From actors to agents to persons: the development of character representation in young children's narratives.
This study addressed a puzzling discrepancy in existing research about when children achieve and manifest a mentalistic conception of the person. Narrative research suggests that children do not represent characters as mental agents until middle childhood, whereas social cognition research places this understanding at around 4 years. Using a theoretically informed typology, 617 stories were analyzed composed by 30 children participating in a storytelling and story-acting practice integrated into their preschool curriculum. Results indicated that children's representation of characters shifted from almost exclusively physical and external portrayals of "actors" at 3 to increasing inclusion of "agents" with rudimentary mental states at 4 and of "persons" with mental representational capacities by 5. The developmental trajectories of boys and girls differed somewhat.
Nicolopoulou
Ageliki
A
Department of Psychology, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015-3068, USA. agn3@lehigh.edu
Richner
Elizabeth S
ES
D002605:Character; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003210:Concept Formation; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012951:Socialization