Animism: A Study of Piaget’s Theory

By

Scott Crisp, Viron Hackney and Jeff Kress

Jean Piaget – 1896-1980 Born in Neuchatel, Switzerland to

Arthur Piaget and Rebecca Jackson

Interested in science and philosophy as a child

Entered the University of Neuchatel, where he received his Doctorate in science

In 1923 he married Valentine Chatenay, a student co-worker. They had three children together, using them as the basis for their intense research.

In 1950, he published his synthesis, Introduction to Genetic Epistemology.

Animism Animism – the tendency to regard objects as living and endowed

with a will Shedding the Animistic thought process occurs between the

Preoperational and Concrete Operational Stages (roughly 4-8 years of age)

Piaget believed that a child will shed the Animistic thought process around 8+ years of age, regardless of their status.

Inherent Problems(1) Does the child attribute consciousness to the objects around him

and in what measure?

(2) What does the concept of Life imply to the child?

(3) What type of necessity does the child see in natural laws, moral necessity or physical determinism ?

4 Stages of Animism Everything Active is Conscious……Stage 1 Everything that Moves is Conscious….. “”2 Intrinsic Movement is Conscious……… “”3 Animal World is Conscious……………. “”4

Our Hypothesis Piaget argues that children reach the point

of understanding animism around the age of 8. We argue that children as young as 6 can obtain a reasonable understanding of animism.

The Study We interviewed 18 students from Holy Family 6 students each from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade. 3 boys and 3 girls from each grade Students were asked 16 questions, 4 questions for each

stage in Piaget’s theory Based on their answers for each section, we placed the

children in 1 of 4 categories, or stages, described by Piaget.

Eh oh

1st Grade Ashley (6) …………………………Stage 1 Tessy (6) …………………………Stage 1 Britton (7) …………………………Stage 4 Andrew (6)…………………………Stage 4 Bryce (7) …………………………..Stage 4 Josh (7) ……………………………Stage 4

Well said……….. “No, the chair is made of metal, not blood,

so it won’t feel the needle” - Josh, 7 “No, the tree can only feel a chainsaw”

– Andrew, 6 “Uh, No, the sun would melt the needle,

duh” - Ashley, 6

2nd Grade Everett (8)…………………………..Stage 3 Lauren (8)………………………….Stage 3 Sophia (8)…………………………..Stage 3 Juliana (8)…………………………..Stage 3 Arturo (8) ……………..…….Almost to 2nd Matt (8) ……………………Almost to 2nd

Oh I see…. “Yea, the mouse will feel the poke, unless

you kill it first” - Lauren, 8 “No it doesn’t feel the tree, the wind doesn’t

have eyes” - Juliana, 8 “Are you really gonna poke me with a

needle?” - Sophia, 8

3rd Grade Myriah (9) …………………………Stage 4 Laaiba (8) ………………………...Stage 4 Tyler (9) ………………………….Stage 1 Kyle (9) …………………………..Stage 3 Jonathon (9) ……………………..Stage 3 Lauren (9) ………………………..Stage 2*

So……………..We were right……

sort of...

Terms Animism Preoperational Concrete Operational Physical Determinism Moral Necessity

Do-Overs

This study would probably have been better if we had:

Interviewed younger children Tried our own questions. No offense to the

good doctor, but Piaget’s questions seemed a bit outdated