Abstract
Imagination is an important skill that has proven to be related to divergent thinking skills, ability to cope with stress, and the expression of emotion. Necessary environmental factors conducive for the development of imagination are privacy, limited television viewing, a role model, and storytelling. Lower socioeconomic youth were interviewed to find the current use of their imagination and what environmental factors had been present in their lives. The interviews revealed that the youth had few environmental factors that would enhance their imaginative ability and most of them spent little time in imaginative activity. Following the interview, the youth in the study, 12- to 15-year-old African American boys and one girl, participated in a psychoeducational intervention aimed at enhancing imagery skills. Pre-post assessment of the intervention indicated significant change (p =.031) in richness of storytelling, evidenced by greater use of concrete images, adjectives, and adverbs. Subjects also reported a greater comfort with imaginative contents. The findings indicate that lower socioeconomic teens benefit from psychoeducational interventions aimed at teaching imagination skills.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Achterberg, J. (1985). Imagery in healing: Shamanism and modem medicine. Boston: New Science Library.
Anderson, M. P. (1978) Imagery assessment through content analysis. In Eric Klinger (Ed.), Imagery: Concepts, results, and application (pp. 93–101). New York: Plenum Press.
Atwood, J. D., & Levine, L. B. (1991). Ax murderers, dragons, spiders and webs: therapeutic metaphors in couple therapy. Contemporary Family Therapy, 13(3), 201–216.
Blume, J. (1980). Superfudge. New York: Dutton.
Bott, J., & Klinger, E. (1985–86) Assessment of guided affective imagery: methods for extracting quantitative and categorical variables from imagery sequences. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 5(4), 279–293.
Bresler, D. E. (1989). Health promotion and chronic pain: Challenges and choices. In A. Kaplun (Ed.), Health Promotion and chronic illness—Discovering a new quality of health (pp. 139–151). Cologne: The Federal Centre for Health Education and the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization.
Chapin, J. P. (1985). Dictionary of psychology (2nd. ed.). New York: Bantam.
Crites, J. O. (1969). Vocational Psychology: The study of vocational behavior and development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Donahue, P. J., & Tuber, S. B. (1993). Rorschach adaptive fantasy images and coping in children under severe environmental stress. Journal of Personality Assessment, 60(3), 421–434.
Edinger, E. F. (1972). Ego and archetype: Individuation and the religious function of the psyche. New York: C. G. Jung Foundation.
Erikson, E. H. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. New York: International Universities Press.
Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society. New York: Norton & Co.
Fairman, T. (1991). Bury my bone but keep my words: African tales for retelling. New York: Puffin Books.
Freeman, M. (1991). Therapeutic use of storytelling for older children who are critically ill. CHC, 20(4), 208–215.
Freud, S. (1900). The Interpretation of Dreams. The standard edition. London: Hogarth Press.
Freud, S. (1915). The Unconscious. The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 14, pp. 117–140). London: Hogarth Press.
Freyberg, J. T. (1973). Increasing the imaginative play of urban disadvantaged kindergarten children through systematic training. In J. L. Singer (Ed.), The child’s world of make-believe: Experimental studies of imaginative play (pp. 129–154). New York: Academic Press.
Fuhriman, A., Barlow, S. H., & Wanlass, J. (1989). Words, imagination, meaning: Toward change. Psychotherapy, 26(2), 149–156.
Gottlieb, S. (1973). Modeling effects upon fantasy. In Jerome L. Singer (Ed.), The child’s world of make-believe: Experimental studies of imaginative play (pp. 155–168). New York: Academic Press.
Greenfield, P., Farrar, D., & Beagles-Roos, J. (1986). Is the medium the message?: An experimental comparison of the effects of radio and television on imagination. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 7, 201–218. ai]Hall, H. (1984). Imagery and cancer. In A. A. Sheikh’s (Ed.), Imagination and healing: Imagery and human development series (pp. 159–169). Farmingdale, NY: Baywood.
Harris, N. J., & Beggan, J. K. (1993–94). Making believe: A descriptive study of fantasies in middle childhood. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 13(2), 125–145.
Holman, C. H., Harmon, W. L., & Thrall, W. F. (1992). A handbook to literature (6th ed.). New York: Macmillan.
Kahn, L. (1994). Images of life: Stories as portraits of human development. Chicago: Jung Institute.
Kazkin, A. E. (1993). Psychotherapy for children and adolescents: Current progress and future research directions. American Psychologist, 48(6), 644–657.
Kosslyn, S. M. (1980). Image and the mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Langbaum, R. (1982). The mysteries of identity: A theme in modern literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Leuner, H. (1969). Guided affective imagery: a method of intensive psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 23(4), 4–22.
Leuner, H. (1977). Guided affective imagery: An account of its development. Journal of Mental Imagery, 1, 73–92
Locke, D. C, & Faubert, M. (1993). Getting on the right track: A program for African American high school students. School Counselor, 41(2) 129–133.
Maier, H. W., (1965). Three theories of child development. New York: Harper & Row.
McAdams, D. P. (1985). Power, intimacy and the life story. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.
Nielsen Media Research. (1993). Survey of American television viewers.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Pickard, E. (1990). Creative potential in adolescence. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2, 157–164.
Reid, M. (1988). Towards and epistemology of the imagination. Saybrook Review, 7(1), 21–33.
Rose, G. J. (1992). The power of form. A psychoanalytic approach to aesthetic form. Madison, CT: International Universities Press.
Rossman, M. L., & Bresler, D. E. (1993). Interactive guided imagery: Clinical techniques for brief therapy and health psychology (6th ed.). Mill Valley, CA: Academy for Guided Imagery.
Russ, S. W., & Grossman-McKee, A. (1990). Affective expression in children’s fantasy play, primary process thinking on the Rorschach, and divergent thinking. Journal of Personality Assessment, 54(3/4), 756–771.
Schultz, D. K. (1984). The use of imagery in alleviating depression, in A. A. Sheikh, (Ed.), Imagination and healing: Imagery and human development series (pp. 129–158). Farmingdale, NY: Baywood.
Shaeffer, C. I., Gold, S. R., & Henderson, B. B. (1986). Environmental influences on children’s fantasy. Cognition and Personality, 6(2), 151–157.
Sheikh, A. A. (1984). Imagination and healing: Imagery and human development series. Farmingdale, NY: Baywood.
Sheikh, A. A., & Jordan, C. S. (1983). Clinical uses of mental imagery. In A. A. Sheikh (Ed.), Imagery: Current theory, research and application (pp. 391–435). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Sheikh, A. A., & Kunzendorf, R. G. (1984). Imagery, physiology, and psychosomatic illness. In A. A. Sheikh (Ed.), International Review of Mental Imagery (pp. 95–138). New York: Human Sciences Press.
Sheikh, A. A., & Panagiotou, N. (1975). Use of mental imagery in psychotherapy: A critical review. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 41, 555–585.
Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Singer, J. (1966). Daydreaming. New York: Harper & Row.
Singer, J. (1975). Inner world of daydreaming. New York: Harper & Row.
Singer, J. (1977). Imagination and make-believe play in early childhood: Some educational implications. Journal of Mental Imagery, 1, 127–144.
Singer, J. L., & Rummo, J. (1973). Ideational creativity and behavioral style in kindergarten age children. Developmental Psychology, 8, 154–161.
Singer, J. L., & Singer, D. G. (1981). Television, imagination, and aggression: A study of preschoolers. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Singer, D. G., & Singer, J. L. (1990). The house of make believe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Spears-Burton, L. A. (1993). Cultural consciousness and response to literary texts among African American and European American high school juniors (Doctoral dissertation, University of Kentucky, 1993). Dissertation Abstracts International, 53, R-A 4195.
Taylor, M., Cartwright, B. S., & Carlson, S. M. (1993). A developmental investigation of children’s imaginary companions. Developmental Psychology, 29(2), 276–285.
Tower, R. B. (1983). Imagery: its role in development. In A. A. Sheikh, (Ed.), Imagery: Current theory, research and application (pp. 222–251). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Waterman, A. S. (1988). Identity status theory and Erikson’s theory: Communalities and differences. Developmental Review, 8, 185–208.
Watkins, M. (1988). Waking dreams. Dallas: Spring.
Weber, D. (1985). Basic content analysis. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research project was part of a pilot study that will be enhanced with her dissertation.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wonder, N.M., Rollin, S.A. Adolescents’ Use of Imagination in Lower Socioeconomic Environments. J Poetry Ther 10, 3–17 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391492
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391492