Psychological Development and Education ›› 2009, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (2): 8-12,27.

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An investigation of Imaginary Character in Children’s Fantasy Play

LI Xiu-shan, LI Hong, LEI Yi, SUN Xin-yi, LI Xiu-li   

  1. School of Psychology, Southwest University, Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality of Ministry of Education, Sino-Canada Research Centre for Child Development, Chongqing, 400715, China
  • Online:2009-04-15 Published:2009-04-15

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Abstract: 145 preschoolers aged 4-to 6-years were measured with structured interview to investigate the situation of imaginary character in Chinese children.And the imaginary character included the phenomenon of imaginary companion and impersonation.The results showed that:(1) the phenomena are relatively common in China,42.7% children with imaginary companion,and 44.8% with impersonation.(2) the invisible type of imaginary companion is rare,almost all imaginary companions are personated toys.Most preschoolers think their imaginary companions are younger.Among them,boys tend to animal identity and girls are likely to have the human being type imaginary companion.(3) boys are apt to impersonation,especially impersonating cartoon characters.(4) the children with imaginary characters show higher fantasy than those without participating in imaginative predisposition investigation.

Key words: imaginary character, imaginary companion, impersonation, fantasy

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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