Childhood Animacy

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Jean Piaget argued that, until the age of eleven or twelve, children were fundamentally animistic, the incapacity to be able to clearly differentiate between animate and inanimate objects. The paper presents a complete meta-research analysis into this theory, which reveals that the wide body of literature on the subject undermines Piaget's claims. The paper's findings illustrate that the development of this psychological concept occurs much earlier in the developmental process, even as early as age three or four. The paper concludes that, whatever Piaget's contributions to developmental studies, his conclusions on animacy must be abandoned in favor of the weight of academic discourse on the subject.

Table of Contents:
Abstract
Introduction
Method
Results
Discussion
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Dewart's (1979) research into language and animacy highlights the important point that Piaget's late development of a concept of animacy is incorrect. Similarly Schwartz (1980) found that a child's ability to judge a sentence anomalous was based on the preexisting knowledge of animacy. Working with young children and combined with Dewart, this study impressively pushes the development of a conception of animacy to at least preschool ages. Dewart found that children as young as five were able to determine animacy based on sentence structure."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dewart, M.H. (1979). Children's hypotheses about the animacy of actor and ob-ject nouns. British Journal of Psychology, 70(4), pp. 525-530.
• Dolgin, K., & Behrend, D. (1984). Children's knowledge about animates and in-animates. Child Development, 55(4), pp. 1646-1650.
• Greif, M.L., Nelson, D.G.K., Keil, F.C., and Gutierrez, F. (2006). What do chil-dren want to know about animals and artifacts? Psychological Science, 17(6), pp. 455-459.
• Inagaki, K. & Hatano, G. (2006). Young children's conception of the biological world. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(4), pp. 177-181.
• Inagaki, K., & Hatano, G. (1996). Young children's recognition of commonal-ities between animals and plants. Child Development, 67(6), pp. 2823-2840.

More papers on Childhood Animacy:

• Persuasive Essay # 124592 : "Diagnosing Childhood Mental Disorders"
• Persuasive Essay # 129660 : "Childhood Experience on Adult Personality"
• Comparison Essay # 121513 : "Freud vs. Erikson's Childhood Stages"

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