Animism: A Study of Piaget

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Animism A Study of Piagets Theory

• By
• Scott Crisp, Viron Hackney and Jeff Kress

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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.

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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.

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Inherent Problems

• 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 ?

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4 Stages of Animism

• Everything Active is ConsciousStage 1
• Everything that Moves is Conscious.. 2
• Intrinsic Movement is Conscious 3
• Animal World is Conscious. 4

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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.

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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 Piagets theory
• Based on their answers for each section, we
  placed the children in 1 of 4 categories, or
  stages, described by Piaget.

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Eh oh
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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

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Well said..

• No, the chair is made of metal, not blood, so it
  wont 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

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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

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Oh I see.

• Yea, the mouse will feel the poke, unless you
  kill it first - Lauren, 8
• No it doesnt feel the tree, the wind doesnt
  have eyes - Juliana, 8
• Are you really gonna poke me with a needle? -
  Sophia, 8

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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

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So..

• We were right
• sort of...

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Terms

• Animism
• Preoperational
• Concrete Operational
• Physical Determinism
• Moral Necessity

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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 Piagets questions seemed a bit
  outdated