Children's understanding of psychogenic bodily reactions

One hundred twenty-eight children in preschool through fifth grade (range = 4,3-11,4) and 76 adults serving as a comparison group participated in two studies that examined how children reason about psychogenic bodily reaction s, that is, ailments or nonconscious physiological responses with origins i n the mind (e.g, stress-induced headache). Psychogenic bodily reactions pro vide an opportunity to study how children integrate knowledge between the d omains of bodily response and psychology. In Study I, participants were ask ed whether various familiar psychogenic bodily reactions were possible (e.g ., can someone get a tummyache from worrying?). In Study 2, participants we re presented with a novel domain (hypothetical "aliens" from outer space) a nd were asked whether various unfamiliar bodily conditions (e.g., toes swel ling) could arise from various physical or psychological causes. As predict ed, adults typically reported that psychogenic bodily reactions were possib le, and that unfamiliar bodily conditions could result from either psycholo gical or physical causes. In contrast, young children typically denied that psychogenic bodily reactions could occur and predicted that unfamiliar bod ily conditions resulted from physical causes only. The results support a de velopmental path: younger children view psychogenic bodily responses as who lly physical, but with age, view them as both physical and psychological ph enomena.