Paul L. Harris

Child psychology as a scientific enterprise is about 100 years old, but while numerous textbooks and practical guides are available, the more meditative questions about the nature of a child's mind are rarely asked. This book explores some of the enduring questions in developmental psychology: How do children form an attachment to their caregivers? How do they learn words? In their imagination, are they confused - or clear-sighted - about the difference between fantasy and reality? How do they decide who to trust? In each case, Paul Harris shows why these questions are important, proposes likely answers, and explains the uncertainties that persist. He outlines important landmarks, both well-known and neglected, and explores broader questions about theories of mind, morality, and cross-cultural differences.

This collection of essays is written in memory of Roger H. Prentice (1943-2022). Prentice was born in New Brunswick and brought up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A Dalhousie University graduate, he also graduated from Acadia University and then served as a pastor at Amherst, Nova Scotia and St. Stephen, New Brunswick. In 1979, Prentice began his studies in Baptist History at Oxford University under the direction of the late Dr. B. R. White at Regent's Park College. Upon his return in 1983, he became a minister at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. In 1985, Prentice became dean of the Manning Memorial Chapel and served as University Chaplain at Acadia University until he retired in 2007. Throughout his ministry, Prentice had a unique way of combining preaching, leading worship, and pastoral counseling together with involvement in his local community. A pastor, author, wise guide, and friend to many, in retirement he served on numerous boards and committees including the Acadia University Senate. Prentice's service within the church, particularly among Maritime Baptists, and in the wider community, was recognized when he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Acadia University, the Queen's Jubilee Medal, and the Canadian Senate's Sesquicentennial Medal. Recognizing his faithful work and witness over many years, this memorial volume brings together a variety of essays and reflections on themes including: Baptist theology and identity, spirituality, chaplaincy and ministry, worship and the arts, and engagement with the wider world.

Children's imagination was traditionally seen as a wayward, desire-driven faculty that is eventually constrained by rationality. A more recent, Romantic view claims that young children's fertile imagination is increasingly dulled by schooling. Contrary to both perspectives, this Element argues that, paradoxically, children's imagination draws much inspiration from reality. Hence, when they engage in pretend play, envision the future, or conjure up counterfactual possibilities, children rarely generate fantastical possibilities. Their reality-guided imagination enables children to plan ahead and to engage in informative thought experiments. Nevertheless, when adults present children with less reality-based possibilities – via biblical narratives or the endorsement of special beings – children are receptive. Indeed, such imaginary possibilities can infuse their otherwise commonsensical appraisal of reality. Finally, like adults, young children enjoy being absorbed into a make-believe, fictional world but faced with real-world problems calling for creativity, they often need guidance, given their limited knowledge of prior solutions.

If children were little scientists who learn best through firsthand observations and mini-experiments, as conventional wisdom holds, how would a child discover that the earth is round—never mind conceive of heaven as a place someone might go after death? Overturning both cognitive and commonplace theories about how children learn, Trusting What You’re Told begins by reminding us of a basic truth: Most of what we know we learned from others. Children recognize early on that other people are an excellent source of information. And so they ask questions. But youngsters are also remarkably discriminating as they weigh the responses they elicit. And how much they trust what they are told has a lot to do with their assessment of its source. Trusting What You’re Told opens a window into the moral reasoning of elementary school vegetarians, the preschooler’s ability to distinguish historical narrative from fiction, and the six-year-old’s nuanced stance toward magic: skeptical, while still open to miracles. Paul Harris shares striking cross-cultural findings, too, such as that children in religious communities in rural Central America resemble Bostonian children in being more confident about the existence of germs and oxygen than they are about souls and God. We are biologically designed to learn from one another, Harris demonstrates, and this greediness for explanation marks a key difference between human beings and our primate cousins. Even Kanzi, a genius among bonobos, never uses his keyboard to ask for information: he only asks for treats.

This book demonstrates how children's imagination makes a continuing contribution to their cognitive and emotional development.

This book will be of interest to psychologists, educators and philosophers. It highlights the child's increasing insight into the complexity and subtlety of our mental life.