Egocentrism is a characteristic associated with which stage of cognitive development?

• A. Sensorimotor Stage
• B. Preoperational Stage
• C. Concrete Operational Stage
• D. Formal Operational Stage

Answer: (B)

Egocentrism means viewing the world only from one's own perspective and assuming others see things the same way. In Piaget’s theory, this tendency is most characteristic of the preoperational stage, roughly ages 2 to 7. At this stage, children are very imaginative and language-rich, but they have difficulty taking another person’s point of view or understanding that others may see things differently. A classic example is the three-mountains task, where a child describes what they themselves see and assumes another person sees the same view, not recognizing different perspectives. As children move into the concrete operational stage, they begin to take others’ viewpoints and use logical thinking about concrete objects, marking a shift away from egocentric thinking.