The Pros And Cons Of Fantasy Orientation

Traditionally, children who were perceived to be highly imaginative and involved in pretend play were believed to be at risk for developing mental disorders like schizophrenia (Sperling, 1954). However, in recent years, these types of behaviours and thinking, for instance, having an imaginary companion, have become accepted as normal aspects of development in children (Taylor, 1999). Research has also indicated an individual difference in children’s engagement in fantasy, some are more reality focused and others more fantasy oriented. Fantasy orientation (FO) has been described as “an individual’s tendency to think and play in a fantastical realm” (Sharon & Woolley, 2004; Singer & Singer, 1990; Taylor, Cartwright & Carlson, 1993). It is suggested to be an individual difference that is stable throughout childhood and sometimes even progresses into adulthood, for instance highly fantasy oriented children tend to go into careers that entail creativity as adults such as those involving art, theatre and writing. These children who are high in FO explain their world through fantasy; they are interested in fantastical toys and games and believe in fantastical entities. Furthermore, it is suggested that these children often engage in pretend or role play as well as have an Imaginary Companion (IC), for example, boys sometimes are seen to refer to their bedroom as a superheroes haven and girls instead refer to theirs as a fairy’s castle.

Initial studies of fantasy in children mostly involved either a detailed observation of children’s play (Griffiths, 1935; Piaget, 1962) or a normative investigation of children’s stories, daydreams, and reported play activities (Ames, 1966; Green, 1923). Observation studies of imaginative/pretend play pr...

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...ording to what they think themselves. Likewise, this measure could have been addressed by proving the participants with a ‘Don’t know option’ which removes the forced choice aspect of the questionnaire.

One could also suggest that this questionnaire could have been further developed by incorporating other measures of fantasy orientation in order to heighten the reliability of the results obtained. For instance, the Fantasy Toy Preference Task (Taylor & Carlson, 1997) which involved children having to choose between a fantasy oriented toy (magic wand)/colouring book (Peter Pan/Tinkerbelle on the cover) or a reality oriented toy (a pinwheel)/colouring book (children selling lemonade on the cover). This task calculates the number of fantasy items chosen for a toy fantasy score of 0-2, therefore using the number of fantasy items chosen as an indicator of levels of FO.