Children's awareness of psychosomatic phenomena

儿童对心身现象的认识

基本信息

批准号：
15530435
负责人：
TOYAMA Noriko
金额：
$ 2.37万
依托单位：
Tsuda College
依托单位国家：
日本
项目类别：
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
财政年份：
2003
资助国家：
日本
起止时间：
2003 至 2004
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

Nine studies examined children's awareness of psychosomatic phenomena.In Studies 1 and 2, one-hundred fifty-six children in 5-, 6-, 8-, and 11-year old groups, and fifty adults, were asked about the possibility of psychogenic bodily reactions as bodily ailments with origins in the mind. Young children typically denied that bodily conditions could originate in mental states.Studies 3 and 4 investigated Japanese adults' beliefs of psychosomatic phenomena. Thirty undergraduate students gave explanations for why mental states lead to bodily outcomes. These adults did not demonstrate a detailed and specific explanatory framework for psychogenic bodily reactions. Their explanations were based on two ideas, first that the mind and body are mutually related. The second idea was that mind and body exchange some unspecified energy (vital-force or stress) in the body or environment.Studies 5, 6, and 7 consisted of interviews with 101 children in preschool through fifth grade, and 42 adults, and showed that even young children noticed that taking in physical energy is good for physical and mental health, although they tended to believe they could totally control emotions by intention. Young children's difficulties in understanding psychosomatic phenomena may have involved their incorporating the mind into a bio-mechanical model of causation.Finally, in Studies 8 and 9, the role of experiences and social information on children's awareness was examined. Study 8 demonstrated that children's awareness did not depend on their previous experiences of psychosomatic diseases. Mothers in Study 9 seldom gave causal explanations for psychogenic bodily reactions.Based on these results, we cannot conclude that preschoolers have clear awareness of the mutuality of mind-body relations. But children do seem to have some primitive conceptual abilities for understanding phenomena that cross biology and psvcholoav.

九项研究考察了儿童对心身现象的意识。在研究 1 和 2 中，5、6、8 和 11 岁组的 156 名儿童和 50 名成年人被问及心因性的可能性。身体反应是源于心灵的身体疾病。幼儿通常否认身体状况可能源于精神状态。研究 3 和 4 调查了日本成年人对心身现象的信念。三十名本科生解释了为什么精神状态会导致身体结果。这些成年人没有表现出对心因性身体反应的详细且具体的解释框架。他们的解释基于两个观点，首先思想和身体是相互关联的。第二个想法是，心灵和身体在身体或环境中交换一些未指定的能量（生命力或压力）。研究 5、6 和 7 包括对 101 名学前班至五年级儿童和 42 名成人的采访，并显示即使是年幼的孩子也注意到，摄入体力有益于身心健康，尽管他们倾向于相信自己可以通过意图完全控制情绪。幼儿在理解心身现象方面的困难可能与他们将思想纳入因果关系的生物力学模型有关。最后，在研究8和9中，研究了经验和社会信息对儿童意识的作用。研究8表明，儿童的意识并不取决于他们以前患过心身疾病的经历。研究9中的母亲很少对心因性身体反应给出因果解释。基于这些结果，我们不能得出结论说学龄前儿童对身心关系的相互关系有清晰的认识。但孩子们似乎确实具有一些原始的概念能力来理解跨生物学和心理学的现象。