Animism in two generations: an investigation of selected personality factors

Cognitive development has, the past few years, become one of the most heavily researched areas of human development. The cognitive developmental theory of Jean Piaget (1929, 1930, 1952) has been the major focus of this research. The present study was also an investigation of one of the many aspects of Piaget's theory. The present study focused on Piaget (1929) theory of animism because animistic beliefs were believed, by Piaget, to be the most basic form of thinking. If this is indeed the case then the study of animism should lead to understanding the very basis for an individual's conception of the world. Several personality factors, both those that are inseparatable from the individual (sex, race, and locus of control), those which are primarily in the environment (parents education and family ideology), and those which are to·a great extent under the control of the child (parent/child relationship and school achievement) were investigated in terms of animism. Two hundred sixty five subjects (96 children, 95 mothers, and 74 fathers) from a public school system in northern Alabama volunteered to take part in the study. Each subject completed an .Animism Test and the parents filled out a family ideology questionnaire while the children filled out a locus of control test. The results of the study supported Piaget's (1929) theory of animistic development. However, the results also indicated that language, both the child's and adult model's, may play a significant role in the animistic development of children.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Management, Housing, and Family Development

Department dc:contributor.department

Management, Housing, and Family Development

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1979

Author dc:creator

• Billingham, Robert Emil

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/71109

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/71109