Children`s play with imaginary friends: An investigation of purposes

Children’s play with imaginary
friends: An investigation of
purposes served
ICCP Tallinn 2012
Dr. Karen Majors
Psychology and Human
Development
Contents
•Definitions of imaginary phenomenon
•Aims of research
•Findings and conclusions
2
Imaginary phenomena
Imaginary companion (ic)
‘An ‘invisible’ character, named and referred to in conversation with
other persons or played with directly for a period of time, at least
several months, having an air of reality for the child but no apparent
objective basis. This excludes the type of imaginative play in which an
object is personified, or in which the child assumes the role of some
person in his environment’ Svendsen (1934)
Personified object
Imaginary identity/impersonation
Paracosm
3
Who has imaginary companions?
Young children aged 3-5 years
Children referred to clinicians re emotional/psychological issues
School aged children (normative population)
Children with language and learning difficulties
Young people with Down Syndrome
Young people with Asperger syndrome
4
Reported incidence
Pearson et al (2001)
1800 children aged 5-12. 829, 46.2% reported past and/or
present ics.
Reporting declined with age:
33%-43% of children aged 5-9 years reported current ics.
19% of children aged 10 years reported current ics.
9% of 12 year olds reported current ics.
5
Aims
1 To explore the characteristics of imaginary companions
(ICs) created by a sample of school aged children
2 To determine the range of purposes they served for the
children
6
Analysis
Antonio Age 5
Britten A boy 12 years
‘ he likes riding on his motorbike’
‘Britten is always good’
‘Britten eats good food’
‘He doesn’t like being called nasty names’’ ’‘
Ridey A boy 8 years
‘Ridey’s really naughty, he always smacks me’
Ridey has his own imaginary friend, Harvey.
7
Buzzie A boy 6 years
‘Buzzie’s ill today so he’s not here’
‘I know why because he doesn’t eat
vegetables’
‘He’s always ill but the problem is he can’t
– he can feel the vomit coming out when
his vomit comes out he will see, you can
actually see all the bad food he’s eaten’
8
Harry Age 6
Barnaby Bear Male adult
‘He’s brown like normal bears’
‘He usually does a lot of writing in his
diary...words that are important in
space books’
9
Harry Age 6
Manager Male 20 years
‘He has a life of his own’
‘Me and manager are the only bosses
in my club’
‘He’s one of my best friends-one of
them’
Ducky Male 15 years
‘Me and Ducky have something in
common because Ducky’s got flat feet
and I’ve got flat feet’
10
Lisa Age 6
Minty Imaginary pony age 5 years
‘I got a toy about her and one completely pretend’
‘She likes bubble gum. Yes because it makes her mouth exercise’
11
John Age 8
Tom
‘He is 17 or 13. I always think of him as a teenager’
‘He’s got a very fiery temper’
‘He likes game-boy same as me and my brother’
‘He’s very similar to me’
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Carmel Age 10
Tinton and Dubbish Boys age 7
‘They’re that tiny, they’re not big. But I can see them and no one else
can see them’
‘It’s like they’re the key or something because I can tell them secrets
and know they’ll be safe with them’
13
Holly, Tara and Ella Age 11
Holly’s IFs: A pony called Dream who is dependable, listens, is non
compliant and has a life away from Holly.
Tara has two horses called Fantazia and Tom who are friendly,
dependable, non compliant.
Ella’s IF, Polly is based on a real person. She is friendly and
dependable and has an independent will.
Characteristics of IFs: Summary
•Most IFs had positive characteristics/qualities. They were
dependable, listened to the child and liked playing and talking
with the child.
•IFs sometimes showed a degree of independence of will.
•Some children spoke of having things in common with their
IFs.
•Some imaginary friends were more private and/or a secret
shared with select others.
15
Children’s interactions and play with
IFs included:
Having business meetings with their IF
Stroking the IF’s fur
Playing games
Having adventures
Riding a pony
Talking to the IF
Teaching/directing/nurturing the IF
Sometimes play with IFs was closely related to what was happening in
their lives.
16
Purposes served by the children’s
imaginary companions
Main themes and illustrative quotes:
Overcome boredom/loneliness/companion
Lisa Age 6:
‘she always plays with me and keeps me company’
Ella: Age 11
‘And when I talk to her she’s very interested all the time.’
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Enjoyment/entertainment
Holly Age 11: ‘Yes, I play this game with my friend, um we
had this walk and we got lost in the forest and I used her for
that and I used her for a lot of games as well.’
She also recalled time spent with imaginary twin Lily:
‘And we used to go on adventures… And she had a pink
Convertible…
Karen: So she could drive?
Holly: Yes (laughs) she had a licence! (giggles)
She comments later:
‘I should remember them again, because they were so fun.’
Wish fulfilment
Tara Age 11
‘But for instance if you don’t have a pet …So I think that
maybe why. But if you like um don’t have an animal then it’s
like you can see why and you want an animal.
Like I’m desperate to get an animal.’
20
Emotional support/support re difficult
situations
Antonio Age 5:
‘…I need Britten…it’s lucky I’ve got Britten here’
Harry Age 6:
‘.. I was swimming along and I was swimming a width and then I thought I
would do another one with my imaginary friend and I did and I needed it to be
a swimming one so I chose a duck’
‘When he tells me lots of things that have nothing to do with me even, and
then that’s the thing that helps me do it’
‘At first I thought it was going to be really hard but I’m good at it’
21
Carmel Age 10:
‘..I would just play with them and I would tell them if something had gone wrong
but then all my emotions would just slip away and I would focus on that thing that I
was talking to them about or playing with them.’
John Age 8 :
John has pillow fights with imaginary friend Tom:
‘It makes letting my anger off but also I’m playing a bit of a game’
‘It takes my anger out without actually hurting someone’
Ella Age 11:
‘if I’ve done something wrong…she kind of tells me ‘oh you’ve done this wrong
because this or this is how you can sort it out, or don’t feel bad about it – so she’s
really quite special to me’
22
Tara Age 11 when asked how she would feel if she didn’t have her
imaginary companions makes a revealing comment:
‘I don’t think I’d really mind, because I wouldn’t know that they ever really
existed. So it wouldn’t make much difference to me. I mean obviously
when I was like, I mean that if the house was pitch black and I was going
out every night or something, then obviously I might get a bit more scared.
But um but if I didn’t have these imaginary horses then I’d probably have
um other ones’
23
Psychological theories drawn on in
interpretation:
Childhood imagination/play
Harris (2000) Dunn (2004) Winnicott (1971)
Transitional phenomena
Winnicott (1971) Sugarman and Jaffe (1989)
Theories of illusion/illusion of independent agency Taylor and Brown
(1999)
Fantasy/reality distinction research
Bouldin and Pratt (2001) Goy and Harris (1990)Taylor (1999) Taylor et Al
(1993)