Question

According to Piaget, magical thinking is common during the preschool years because:_________

1. parents often read magical fairy tales to their children.
2. assigning human purposes to physical events helps young children develop representational thought.
3. young children egocentrically assign human purposes to physical events.
4. it is more entertaining to young children than reasoning by analogy.

Answer 1

3. young children egocentrically assign human purposes to physical events.

Step-by-step explanation:

• Magical thinking is the act of believing that one's wishes and thoughts would influence the outside physical world.
• According to Jean Piaget, magical thinking occurs during the second stage of her theory of cognitive development.
• It is the preoperational stage starting from the age of two till the age of seven. During this stage, young children may engage in magical thinking through the use of symbols, images or language to indicate something that is not real.
• Young children at this stage are usually very egocentric and cannot differentiate between reality and fantasy.