Analysis

The New Personal Fable Scale is a tool designed for the assessment of the “personal fable” phenomenon described in developmental psychology. The personal fable refers to adolescents’ (and sometimes adults’) belief that they are unique, exceptional, and that their experiences are different from those of others. This fable is often associated with the sense that individuals are inaccessible to others and that their lives are more dramatic or significant. The new scale may include updated questions and subscales for better measurement of the tendency toward the personal fable and the related emotions or beliefs.

Objective

The objective of the NPFS is to measure the extent to which an individual believes that their life is unique or special compared to others, and to examine how the personal fable affects the psychological development of adolescents, including issues of self-esteem, social interaction, and emotional thinking style.

Scoring

Scoring usually involves completing items on a Likert scale. The total score is derived from the cumulative evaluation of the responses, with higher scores indicating a stronger tendency toward the personal fable.

References

Elkind, D. (1967). “Egocentrism in Adolescence.” Child Development, 38(4), 1025-1034.
Elkind, D. (1984). The Child’s Reality: Understanding and Helping Children. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 13(5), 285-299.
Smetana, J. G. (1995). “Adolescents’ Reasoning about Conflict with Parents: Relations between Perceptions of Parental Authority and Adolescents’ Moral Reasoning.” Child Development, 66(6), 1740-1757.
Steinberg, L., & Silverberg, S. B. (1986). “The Development of Adolescent Autonomy.” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 4(2), 31-34.
Perry, D. G. (1988). “The Role of Cognitive Development in the Evolution of Adolescent Egocentrism.” In Development during Adolescence, 251-275.