Preschoolers’ reasoning about the “how”, “what” and “when” of ownership.
| dc.contributor.author | Nancekivell, Shaylene | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2016-03-30T16:04:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2016-03-30T16:04:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2016-03-30 | |
| dc.date.submitted | 2016-03-17 | |
| dc.description.abstract | My dissertation includes three papers. Paper one investigates preschoolers’ appreciation of how people become owners. In two experiments, 70 3-to-5-year-olds were asked to explain why a character owns, likes, or uses certain objects. Four- and five-year-olds, but not three-year-olds, used past events of buying, giving and finding to explain ownership demonstrating an appreciation of how property is typically acquired. Four- and five-year-olds generated such explanations even though they never saw these past events happen. Thus, these findings also have implications for children’s ability to infer history in their explanations. Paper two examines children’s understanding of what ownership entitles owners to do with their property. In this study, 128 children aged 4 to 6 were asked what a person was allowed to do with an object that belonged to the person, belonged to no-one, or belonged to someone else. Children were allowed to provide as many responses as they wished. Their responses reflected an appreciation that ownership affects a wide range of object uses including harmless object use. The pattern of children’s responses also suggested that they view ownership as restricting non-owners from using property, rather than affecting use by entitling owners. Paper three investigates the influence of ownership on young children’s reasoning by examining when preschoolers use ownership to explain acceptability. In this study, 323 3- to 5-year-olds were asked to explain acceptable and unacceptable actions. In Experiments 1 and 2, ownership was not mentioned to children before they generated their explanations. In these experiments, older preschoolers but not younger preschoolers spontaneously referenced ownership more than alternative considerations in their explanations. In Experiment 3, ownership was mentioned to children before they generated their explanations. In this experiment, younger preschoolers frequently referenced ownership when explaining unacceptability, but not when explaining acceptability. Together these findings suggest that ownership is influential in preschoolers’ reasoning about the acceptability of using objects, but that the scope of its influence increases with age. My dissertation concludes with a discussion of the broader implications of my findings for children’s reasoning about ownership. | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10012/10348 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.pending | false | |
| dc.publisher | University of Waterloo | en |
| dc.subject | psychology | en |
| dc.subject | developmental psychology | en |
| dc.subject | ownership | en |
| dc.subject | explanation | en |
| dc.title | Preschoolers’ reasoning about the “how”, “what” and “when” of ownership. | en |
| dc.type | Doctoral Thesis | en |
| uws-etd.degree | Doctor of Philosophy | en |
| uws-etd.degree.department | Psychology | en |
| uws-etd.degree.discipline | Psychology | en |
| uws-etd.degree.grantor | University of Waterloo | en |
| uws.comment.hidden | I tried to submit the revisions without starting a new submission but I could not figure it out. Here is the email I received regarding my revisions: You submitted: Preschoolers’ reasoning about the “how”, “what” and “when” of ownership. To collection: Theses & Dissertations Your submission has been rejected by Katherine Starr (kstarr@uwaterloo.ca) with the following explanation: Thank you for submitting your thesis to UWSpace, the format has been reviewed and revisions have been noted below. After making the revisions, remove the original pdf file from your incomplete item submission in UWSpace and replace it with your revised pdf file, rather than starting a new submission. It is recommended that you review your pdf file before resubmitting it to UWSpace. 1. The .pdf file name must appear as 'LastName_FirstName' 2. Title page – please capitalize thesis title: Preschoolers’ Reasoning about the “How”, “What” and “When” of Ownership 3. Title page – please lower the location line so that it is directly above copyright line. 4. Title page – please remove comma beside your name on copyright line. 5. Page numbers missing in front matter. These should be lower case roman numerals, beginning on page ii (Author’s Declaration). 6. Table of Contents – please add Author’s Declaration and Statement of Contributions. 7. Table of Contents – correct page number for References to page 101. 8. When re-submitting your thesis please be sure to enter your searchable keywords under separate subject fields, rather than separating by commas in one subject field. For additional information please visit the 'Thesis' section of the GSO website: http://uwaterloo.ca/graduate-studies/thesis Best regards, Katherine | en |
| uws.contributor.advisor | Friedman, Ori | |
| uws.contributor.affiliation1 | Faculty of Arts | en |
| uws.peerReviewStatus | Unreviewed | en |
| uws.published.city | Waterloo | en |
| uws.published.country | Canada | en |
| uws.published.province | Ontario | en |
| uws.scholarLevel | Graduate | en |
| uws.typeOfResource | Text | en |
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