The Child's Conception of Prayer

Long, Diane; Elkind, David; Spilka, Bernard

doi:10.2307/1384202

Cited by 58 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Although many adults with strong religious beliefs will argue that they do not believe in magic, certain similarities between magical and religious practices (like the fact that both involve suspension of physical causality) are hard to deny. Indeed, studies of children's and adolescents' understanding of prayer show a developmental continuity between beliefs in the efficacy of magical powers and the powers of prayer (Goldman, 1964;Long, Elkind, and Spilka, 1967;Woolley, 2000). If this continuity is the case, then it supports the assumption that a new type of magical belief appears in older children and adults -the belief that fantastic and PERSIM objects can be affected by magical manipulations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The Permanence of Mental Objects: Testing Magical Thinking on Perceived and Imaginary Realities.

Subbotsky

2005

Developmental Psychology

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This study tested participants' preparedness to acknowledge that an object could change as a result of magical intervention. Six-and 9-year-old children and adults treated perceived and imagined objects as being equally permanent. Adults treated a fantastic object as significantly less permanent than either perceived or imagined objects. Results were similar when a different type of mental-physical causality-a participant's own wish-was examined. Adults were also tested on the permanence of personally significant imagined objects (participants' images of their future lives). Although almost all participants claimed that they did not believe in magic, in test trials they were not prepared to rule out the possibility that their future lives could be affected by a magical curse.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

The Permanence of Mental Objects: Testing Magical Thinking on Perceived and Imaginary Realities.

Subbotsky

2005

Developmental Psychology

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“…First, Woolley (2000) showed that children as young as age 5 develop a mentalistic conception of prayermuch earlier than that reported by Long et al, 1967. Second, she showed that, by age 5, children begin to give up belief in the causal powers of wishing, even as they begin to believe in the causal powers of prayer.…”

Section: Studies Carried Out From a Cognitivecultural Approachmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…For example, Long, Elkind, and Spilka (1967) distinguished three stages of prayer. Children younger than nine regarded praying as essentially a way of asking for things.…”

Section: Conceptions Of Religious Institutions Prayer and Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious and Spiritual Development throughout the Life Span

Oser¹,

Scarlett²,

Bucher³

2007

Handbook of Child Psychology

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“…For example, studies have investigated religious practice from the perspective of Piaget's theory of cognitive development both in children (Elkind, 1964;Long, Elkind, & Spilka, 1967) and in adolescents (Allport, Gillespie, & Young, 1948;Goldman, 1964;Pealting, 1974). Other studies have examined the relationship between religion and moral development (Bull, 1969;Clouse, 1978), Erikson's theory of psychosocial development in children (Steele, 1986) and in adults (Whitehead & Whitehead, 1979), and transition theory (Hall, 1986;Spero, 1987).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%