Question

When 13-year-old andre comes out of the locker room in his gym shorts, he hears some girls laughing nearby and assumes they are laughing at the way his legs look. according to elkind, andre's thinking reflects the operation of _____?

Answer 1

According to Elkind, this is Andre's imaginary audience.
As the term itself says, this audience doesn't really exist - Andre believes that he is the center of these girls' attention and that they are laughing at him, when in fact, that may not be the case. This is why his audience (those girls) are imaginary, as they may not even have seen him pass by.