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Adolescence is often seen as a stage where risk taking and experimentation are common. The need to feel a part of one’s peer group, to be valued as an individual and to overcome physical and emotional changes are all part of this developmental stage. This research examines the link between Elkind’s theory of Egocentrism and risk taking in female adolescents. Risk taking and its links to the Personal Fable and the Imaginary Audience were the main focus of the research. This study used a qualitative research design to obtain an in-depth understanding of risk taking among a sample group of ten female adolescents. A focus group from a different school was used to help analyse and discuss the data obtained. The results of this study show that Elkind’s theory of adolescent Egocentrism (both the Personal Fable and the Imaginary Audience) are, indeed, influencing factors in female adolescent risk taking.

This essay examines the connection between children's religiosity and their cognitivedevelopment and what impact this has on how children understand religious conceptssuch as God and Bible stories. The problem formulation of this thesis is how doeschildren’s cognitive understanding affect their perception of christian God and Biblestories, according to religious psychological theories with cognitive development as afocal point. To try to answer this problem formulation, the working questions are focusedon children's cognitive development, their understanding of the concept of God and whatpossibilities or limitations children's cognitive understanding give to their understandingof biblical stories.This is a comparative study that compares four different theories on psychology ofreligion, to form an understanding of the view of children's cognitive religiousdevelopment. These theories are developed by Ronald Goldman, David Elkind, James WFowler and Justin L Barrett.The result of the analys on the cognitive development are organized into four differentstages to make it easier for the reader to understand. The most interesting find about thecognitive development is that all the theories agree on that around the age of 12, childrenhave the cognitive ability to understand religion and God at the same level as a grown up.This is also one of the biggest possibilities the theories give on children’s understandingof biblical stories.The discussion in the essay focuses on three points: natural theology, the concept of Godand problematic studies. Are children born religious or do they become so? Is it biologicalor sociological factors that create religiosity? Is there a difference between understandingGod and understanding God's theological significance? This essay answers manyinteresting questions, but also creates new possibilities in expanding the subject.

The Church of Sweden often states that children have a special position in the church, and this statement is the basis of this essay. This essay evaluates the special position that children is said to have in the church and what role children’s religious and cognitive understanding have in this special position. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the Church of Sweden’s knowledge of children's cognition and how they apply this knowledge in their work with children. To analyze this special position I use material created by the Church of Sweden, such as propositions for the church meeting, episcopal letter, statements and other publications made by the Church of Sweden. This essay looks at how the church is run on a national level, and on the level of the diocesans and the parishes. The data collected on how the Church of Sweden runs its operation regarding their education of children are then analyzed based on theories from the Psychology of Religion. These theories are from Jean Piaget, Ronald Goldman, David Elkind, James W. Fowler and Justin L. Barrett. This essay also examines the ages of children that the different parishes in Umeå uses to select when children should receive their first children’s bible, and how different theories on cognitive development relate to these ages. There is an awareness, within the Church of Sweden, of how theories and methods from the psychology of religion can help with the teaching of Christian faith. To date, there has been a lot of talk and wishes from the Church of Sweden to make the change needed to provide better education to children in regards to their cognitive understanding, but the implementation of this change has so far been moving slowly.