Children's Understanding of Psychogenic Bodily Reactions

Abstract

One hundred twenty-eight children in preschool through fifth grade (range = 4,3-11,4) and 76 adults serving as a comparison group participated in two studies that examined how children reason about psychogenic bodily reactions, that is, ailments or nonconscious physiological responses with origins in the mind (e.g., stress-induced headache). Psychogenic bodily reactions provide an opportunity to study how children integrate knowledge between the domains of bodily response and psychology. In Study 1, participants were asked whether various familiar psychogenic bodily reactions were possible (e.g., can someone get a tummyache from worrying?). In Study 2, participants were presented with a novel domain (hypothetical "aliens" from outer space) and were asked whether various unfamiliar bodily conditions (e.g., toes swelling) could arise from various physical or psychological causes. As predicted, adults typically reported that psychogenic bodily reactions were possible, and that unfamiliar bodily conditions could result from either psychological or physical causes. In contrast, young children typically denied that psychogenic bodily reactions could occur and predicted that unfamiliar bodily conditions resulted from physical causes only. The results support a developmental path: younger children view psychogenic bodily responses as wholly physical, but with age, view them as both physical and psychological phenomena.

Does “Yummy” Food Help You Grow and Avoid Illness? Children's and Adults' Understanding of the Effect of Psychobiological Labels on Growth and Illness

“…This suggests that the biological and psychological domains are not wholly distinct in children's reasoning about biological processes which is in sharp contrast to previous studies that have demonstrated a demarcation between the psychological and biological domains (Kalish [3]; Notaro et al [10]). …”

“…First, children may maintain a clear domain distinction and not entertain psychobiological labels as affecting the contraction of an illness. This is consistent with the results of previous research which supported the domain independence model (Notaro et al [10,20]; Opfer [22]). Second, children might recognize that yummy/yucky nutrition Child Development Research 7 affects the contraction of illness (Raman and Gelman, [7]; Schulz [9]), like they did in Study 1.…”

“…Thus, it would be interesting to determine if young children entertain affective factors such as "yummy" and "yucky" as overriding the nutritional value of the food in question. Based on previous studies (Notaro et al [10,20]; Raman, [7]; Schultz et al [9]), two possibilities might emerge. The first possibility is that children might clearly not entertain psychobiological factors as affecting height and weight.…”

“…Some studies have demonstrated that young children and even adults entertain psychological factors for the origins of common contagious illness (Raman and Gelman [7]; Raman [8]; Schulz et al [9]), whereas other studies have found that young children entertain biological causes for dual causal biological processes such as psychogenic illnesses (Notaro et al [10]). One of the major limitations of these studies is that they have all primarily focused only on the biological process of illness.…”

“…For example, Kalish [3] demonstrated that preschoolers recognize that knowledge determines mental reactions to contamination but physical contact determines bodily reactions. Notaro et al [10] found that, in the area of bodily responses such as headaches and stomach aches, preschoolers tended to view these as purely physical processes. However, there have been other studies that have demonstrated that preschoolers entertain psychological factors for biological processes.…”