APPENDIX. Major Studies of Imaginary Companion Prevalence

Review of psychological data of how children engage in imaginary friend play (IFP) shows that it involves a lot of explicit embodied action and interaction with surrounding people and environments. However, IFP is still seen as principally an individualistic activity, where, in addition to those interactions, the actor has to mentally represent an absent entity in imagination in order to engage in IFP. This capacity is deemed necessary because the imaginary companion is absent or not real. This article proposes a proof of concept argument that enactivism can account for complex imaginary phenomena as imaginary friend play. Enactivism proposes thinking of IFP in a fundamentally different way, as an explicitly embodied and performative act, where one does not need to mentally represent absent entities. It reconceptualizes imagination involved in IFP as strongly embodied, and proposes that play environments have present affordances for social and normative interactions that are reenacted in IFP—there is no “absence” that needs to be mentally represented first. This article argues that IFP is performed and enacted in the world without having to be represented in the mind first, which best captures the social and interactive nature of this form of play.

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A child's imaginary companion: A transitional self

Clinical Social Work Journal ◽

10.1007/bf00754652 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 272-282 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Bruce R. Klein

Keyword(s):

Imaginary Companion

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Cognitive mechanism and brain bases of imagination: Eidetic imagery /synesthesia/ imaginary companion and mind-wandering

The Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association ◽

10.4992/pacjpa.82.0_ss-094 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 82 (0) ◽

pp. SS-094-SS-094

Author(s):

Kazuo Matsuoka ◽

Satoru Miyauchi ◽

Michiko Asano ◽

Yusuke Moriguchi ◽

Takahiro Sekiguchi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mind Wandering ◽

Cognitive Mechanism ◽

Imaginary Companion

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Goal attribution toward non-human objects during infancy predicts imaginary companion

The Proceedings of the Annual Convention of the Japanese Psychological Association ◽

10.4992/pacjpa.79.0_1ev-123 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 79 (0) ◽

pp. 1EV-123-1EV-123

Author(s):

Yusuke Moriguchi ◽

Yasuhiro Kanakogi ◽

Naoya Todo ◽

Yuko Okumura ◽

Ikuko Shinohara ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Imaginary Companion ◽

Goal Attribution

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An Imaginary Companion, Representing a Prestage of the Superego

The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child ◽

10.1080/00797308.1954.11822541 ◽

1954 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 252-258 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Otto E. Sperling

Keyword(s):

Imaginary Companion

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Imaginary companions and peer acceptance

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1080/01650250344000415 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 28 (3) ◽

pp. 204-209 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Tracy R. Gleason

Keyword(s):

Social Cognition ◽

Social Relationships ◽

Social Impact ◽

Social Preference ◽

Peer Acceptance ◽

Pretend Play ◽

Early Research ◽

Imaginary Companions ◽

Imaginary Companion ◽

Do So

Early research on imaginary companions suggests that children who create them do so to compensate for poor social relationships. Consequently, the peer acceptance of children with imaginary companions was compared to that of their peers. Sociometrics were conducted on 88 preschool-aged children; 11 had invisible companions, 16 had personified objects (e.g., stuffed animals animated by the child) and 65 had no imaginary companion. The three groups were compared on positive and negative nominations, social preference, social impact, and total number of reciprocal friends. Given the positive correlation between pretend play and social competence, fantasy predisposition was used as a covariate. The groups did not differ on number of positive nominations by peers, total number of reciprocal friends, or social preference scores. However, compared to their peers, children with personified objects had higher social impact scores, largely as a result of negative nominations. Attention is thus called to the differences between personified object and invisible imaginary companions, and to the underlying social cognition that may be involved in their creation.

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