Thinking of themselves as the center of attention, the adolescent comes to believe that it is because they are special and unique.”[1] It is found during the formal operational stage in Piagetian theory, along with the imaginary audience.
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."
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.
[3] 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).
Elkind described an operation as a "mental tool whose products, series, class hierarchies, conservations, etc., are not directly derived from experience."
[4] 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).
[9] 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).
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.
[6] 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.
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[7] It has been established that speciality and invulnerability are significant predictors of risk.
A valid and reliable measure of the personal fable would be an invaluable aid to assessing adolescent risk-taking potential and preventive intervention.
In fact, omnipotence is suggested to act as a protective factor, allowing for superior adjustment, high coping skills and self-worth.
Research has focused significantly more on the personal fable's negative effects and it is important to consider pursuing omnipotence to capitalize on its positive results.
Although pre-contemplative smokers (individuals believing they do not exhibit any problem behavior) revealed high levels of omnipotence, ex-smokers did as well.
The adolescent needs to be involved in the decision-making process by being presented with a message encouraging discussion and deep elaboration of behaviors and their outcomes.
Where egocentrism revolves around the individual and everything in relation to one's own perspective, theory of mind allows for the inclusion of the fact that other people have differing viewpoints.
The third component of self-compassion is mindfulness, which involves holding one's present-moment experience in balanced perspective rather than exaggerating the dramatic story-line of one's suffering.
[21] At the same time, personal fable is theorized to lead to a lack of self-compassion if one's difficulties and failings are not faced and given meaning to be human.
[23] She goes on to further explain that self-compassion has three main components: "(a) self-kindness – being kind and understanding toward oneself in instances of pain or failure rather than being harshly self-critical, (b) common humanity – perceiving one's experiences as part of the larger human experience rather than seeing them as separating and isolating, (c) mindfulness – holding painful thoughts and feelings in balanced awareness rather than over-identifying with them.
She asserts that self-compassion is "not based on the performance evaluations of self and others or the congruence with ideal standard... it takes the entire self-evaluation process out of the picture, focusing on feelings of compassion toward oneself and the recognition of one's common humanity rather than making self-judgments".
Neff's studies also contend that those with high self-compassion have greater psychological health than those with lower levels of self-compassion, "because the inevitable pain and sense of failure that is experienced by all individuals is not amplified and perpetuated through harsh self-condemnation... this supportive attitude toward oneself should be associated with a variety of beneficial psychological outcomes, such as less depression, less anxiety, less neurotic perfectionism, and greater life satisfaction".
The results of their study shows "the problem-solving skills of adolescents change and improve with age as a function of cognitive development and social experience".
[25] With increasing opportunities to pursue higher education and greater delays in marriage and childbirth (Arnett, 2007), there is now more time, beyond adolescence, for activities and reflections surrounding self-definition and identity development.
Elkind though thought that the extension period for identity exploration and less pressure to take on typical adult roles teens are special and invulnerable, but are not feeling on center stage as often felt by the adolescents.
Increase in personal fable ideation, feelings of invulnerability, among emerging adults may explain the heightened level of maladaptive behaviors among this group.
[26] Young adults have to be able to cope with an identity crisis, at the same time knowing that personal fable is driving them to risky behaviors.
The persistence of the personal fable could contribute to continued risk-taking behavior even though that age group physically appears to be adult.