Schoolchildren's Criteria for “Alive”: A Content Analysis Approach

Summary

Studies of the development of the concept of life have typically used approaches focussing on children's use of “movement” as a criterion. An alternative approach was designed to overcome some of the problems of earlier studies. A photograph of an unfamiliar object was shown to 944 boys and girls in grades 2-10. They were asked to write down as many ways as possible of determining whether the object was alive. The responses were examined with use of a content analysis scheme largely based upon the ideas expressed in a sample of the response sheets. In addition to behavioral criteria consistent with previous animism studies, many children suggested structural and functional criteria and demonstrated that they had a more complex concept of “life” than previous writers suggest. The majority of pupils in grades 3-10 used at least two of the following categories: behavior, physiological function, internal structure and composition, and external structure.