2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Vitalistic Causality in Children's Biological Thought
| Project/Area Number |
22530723
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Educational psychology
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| Research Institution | Waseda University (2013)
Tsuda College (2010-2012) |
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Principal Investigator |
TOYAMA Noriko 早稲田大学, 人間科学学術院, 教授 (80328038)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010-04-01 – 2014-03-31
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| Keywords | 概念発達 / 知識獲得 / 素朴生物学 / 生気論的因果 / 食 / 病気 / 保育園 |
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| Research Abstract |
Vitalistic causality has been posited as a causal-explanatory framework in the domain of biology.In the present study, the following findings were obtained concerning the development of this causality. (1) Elementary school children often generated vitalistic explanations for bodily induced bodily reactions, while adults tended to refer to this type of explanations for psychogenic bodily reactions. (2) Children and adults often referred to vitalistic concepts when explaining the role of psychological factors of taste experiences on biological processes such as growth and illness. (3) Preschool teachers and mothers often offered vitalistic explanations when explaining about illnesses and injuries. (4) Vitalistic explanations were also observed among young children's explanations on hygiene habits. These results suggested that preschoolers' awareness of biological processes largely exceeded, both quantitatively and qualitatively, their mothers' or preschool teachers' verbal messages.
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