The Union College Psychology Department Speaker Series and Honors Colloquium welcome
Paul Harris, D. Phil., Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education
for a public lecture entitled
Young Children’s Imagination
Thursday, September 18, 2025
12:45 - 1:50 PM • Karp 105
Lunch and refreshments will be provided
Classic theories of development (Piaget, Freud) adopted a negative stance toward young children’s imagination – implying that a tendency toward fantasy and wishful thinking is gradually suppressed in the course of development by children’s growing objectivity and rationality. I argue instead that children’s imagination is firmly connected to reality from the start. It allows them to think about what might happen in the future and what might have happened in the past. Indeed, young children’s ability to contemplate realistic possibilities increases during development – allowing them to become more creative and insightful.