In Memoriam
Jerome L. Singer

Jerome L. Singer, the distinguished psychologist who explored the depths ofdaydreaming and—alongside his wife, the eminent developmental psychologist
Dorothy G. Singer (1927–2016)—became a pioneer in the study of imaginativeplay, died on December 14, 2019. Jerome and Dorothy were charter members of
the editorial advisory board of the American Journal of Play. With his hundredsof publications over a half century of scholarship, Jerome Singer helped us better
understand the mysteries of human consciousness, daydreaming, fantasy, andthe child’s world of make-believe.
Born in New York City on February 6, 1924, Singer earned a bachelor’s
degree in psychology from the City University of New York in 1943. He joined
the U.S. Army’s 441st Counterintelligence Corps that year, and he served in
the Pacific until 1946. After World War II he studied clinical psychology andearned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. Soon after hebecame director of research at Franklin D. Roosevelt Veteran’s Hospital outside New York City. He later pursued private clinical practice in New York
City and served as a teaching affiliate at Teachers College Columbia University before becoming the director of the clinical psychology program at City
College of New York in 1963. In 1972 he moved to New Haven to direct Yale
University’s clinical psychology program. He had worked there as a professor, teacher, mentor, and researcher for more than four decades and, together
with Dorothy, codirected the Yale University Family Television Research andConsultation Center. In their more than three decades directing the center,
the Singers consulted with many of the most influential children’s television
programs of the late twentieth century, including Mister Rogers’ Neighborhoodand Barney & Friends.
Singer’s groundbreaking 1966 book Daydreaming: An Introduction to the251

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Experimental Study of Inner Experience demonstrated the positive and constructive aspects of a wandering mind while it laid the foundation for the modern
study of daydreaming. Singer built on this research in his books The Child’s
World of Make-Believe: Experimental Studies of Imaginative Play (1973) andThe Inner World of Daydreaming (1975), which examined, among other things,
the development of imaginative play and the childhood origins of daydreaming. Singer noted that childhood daydreaming first occurs around age two andevolves out of early make-believe play. Children develop these daydreams drawing from experiences interacting with and imitating adults as well as the stories
read, told, or presented to them in books, movies, and on television. These early
daydreams related to play—particularly positive ones focused on happiness andsuccess—can stimulate creativity and problem solving that allows children topractice life skills, which pays off later as adults. At a time when most people
viewed daydreams as distractions that should be discouraged, Singer demonstrated that these private thoughts were a natural part of children’s and adult’smental processes.
Imagination and make-believe remained at the core of Singer’s work,
and, together with Dorothy, he published widely on children’s pretend play
and the impact of television and media on children’s lives, including in theirTelevision, Imagination, and Aggression: A Study of Preschoolers (1981); The
House of Make-Believe: Children’s Play and the Developing Imagination (1990);
Make-Believe: Games and Activities for Imaginative Play: A Book for Parents,
Teachers, and the Young Children in Their Lives (2001); Handbook of Children and the Media (2001, 2012); and Imagination and Play in the Electronic
Age (2005). In many of these and other studies, the Singers articulated theirconcerns about the effects of mass media on children’s play as they observed
how certain kinds of movies, television, and video games replaced much ofchildren’s creativity in imagining worlds and stories with cultural products. Yet
they did not see television or video games as inherently problematic. Indeed,
they argued that children’s responses to such media depended on a varietyof factors, including the quality of the content, the amount consumed, andwhether or not adult care givers helped children make sense of what they haveconsumed by discussing it with them. In this way, these forms of media hadgreat potential to be used by educators and care givers as tools to promotehealthy development and behavior.
Whether exploring daydreaming, fantasy play, or children’s television programming, so much of their life’s work focused on the critical importance ofIn Memoriam: Jerome L. Singer

imaginative play and its role in cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development. It was ultimately this work and their pioneering contributions to thefield of play, as Dorothy noted in a 2012 American Journal of Play interview, that“gives us the most satisfaction.”—Jeremy K. Saucier

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