Role of Adolescent Egocentrism in Exposing Antisocial Personality Traits Among Children in Conflict with Law

Abstract

Elkind (1967) explained adolescent egocentrism as the root of self-focus and introduced the Imaginary audience and Personal fable (Vartanian, 2000). Adolescent egocentrism is linked to reckless actions, contributing to adolescents’ involvement in conflict with law (Galanaki, 2012).  The study explores the role of adolescent egocentrism in exposing antisocial personality traits among children in conflict with law. Children in conflict with the law (N=40), aged between 13 and 18 years, were selected from government observational homes in various parts of Tamil Nadu using a purposive sampling method. The DBD (Disruptive Behavior Disorders) rating scale (Pelhalm et al., 1992), is a screening process to recruit final participants (N=10). Those participants who have Disruptive Behavior Disorder underwent the semi-structured interview. A semi-structured interview was conducted based on the study’s objective by following the interview guide. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be used to determine the results of the participants’ responses. Findings suggest that the participants’ adolescent egocentrism directly influences them to expose their antisocial personality traits through distorted cognition, distorted self, and emotional aspects and indirectly through moral development, drug influence, and socialization. The present study gave more importance to the cognitive aspects of adolescents’ risky behavior.