Pretend Play in Childhood: Foundation of Adult Creativity

252 Pages·2013·2.23 MB·English

by  Sandra W. Russ PhD

Pretend Play
in Childhood
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Pretend Play
in Childhood
Foundation of Adult Creativity
Sandra W. Russ
American Psychological Association • Washington, DC
Copyright © 2014 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. Except
as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication
may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to,
the process of scanning and digitization, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by To order
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Cover Designer: Mercury Publishing Services, Inc., Rockville, MD
Cover Art: Susan Finsen, Jazz Hands 1, 2012, mixed media, 18″ square
The opinions and statements published are the responsibility of the authors, and such
opinions and statements do not necessarily represent the policies of the American
Psychological Association.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russ, Sandra Walker.
Pretend play in childhood : foundation of adult creativity / Sandra W. Russ.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4338-1561-4 — ISBN 1-4338-1561-3 1. Play—Psychological aspects.
2. Cognition in children. 3. Creative ability. I. Title.
BF717.R77 2014
155.4'18—dc23
2013016988
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record is available from the British Library.
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14282-000
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This book is dedicated to Dorothy and Jerome Singer,
with deep appreciation for leading the way in the play arena
and for their profound judgment about the meaning of play
in child development.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................... ix
Introduction ................................................................................................. 3
Chapter 1. Pretend Play and Creativity: An Overview ..................... 7
Chapter 2. Evolutionary, Psychoanalytic, and Developmental
Theories of Pretend Play and Creativity ........................ 29
Chapter 3. Cognitive Processes in Pretend Play and Creativity ......... 45
Chapter 4. Affective Processes in Pretend Play and Creativity .......... 63
Chapter 5. Case Studies in Science and Technology ....................... 93
Chapter 6. Case Studies in the Arts ............................................... 107
Chapter 7. F acilitating Pretend Play and Creativity
in Training Programs ................................................... 119
Chapter 8. Play, Culture, and the Modern World .......................... 153
vii
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Afterword: Converging Evidence ............................................................ 173
Appendix A: Affect in Play Scale ........................................................... 177
Appendix B: Transcripts From Play Facilitation Sessions ....................... 189
References ................................................................................................ 201
Index ........................................................................................................ 225
About the Author .................................................................................... 241
viii contents
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I appreciate all of the excellent help I received from Maureen Adams
at American Psychological Association Books in developing this book. Also,
the editorial comments of Beth Hatch improved the manuscript, as did Erin
O’Brien’s copyediting. I also want to thank graduate students Jessica Dillon
Hoffmann and Karla Fehr for their scholarly research on a number of projects
in the area of play that added to the content of this book. And thanks to Jessica
for transcribing the play sessions that are included. Finally, I thank my husband,
Tom Brugger, for his loving support of my work.
ix
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