Secret keeping in Children.
One of the psychologist done an experiment on children which
deals with the Secret keeping in children.
Joan Peskin tried to get children age three, four, and five
to conceal a secret. She showed the children two types of stickers. The first,
a gaudy, glittery sticker, aroused many a tiny smile; the second, a drab, beige
sticker of an angel, was disliked. Then she introduced a mean puppet and
explained that this puppet would take whatever sticker the children wanted
most. When the puppet asked 4- and 5-year-olds which sticker they wanted, most
of the children either lied or would not tell. The 3-year-olds almost always
blurted out their preference, even when the scenario was repeated several
times, she found in the study, which was published in Developmental Psychology
in 1992. Often the 3-year-olds grabbed at the shiny sticker as the puppet took
it away, showing a proper understanding of the situation but an inability to
prevent it via secretive means.
The finding goes beyond secrets; 4 has become the age when
psychologists think children develop the ability to understand distinct but
related inner and outer worlds. “When I teach it I put a kid on the overhead
with a thought bubble inside,” Peskin said. “When they could think of someone
else’s mental state — say, ignorance, somebody not knowing something — that
influences their social world.” In a follow-up study published in Social
Development in 2003, Peskin found again that 3-year-olds were more likely than
4- or 5-year-olds to reveal the location of a surprise birthday cake to a
hungry research confederate. “When a child is able to keep a secret,” Peskin
says, “parents should take it as, that’s great, this is normal development.
They aren’t going to be little Machiavellis. This is normal brain development.”
Post a Comment