Editing Imaginary friend (section)

==Description==
In some studies, imaginary friends are defined as children impersonating a specific character (imagined by them), or objects or toys that are personified.<ref name="Taylor 2004">{{cite journal|last1=Taylor|first1=Marjorie|last2=Carlson|first2=Stephanie|last3=Maring|first3=Bayta|last4=Gerow|first4=Lynn|last5=Charley|first5=Carolyn|title=The characteristics and correlates of fantasy in school-age children: Imaginary friends, impersonation, and social understanding|journal=Developmental Psychology|volume=40|issue=6|pages=1173–1187|doi=10.1037/0012-1649.40.6.1173|pmid=15535765|year=2004|s2cid=16472272}}</ref> However, some psychologists will define an imaginary friend only as a separate created character.<ref name="Gleason">{{cite book|last1=Gleason|first1=Tracy|title=The Oxford handbook of the development of imagination|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-539576-1}}</ref> Imaginary friends can be people, but they can also take the shape of other characters such as animals or other abstract ideas such as ghosts, monsters, robots, aliens or angels.<ref name="Taylor 2004" /><ref name="taylor & mannering">{{cite book|last1=Taylor|first1=Marjorie|last2=Mannering|first2=Anne|chapter=Of Hobbes and Harvey: The imaginary friends created by children and adults.|editor1-last=Göncü|editor1-first=Artin|editor2-last=Gaskins|editor2-first=Suzanne|title=Play and development: Evolutionary, sociocultural, and functional perspectives|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780805863147|url-access=registration|date=2006|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780805863147/page/227 227]–245}}</ref> These characters can be created at any point during a lifetime, though Western culture suggests they are most acceptable in preschool- and school-age children.<ref name="Taylor 2004" /><ref name=Gleason /><ref name="taylor & mannering" />
Most research agrees that girls are more likely than boys to develop imaginary friends.<ref name="Carlson 2005">{{cite journal | last1 = Carlson | first1 = S.M. | last2 = Taylor | first2 = M. | year = 2005 | title = Imaginary companions and impersonated characters: Sex differences in children's fantasy play | journal = Merrill-Palmer Quarterly | volume = 51 | pages = 93–118 | doi=10.1353/mpq.2005.0003| s2cid = 14359259 }}</ref>  Once children reach school age, boys and girls are equally likely to have an imaginary companion.<ref name="taylor & mannering" /> Research has often reiterated that there is not a specific "type" of child that creates an imaginary friend. When children have fantasies, they may come to believe that some [[fictional universe|imaginary world exists in another universe]] or create an [[Paracosm|imaginary world for their imaginary friends to live in]].<ref name="Taylor 2004" /><ref name="taylor & mannering" />

Research has shown that imaginary friends are a normative part of childhood and even adulthood.<ref name="Taylor 2004" /><ref name=Gleason /><ref name="taylor & mannering" /><ref name=Gopnik /> Additionally, some psychologists<ref name=Gleason /><ref name ="Gopnik">{{cite book|last1=Gopnik|first1=Alison|author-link=Alison Gopnik |title=The philosophical baby : what children's minds tell us about truth, love, and the meaning of life|date=2010|publisher=Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux|location=New York|isbn=978-0-312-42984-3|edition=1st Picador|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/philosophicalbab00alis}}</ref> suggest that imaginary friends are much like a fictional character created by an author.
As [[Eileen Kennedy-Moore]] points out, "Adult fiction writers often talk about their characters taking on a life of their own, which may be an analogous process to children’s invisible friends."<ref>Kennedy-Moore, Eileen (2013) "Imaginary Friends: Are invisible friends a sign of social problems?" Psychology Today; Growing Friendships blog. 31 January 2013. [http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/growing-friendships/201301/imaginary-friends] (accessed: 24 May 2013)</ref> In addition, Marjorie Taylor and her colleagues have found that fiction writers are more likely than average to have had imaginary friends as children.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Taylor | first1 = M. | last2 = Hodges | first2 = S. D. | last3 = Kohányi | first3 = A. | year = 2002 | title = The Illusion of Independent Agency: Do adult fiction writers experience their characters as having minds of their own? | journal = Imagination, Cognition and Personality | volume = 22 | issue = 4| pages = 361–380 | doi=10.2190/ftg3-q9t0-7u26-5q5x| s2cid = 14988767 }}</ref>

There is a difference between the common imaginary friends that many children create, and the imaginary voices of psychopathology. Often when there’s a psychological disorder and any inner voices are present, they add negativity to the conversation. The person with the disorder may sometimes believe that the imagined voices are physically real, not an imagined inner dialog.<ref name=Gleason /><ref name="taylor & mannering" />

Imaginary friends can serve various functions. Playing with imaginary friends enables children to enact behaviors and events they have not yet experienced. Imaginary play allows children to use their imagination to construct knowledge of the world. In addition, imaginary friends might also fulfill children's innate desire to connect with others before actual play among peers is common. According to psychologist [[Lev Vygotsky]], cultural tools and interaction with people mediate psychological functioning and cognitive development. Imaginary friends, perceived as real beings, could teach children how to interact with others along with many other social skills. Vygotsky's sociocultural view of child development includes the notion of children's “zone of proximal development,” which is the difference between what children can do with and without help. Imaginary friends can aid children in learning things about the world that they could not learn without help, such as appropriate social behavior, and thus can act as a scaffold for children to achieve slightly above their social capability.{{citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In addition, imaginary friends also serve as a means for children to experiment with and explore the world. In this sense, imaginary companions also relate to Piaget's theory of child development because they are completely constructed by the child. According to Piaget, children are scientific problem solvers who self-construct experiences and build internal mental structures based on experimentation. The creation of and interaction with imaginary companions helps children to build such mental structures. The relationship between a child and their imaginary friend can serve as a catalyst for the formation of real relationships in later development and thus provides a head start to practising real-life interaction.