Development of the Vitalistic causality as an cross mind-body explanation framework.

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Ten experiments were conducted on Japanese children and adults to assess their awareness of vitalistic causality as a cross mind-body explanatory framework. In Studies 1-3, 4- and 5-year-old preschoolers and 7- and 10-year-olds were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of biological and psychological treatments for psychogenic bodily reactions. The preschoolers tended to respond that only biological cures were effective in treating psychogenic bodily reactions, whereas adults typically responded that only psychological cures were effective. However, by modifying the wordings of the questions, both the preschoolers and adults tended to respond that psychological and biological cures were effective in treating these psychogenic bodily reactions. Next, through four experiments, the development of vitalistic causality was examined. Vitalistic causality presumes that bodily phenomena are attributed to the workings of vital force. Both adults and preschoolers responded that the concept of vig … More or, corresponding to a vital force, had implications that crossed mind and body. They assumed that a vigorous man would have both bodily and mental properties, and that vigor would be gained through bodily and mental activities. These results suggested that Japanese adults and young children were somewhat similar in their bio-psychological awareness of vital force. However, the results showed several age-related differences. Specifically, adults had a more elaborate awareness of understanding of mechanisms, and they assumed more kinds of pathways of mind-body interactions. Finally, we investigated whether A nursery school's practice of growing vegetables would affect children's biological awareness of plants and vitalistic conceptions. The children in A school were more likely to assume plants as living-things based on biological reasons and their predictions about "edible" plants in the situation of overwatering and lack of sunlight were more biological in A school than in the other school. The discussion focused on the developmental course of vitalistic causality and cross-domain awareness. Less