Early adolescents' levels of cognition and personal fable ideation as related to lesson activities in decision-making skills

This study sought to view the constructs of formal operational thinking and personal fable ideation and their relation to each other as well as their relation to decision-making skills activities in teacher-provided lesson plans at the seventh grade level. Data was collected from four sources; 1) the student completed New Personal Fable Survey; 2) the student completed Arlin Test of Formal Reasoning; 3) teacher-provided lesson plans dealing with decision-making skills; and 4) expert analysis of these lesson plans for evidence of required student cognitive skills. As a result of this data collection and subsequent data analysis, it was found that the majority (71.4%) of the seventh grade students functioned at the concrete or high-concrete level of thought. The majority of lesson plans (60%) required students to use formal operations during the lesson. Students (96.4%) also showed high levels of personal fable ideation, which was correlated to formal operational thinking at r = .92. Young adolescents are primarily concrete thinkers who also have high levels of personal fable ideation. Because of this students are unaware that they are missing the complexities and subtleties associated with the complex decision-making of high-risk behaviors. A secondary finding was noted in the considerable variation among evaluators regarding what constituted formal operational thinking as found in the lesson plans. Further research will be required to establish the source of this variance. The conclusions are limited to the sample investigated. Young adolescents, who: 1) are primarily concrete thinkers are being asked to accomplish lesson objectives that, at times, are beyond their cognitive reach at the formal operational level; 2) have high levels of personal fable ideation, do not successfully internalize lesson plan objectives intended to reduce participation in high risk behaviors; 3) are primarily concrete thinkers, and who have high levels of personal fable ideation, are unaware that they are missing the complexities and subtleties associated with the complex decision-making of high risk behaviors. Students, in their egocentric thought, believe that they completely understand all of the factors surrounding the situation and that they can control them simply because they have some basic knowledge.