Toy as a conditional object

Ryabkova I.A.; Sheina E.G.

doi:10.17759/jmfp.2018070408

Previous issue (2021. Vol. 10, no. 1)

Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology

Publisher: Moscow State University of Psychology and Education

ISSN (online): 2304-4977

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/jmfp

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology
2018. Vol. 7, no. 4, 75–81
doi:10.17759/jmfp.2018070408
ISSN: 2304-4977 (online)

Toy as a conditional object ⁶⁰⁷

Ryabkova I.A.
Educational Psychologist at the Moscow City Center of Psychological and Pedagogical Expertise of Games and Toys, Moscow State University of Psychology & Education, Moscow, Russia
e-mail: ibaladinskaya@gmail.com

Sheina E.G.
senior research fellow, the department of psychological expertise of games and toys, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia
e-mail: leshgp@gmail.com

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The paper presents the review of literature devoted to research of toys. The authors’ focus is on the main function or special characteristics of a toy, that make it a toy. A toy is understood as a specifically playing object which means that it possesses the main characteristic of a play – the discrepancy between real and semantic field, i.e. it possesses conditionality. Conditionality of a play object provokes a person to attribute some meanings to the object i.e. it stimulates him to create imaginary situations. Imagination or creation of an imaginary situation is connected with the inner world, with the personal experience of a player, which a toy can only discover, but not produce. This paper presents research data that show that a toy does not develop a child by itself. For example, it cannot be a source of aggressive behavior or early sexualization, just like it cannot teach kindness and mutual assistance.

Keywords: play, toy, play materials, object substitution, play environment

Column: Developmental psychology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/jmfp.2018070408

For Reference

Ryabkova I.A., Sheina E.G. Toy as a conditional object [Elektronnyi resurs]. Sovremennaia zarubezhnaia psikhologiia = Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology, 2018. Vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 75–81. doi:10.17759/jmfp.2018070408. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

This work was supported by grant RFBR № 18-013-01226 «Peculiarities of role substitution in the game of preschoolers with functionally specific and multifunctional material».

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