Question

Carla, a bright, energetic 7-year-old, has lost four gloves during the past few weeks. Her mother is annoyed at the need to keep replacing gloves. Carla notices that her little brother is amused that Carla is in trouble, and she formulates the theory that her brother is stealing the gloves just to get her into trouble. Carla is convinced that she is right. She refuses to entertain her mother's suggestion that Carla is often so distracted that she does not keep track of her possessions. Carla is displaying a form of

a. egocentrism.
b. formal operational thought.
c. reversibility.
d. domain specific knowledge.

Answer 1

Carla's insistence that her brother is stealing her gloves without considering her mother’s different perspective is an example of egocentrism, a characteristic of Piaget's preoperational developmental stage, common in children around her age.

Step-by-step explanation:

Carla, a bright and energetic 7-year-old girl, is displaying a form of egocentrism when she insists that her little brother is stealing her gloves to get her into trouble and refuses to consider her mother's suggestion. Egocentrism refers to a child's inability to see a situation from another person's point of view. At Carla's age, according to Jean Piaget's stages of cognitive development, children are in the preoperational stage, where they often think that others see, think, and feel just as they do, and might struggle to understand other perspectives. Carla's refusal to acknowledge her mother's idea that she might be distracted and not keeping track of her possessions is a reflection of this stage of development, as she cannot yet easily take on the perspective that others might have different views or knowledge.