Imaginary Companions Research Articles

Perceptual Bandwagon Effects With “Deep” Imaginary Companions

Studies of the mediating factors of imaginary companions (ICs) in children and adults are well-represented in the literature. However, the nature and structure of behavioral expressions in IC characters have been less formally scrutinized. We examined these issues in a convenience sample of 389 adults. Of these, 155 self-reported childhood ICs and retrospectively characterized their IC phenomenology via a set of 14 items modified from previous research. Rasch analyses showed that IC experiences form a true probabilistic hierarchy whose structure varied little across respondents’ age, gender, having siblings, as well as the respondents’ number of past ICs, or their decision to inform others about their IC. This hierarchy starts with shallow (i.e., ostensibly ‘adaptive or positive’) experiences and transition to deep (i.e., relatively ‘maladaptive or negative’) contents at higher levels. Network analysis suggested that respondents invented ICs primarily to combat feelings of loneliness. However, contrary to the Rasch model, when comparing shallow vs deep IC experients’ answers, positive and negative perceptual contents lost their distinction, thereby severely distorting measurement. These distortions were sufficiently powerful to reliably predict respondents’ group membership. Results derived from retrospective accounts of childhood experiences, which might differ from IC contents and dynamics measured either in real-time or within adult populations. However, these findings suggest that ICs comprise a latent dimension of shallow-to-deep perceptions that might relate to schizotypal or dissociative phenomena manifesting in everyday contexts.

‘Imaginary’ friends: the roles of imaginary/invisible companions in the classroom

ABSTRACT ‘Imaginary friends’ are a widespread cross-cultural phenomenon and for some children they are as important as their human friends. Exploring a gap in the literature, this paper details why and how they might be incorporated into the classroom, initially contextualised in socio-cognitive and Vygotskian socio-cultural frameworks. Applications to practice are offered, using children’s literature as a starting point for other activities. The paper is then interrupted with a challenge to the dominant Euro-Western psychological discourse, which assumes that all of these friends are playful creations of the imagination. Instead, the paper proposes a reconceptualization of human-form invisible friends by drawing on diverse disciplines and cultures, which offer alternative understandings to those posed in developmental psychology. Finally, the implications of adopting different theoretical perspectives for more inclusive, challenging, learning opportunities are considered.

The role of imaginary companion in the life of only children: a qualitative study

IntroductionAn imaginary companion is an invisible or personified entity created by children for themselves. An imaginary companion typically serves as a companion to the child and plays a significant role in their life, especially for only children who may experience more loneliness compared to other children. This research was conducted to investigate the role of an imaginary companion in the lives of only children.MethodThe present study was conducted using a qualitative method and a content analysis approach. Through purposeful sampling, a total of 34 preschool and primary school children, aged 6 to 9 years, from schools in Mashhad city, were selected until saturation was reached. They were subjected to semi-structured interviews. After data collection, the data were coded, and then the main and sub-themes were extracted.ResultsThe research findings were represented in the form of 196 statements, 28 sub-themes, and 9 main themes. The main themes included the role of an imaginary companion in alleviating loneliness, the role of an imaginary companion in amusement, the role of an imaginary companion in emotional regulation, conversations with an imaginary companion, guidance from an imaginary companion for good and bad behaviors, the assistance of an imaginary companion in tasks, helping to generate new scenarios, the advantages of having an imaginary companion, and the disadvantages of having one.ConclusionBased on the aforementioned findings, it can be concluded that the presence of an imaginary companion can not only support children but also promote creativity and distance them from the virtual space and realities of the real world. Parental awareness of this matter can aid in the child’s growth, fulfill their needs, and, on the other hand, prevent potential harm to children.

미술 활동을 통한 상상 표현에서의 정서적 목표 설정에 관한연구

Objectives The purposes of this study were to reveal elementary school students' emotional goal-setting through imaginative expression in art activities and to discuss the educational implications of emotional goal-setting in el-ementary art.
 Methods A total of 103 elementary school students (53 males, 50 females) participated in this study, comprising 48 students (46.6%) from the 2nd grade and 55 students (53.4%) from the 6th grade. The research data consisted of drawings and questionnaires in which elementary school students expressed their imaginary companions. The analysis method used was content analysis based on the emotional goal analysis criteria in imaginary expressions through art activities established for this study. T-test and cross-analysis were also performed to determine dif-ferences by grade.
 Results Four emotional goal settings were revealed in elementary school students' expressions of imaginary companions through art activities: emotion maintenance, emotion repair, self-protection, and free fantasy. Elementary school students mainly set emotion maintenance and emotion repair as emotional goals in their imag-inary expressions and rarely set self-protection and free fantasy. In expressing imaginary companions, 2nd grad-ers focused on emotion maintenance as an emotional goal, while 6th graders emphasized emotion repair in addi-tion to emotion maintenance.
 Conclusions This study contributes to identify emotional goal-settings by elementary school students in imagi-native expressions through art activities and suggests that emotional goal-setting in imaginative expressions has educational effects such as visualization of emotion, emotional understanding, and emotional regulation.

The Impact of Domestic Violence on Women in the Drama "Behind Closed Doors" by Janet Shaw 2005

This research is an analysis of the drama "behind closed doors" by Janet Shaw (2005). In this study, the author aims to reveal the issue of the impact of domestic violence on women faced by Harriet and Pearl's characters as wives who experience domestic violence by their husbands. In this analysis, there are two impacts of domestic violence. The first is abnormal behavior such as having an imaginary friend / a fantasy man as a way to survive in the household. Having an imaginary friend they can express all the desires they cannot get from a husband. The next abnormal behavior found is normalizing violence by blaming herself and feeling worthy of being given violence by her husband because she is already in a case of depression. The second is the impact of physical injuries and bruises due to domestic violence received by women. This analysis uses the concept of "abnormal behaviors" which is a branch of psychology proposed by Sigmund Freud and supported by several other experts. The use of concepts based on the context of the drama and interpretation of the text. In this analysis, the elements of drama that help reveal the impact of domestic violence are stage direction and dialogue.

Childhood fantasy play relates to adult socio‐emotional competence

AbstractChildhood fantasy play and creation of imaginary companions are thought to confer socio‐emotional benefits in children, but little is known about how they relate to socio‐emotional competence in adulthood. A total of 341 adults (81 males) aged 18 and above (M = 31.47, SD = 12.62) completed an online survey examining their fantasy play as a child, their childhood imaginary companion status, and their adult socio‐emotional competence. Adults who reported higher levels of childhood fantasy play were found to be significantly more prosocial, empathetic, and emotionally intelligent than their counterparts after controlling for demographic factors. Recall of a childhood imaginary companion, however, was significantly related only to higher scores for perspective‐taking and did not explain unique variance in any adult competence measure. Findings suggest that engagement in fantasy play during childhood may be a precursor to later socio‐emotional competence, while benefits previously associated with imaginary companions specifically may not extend into adulthood.

Young adults with imaginary companions: The role of anthropomorphism, loneliness, and perceived stress

Young adults with imaginary companions: The role of anthropomorphism, loneliness, and perceived stress

Penny & Pip by Candace Fleming

Reviewed by: Penny & Pip by Candace Fleming Natalie Berglind Fleming, Candace Penny & Pip; illus. by Eric Rohmann. Dlouhy/Atheneum, 2023 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781665913317 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781665913324 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R 4-7 yrs While visiting the natural history museum and checking out the dinosaur exhibit with her class, Penny spots something no one else does—a cracking egg. Out springs a tiny, long-necked green dinosaur baby, whom Penny quickly dubs "Pip," just like the noises he makes. Pip follows Penny around, partaking in the cheese crackers she was supposed to eat for lunch and admiring the exhibits with her. When it's time to go, Penny hatches (ahem) a plan involving a stuffed animal mix-up at the gift shop to take Pip home. Rohmann's art, sketched with pencil on frosted mylar, is dreamy, with soft, smudgy lines, and most pages utilize white space to focus on the two new friends themselves, with Pip's expressive and inquisitive expressions and Penny's curly updo, pink polka-dot dress, and bright yellow rain boots. While one wonders what Penny's adults think when she brings home a little dino or whether Penny's active imagination procured Pip as an imaginary friend, this sweet little picture book acts out a fantasy of dino companionship that many kiddos visiting a museum likely share. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Real to Me by Minh Lê

Reviewed by: Real to Me by Minh Lê Kate Quealy-Gainer Lê, Minh Real to Me; illus. by Raissa Figueroa. Knopf, 2023 [40p] Library ed. ISBN 9780593377505 $21.99 Trade ed. ISBN 9780593377499 $18.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780593377512 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 3-6 yrs Two friends—one a giant, green, furry monster-like creature, the other a young child sporting a gorgeous afro and a rainbow T-shirt—spend their days having all sorts of fun (and getting into all sorts of mischief). Their relationship, however, isn't quite understood by the others in their lives: "Others tried to tell me that she wasn't real, that she was just imaginary. But what did they know?" But when the green creature wakes up to find their friend nowhere, they wonder if the others were right; regardless, they still desperately miss their friend's laugh, mischief, and affection: "She was real to me." It's a heartbreaking moment, made more emotional by the flipped script: it's the human girl who has walked away from the friendship, not the supposedly imaginary friend, so readers must then contend with the idea of a kid actively leaving a childhood experience and the following repercussions. Fortunately, the book isn't trying to guilt anyone into keeping a relationship they've outgrown, and we soon see the creature making friends with others, laughing, playing, and getting into plenty of trouble, despite still missing their former partner in crime. Whimsical art matches the story perfectly, saturating the pages with vibrant, rich colors, and placing the characters in fanciful settings as they float through the air on dandelion puffs, cross starry bridges, and quietly sit, pondering a honey-colored sky. Kids familiar with Bing Bong from Pixar's Inside Out will find echoes of that here, but any youngster who has felt the pain of putting away childish things will find this an emotionally palpable, thoughtful story. Copyright © 2023 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

A Changing Consciousness Over the Life Journey

A fresh tracing of phases of experience from birth to approaching death is the terrain of this article. It is a momentous journey variably overlooked in everyday living with all the preoccupations of the immediate “now” of this journey. A new-born baby is conscious, and at age 5 or 6, enormous strides have already been taken in evolving consciousness. Experience in the period of primary schooling is a major further saga. Relationships are increasingly important and many children invent “imaginary companions” they are attentive to. Later, inner conversations become common. Dramatic emergence of the new consciousness of adolescence is almost like another life. By the 20s, long-term commitments, dreams, and preparation toward paths in life are prominent. Great qualitative unfolding of experience follows on through adult middle years. Late adulthood includes gradual transition to more reflective retirement and growing awareness that personal life will end. The gauntlet of a major health setback and/or loss of a life partner may have to be endured, though an easier or less conflictual flow in the absence of most “have-tos” tends to follow. Consciousness can become more mellow and even the approaching end of personal life taken for granted.

A Review of Imaginary Companions and Prospects of Research on Adolescents and Adults

A Review of Imaginary Companions and Prospects of Research on Adolescents and Adults

‘When my mummy and daddy aren't looking at me when I do my maths she helps me’; Children can be taught to create imaginary companions: An exploratory study

AbstractSpontaneous imaginary companion (SIC) creation in childhood is a typical imaginative play behaviour associated with advanced sociocognitive skills; however, the direction of causality has not been established. To investigate this experimentally, researchers must determine whether children can create, on request, qualitatively equivalent imaginary companions (ICs) to those created spontaneously. We examined whether children could create ICs, and how these compared to SICs. Nine elementary school children were encouraged to create ICs in a 3‐month intervention. Accounts of elicited ICs were compared with an age‐matched sample of interviewees with SICs. Seven children maintained ICs for 6 months post intervention. Template analysis of IC interviews found four themes: Realistic Play, Multifaceted IC Mind, Utility of the IC, and Elicited IC Across Time. Analysis suggests elicited and SICs were similar in nature and utility, although intervention ICs tended to have animal rather than human appearances. Findings support the argument that children can be encouraged to create ICs similar to SICs.

Evaluation of Children’s Discourses Regarding Imaginary Companion: The Case of Türkiye

Preschool children’s imaginary companions are a relatively unexplored phenomenon. This article provides information about a qualitative study investigating Turkish children’s statements about their imaginary companions. Forty-six children aged between 48–60 months were interviewed. A phenomenological pattern was used to explore themes in the research. As a result of the research, six themes and 24 categories were created. When the themes were reviewed, it was seen that the children’s imaginary companions were male in terms of gender, clothing, and accessories in terms of appearance characteristics, and happiness in terms of mood characteristics. In addition, considering the thinking status of their imaginary companions, it was determined that they concentrated in the category of entertainment/game, in the category of communication skills in terms of liked/admirable features, and finally in the category of negative behaviour as disliked/unadmirable features. Addressing imaginary companions in children’s lives in different dimensions can contribute to their development.

Imaginary Friends, or How My Family Turned Me into a Writer

Imaginary Friends, or How My Family Turned Me into a Writer

Reconceptualizing Imaginary Friends: Interdisciplinary Approaches for Understanding Invisible Companions

Imaginary friends or invisible companions are common features of cross-cultural childhoods. Research is primarily located in developmental psychology, where invisible companions are considered part of imaginary play. We argue for a reconceptualization of the core phenomenon, to one of regularly interacting with a person who is not normally perceptible to others, instead of uncritically adopting the dominant Euro-Western ontology of imagination. Analyzing the central experience through other branches of psychology, anthropology, religion, and spirituality shows that different fields are potentially discussing the same phenomenon, albeit obscured by disciplinary boundaries. We outline some implications of this new approach for the development of childhood studies.

Did Chinese children with imaginary companions attribute more agencies to non-human items: Evidences from behavioral cues and appearance characteristics.

Previous studies have focused on the relationship between imaginary companions (ICs) and children’s social developments. As far as we know, few studies have focused on the relationship between ICs and children’s agency attributions. This study aimed to explore the potential differences in agency attributions between children with and without ICs, children with egalitarian IC relationships and hierarchical IC relationships. Children’s agency attributions were measured by two experiments. One was based on behavioral cues (Random animations/ToM animations) and the other was based on appearance characteristics (ball/doll). The results revealed that children with ICs attributed more cognitive properties to Random and ToM animations than children without ICs. Compared with children without ICs, children with ICs attributed marginally more biological properties to a ball and more psychological properties to a ball and a doll. However, children with egalitarian and hierarchical IC relationships did not differ in their agency attributions. The results suggest that children with ICs are more likely to attribute agencies to non-human items with behavioral cues or appearance characteristics than children without ICs. Compared with child-IC relationship qualities, IC status may be more related to children’s agency attributions. However, only a correlation between IC status and children’s agency attributions was found in this study and it is interesting for future researchers to investigate the potential causal directions between children’s IC status and their agency attributions. If one of the causal directions or both the causal directions exist, future researchers can further explore the underlying mechanism.

Religiositas Pada Seni Kontemporer Berbasis Augmented Reality Karya Nina Chanel Abney Berjudul “Imaginary Friend”

The development of art and design as well as technology has grown rapidly, all three have changed the influence of each other. So that contemporary art and design has emerged with a variety of uniqueness. These changes cannot be separated from culture and religiosity as well as the life of the creator. This article is intended to analyze the value of religiosity in the work of artist Nina Chanel Abney entitled “Imaginary Friend”. This article uses a descriptive qualitative method. The results of the analysis show that Nina Chanel Abney's artwork uses Augmented Reality technology as the basis for the embodiment of the work. It is also known that there are signs of elements of Christian religious religiosity. In addition, there appears to be a hidden element of the Pan-Africanism movement.

Dissociative features related to imaginary companions in the assessment of childhood adversity and dissociation: A pilot study

Childhood imaginary companions (ICs) are common and a normal part of child development, but certain aspects of ICs are also connected to adversity and dissociation. The purpose of this pilot study is to find out what kind of ICs children in mental health care have, are the features of ICs related to stressful childhood experiences, and whether the assessment of ICs could provide insight to the assessment of children. 19 7-12-year-old participants were recruited via a Finnish child psychiatry clinic. The children were interviewed using the imaginary companions interview. The legal guardians reported background information and information about stressful childhood experiences. The data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. In general, the ICs were more likely to have normative features than dissociative features. However, some dissociative IC features were also commonly reported. The SCE duration (U = 39.0, p = 0.029) and the number of dissociative IC features (U = 59.5, p = 0.005) were significantly higher for children with 6 or more ICs than for children with 1-2 ICs. There was a positive correlation between SCE duration and number of ICs (1-2 ICs vs. 6 or more ICs), r(12)) = 62, p = .018, and between dissociative IC features and number of ICs, r(15)) = 676, p = .003. Due to the small sample size in this study, the results cannot be generalized outside the clinical population with the specific age and symptom profile described in this study. Children were willing to talk about their ICs and interviewing them about their ICs seemed to add value to the assessments. Results and modifications made to the imaginary companions interview are discussed.

Structural Relationships Among Mental Boundaries, Childhood Imaginary Companions, Creative Experiences, and Entity Encounters.

This study investigated relationships between thin mental boundary functioning, creativity, imaginary companions (ICs), and anomalous '(entity) encounter experiences.' A convenience sample of 389 respondents completed the Revised Transliminality Scale, Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences, Creative Experiences Questionnaire, Survey of Strange Events, and a measure of Childhood Imaginary Companions. Competing testing with path analysis found that the best-fitting model was consistent with the causal chain of 'Thin Boundaries (transliminality and schizotypy) → Creative Experiences → ICs → (Entity) Encounter Experiences.' These results suggest that deep-types of ICs (i.e., showing apparent independent agency) are perhaps most accurately characterized as syncretic cognitions versus hallucination-like experiences. The authors examine these findings relative to study limitations, as well as discussing the need for future research that approaches ICs as a special mental state that can facilitate allied altered-anomalous experiences. In this context, this study furthered understanding of relationships between conscious states related to mental boundaries, childhood imaginary companions, creative experiences, and entity encounters.

Children-Robot Friendship, Moral Agency, and Aristotelian Virtue Development.

Social robots are increasingly developed for the companionship of children. In this article we explore the moral implications of children-robot friendships using the Aristotelian framework of virtue ethics. We adopt a moderate position and argue that, although robots cannot be virtue friends, they can nonetheless enable children to exercise ethical and intellectual virtues. The Aristotelian requirements for true friendship apply only partly to children: unlike adults, children relate to friendship as an educational play of exploration, which is constitutive of the way they acquire and develop virtues. We highlight that there is a relevant difference between the way we evaluate adult-robot friendship compared to children-robot friendship, which is rooted in the difference in moral agency and moral responsibility that generate the asymmetries in the moral status ascribed to adults versus children. We look into the role played by imaginary companions (IC) and personified objects (PO) in children’s moral development and claim that robots, understood as Personified Robotic Objects (PROs), play a similar role with such fictional entities, enabling children to exercise affection, moral imagination and reasoning, thus contributing to their development as virtuous adults. Nonetheless, we argue that adequate use of robots for children’s moral development is conditioned by several requirements related to design, technology and moral responsibility.