Taking Perspectives: Imaginary Friends and Shared Meaning

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Barton, Michelle

Keywords

Imaginary Friends, Shared Meaning, Children's Play

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

The current study investigated the abilities of children with and without imaginary companions to utilize verbal and behavioral techniques intended to share meaning with a play partner. Thirty preschoolers and their parents were interviewed about their imaginary friends. The two groups (children with and without imaginary friends) completed a problem solving task with the experimenter using a parachute game and a 10-minute free play session with a peer using pre-selected fantasy toys. The behavior and speech of the participants in both activities were coded for shared meaning techniques. It was found that the children without imaginary friends made significantly more shared meaning attempts in both behavior and speech of the problem solving task, contrary to expectations. Uneven groups in the free play task prevented statistical investigation, although the results led toward a possible pattern of higher complexity of pretend play among the imaginary friend group as well as increased shared meaning techniques. These results provide an important addition to the current research linking solitary play skills and social play, although this link should be explored further.

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