Swiss - hence the use of mountains)
His aim was to create a test that would be more understandable to see if children could cope better with egocentrism tasks
30 children from Edinburgh aged 3.5 years to 5 years old comprised the sample
Each child was placed at a table on which was a model with two intersecting walls in the shape of a cross
The policeman doll was placed at the end of one wall so it would have a view of two sections of the cross, divided by the wall
The child was then asked to place a boy doll where the policeman doll could not see it
The child was told if they made a mistake and the task was repeated
The crucial part of the task was when the researcher added another policeman doll and put it in another location on the cross and the child was asked to place the boy doll where neither of the policeman dolls could see it
90% of the children successfully placed the boy doll in a location where the policeman dolls could not see it
Hughes concluded that the children were able to de-centre (they are not egocentric) because the task made sense to them
The researchers concluded that Piaget underestimated the cognitive abilities of children in the pre-operational stage as they were able to see from another person's perspective
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Hughes (1975) is a named study on the AQA specification, which means that you could be asked a specific question on it.
Evaluation of egocentrism
Strengths
Hughes’ study has high mundane realism as it uses a familiar scenario (a child playing with dolls/a game of hide and seek) which means that it has more validity than Piaget’s original 3 Mountains task
The standardised procedure of Hughes’ study means that it can be replicated to test for reliability
Weaknesses
The children in the study may have succumbed to demand characteristics (e.g., feeling as if they had to try extra hard) as they were in an artificial environment which would affect the study’s validity
The children in the study were from Edinburgh therefore, they did not represent all children between the ages of 3.5-5 years, suggesting that the results cannot be generalised to the wider population
Children from other cities or non-Western cultures may not be able to decentre to the same extent
Worked Example
Here is an example of a question you might be asked on this topic
AO3: You need to analyse and evaluate key concepts, ideas, theories and research.
Q. Evaluate Hughes’ (1975) ‘Policeman doll study’.
[5 marks]
Model answer:
One strength of the study is that asking children to hide a doll made the task familiar, engaging and meaningful to the children, which increases the mundane realism of the task and the external validity of the study
Hughes’ findings could be used to argue that children in the pre-operational stage are less egocentric than Piaget claimed and that it may have been his confusing and difficult choice of a mountainous landscape that acted as a confounding variable in his original research.
One weakness of the sample is that it cannot be generalised, as all of the participants came from Edinburgh; it is difficult to generalise these findings to explain cross-cultural egocentrism in young children
Another weakness of this study is that although it used a familiar task (e.g., a child playing with dolls/hide and seek), it still took place under lab conditions, which in turn hampers the validity of the findings
You've read 0 of your 5 free revision notes this week
Unlock more, it's free!
Did this page help you?
