What is a chou chou?
Chou Chou – which literally translates to “smelly” in Mandarin, refers to a comforting item, which could be a tiny bolster, pillow stuff toy or blanket. Chous chous are also known as ‘bantal busuk’ in malay (meaning “smelly pillow”). You may even have one or know someone who does! For those with chou chous, you may have had them since you were a young child and it seems to be irreplaceable and a must-have before you go to sleep. Some of us seem to have attachments to Chou Chous, even in our adulthood. Such attachment to objects is defined as “the experience a person has when they feel an emotional attachment to an inanimate object and may even feel a sense of loss if they were to part with the object” (Schifferstein & Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, 2008).
Why do we have chou chous as kids?
Chou chous could be the ‘transitional object’ which young children often develop strong, consistent attachment towards. Having a chou chou when we were younger may have helped facilitate us to acquire different qualities and serve different psychological functions as we became more independent physically and emotionally (Litt, 1986). These items serve as an anxiety reducing and comforting function for children. In an experiment where children were grouped into a group – one with their attachment object, and one with their mothers, to play in a novel playroom. It was found that children with their attachment items played and explored the new rooms without showing distress for the same period of time as children who had their mothers in the room (Passman and Weisberg, 1975; Passman, 1976, 1977).
Benefits of Chou Chou as children
In the past, until the 1970s, psychologists believed that attachment to soft toys after a normative age were signs of a failing by the child’s mother. However, later research found that children with their beloved blankets at the doctor’s office expressed lower level of distress (Ybarra et al., 2000).
As we grow older, the need for a sense of security in these items may fade, but the attachment stays. In a small study of 230 middle-school students found that 21 percent of girls and 12 percent of boys were still using their security objects when they were ages 13 to 14 and 73 percent of the girls and 45 percent of the boys still knew where their beloved object was at (Pappas, 2010).
Why are some of us still so attached to our chou chous?
Even as adults, we can still be attached to objects (like chou chous) that means something to us. When we think about our chou chous, we may link it with a memory that we have, and this generates a sense of comfort depending on the content of the memory. Some has shared that their comfort item is a reminder of their childhood and is a symbol for happier times in life (Pappas, 2010).
Our attachment to our chou chous are linked to “essentialism”, the idea that items are more than just their physical entities (Pappas, 2010). Consider this scenario, if you were given an opportunity to exchange your chou chou for an exact replica of it, would you agree to exchange it? Most individuals would prefer their original beloved item compared to its duplicates (Pappas, 2010). Experiments have shown such a phenomenon, suggesting that we have an emotional connection to the item and not just one that looked like it (Pappas, 2010).
It was found that older adults who have held on to an object for several decades may find it more difficult to discard their items (Dozier & Ayers, 2021). This is due to increased difficulty in decision making (due to cognitive functioning declining with age) and past behaviour of keeping the item which heightens their perceived emotional attachment to the item (Dozier & Ayers, 2021). For example, a person who has kept their chou chou for decades may feel more attached to it due to the familiarity with the chou chou, and at the same time, it is more difficult for this person to make a decision, whether to throw it away or not. Thus, he or she assume that her earlier decision was right and decides to continue keeping it.
Chou chous definitely mean more than just the physical construct of it. If you have one, what does your chou chou mean to you?
Camellia Wong (MA), Tan Khai Teng
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Reference
Dozier, M. E., & Ayers, C. R. (2021). Object attachment as we grow older. Current Opinion in Psychology, 39, 105–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.08.012
Litt, C. J. (1986). Theories of transitional object attachment: An overview. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 9(3), 383–399. https://doi.org/10.1177/016502548600900308
Pappas, S. (2010, October 10). Even Grown-Ups Need Security Blankets. https://www.livescience.com/8737-grown-ups-security-blankets.html
Passman, R. H. (1976). Arousal reducing properties of attachment objects: Testing the functional limits of the security blanket relative to the mother. Developmental Psychology, 12(5), 468–469. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.12.5.468
Passman, R. H. (1977). Providing attachment objects to facilitate learning and reduce distress: Effects of mothers and security blankets. Developmental Psychology, 13(1), 25–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.13.1.25
Passman, R. H., & Weisberg, P. (1975). Mothers and blankets as agents for promoting play and exploration by young children in a novel environment: The effects of social and nonsocial attachment objects. Developmental Psychology, 11(2), 170–177. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0076464
Schifferstein, H. N., & Zwartkruis-Pelgrim, E. P. (2008). Consumer-product attachment: Measurement and design implications. International journal of design, 2(3).
Ybarra, G. J., Passman, R. H., & Eisenberg, C. S. (2000). The presence of security blankets or mothers (Or both) affects distress during pediatric examinations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(2), 322–330. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.68.2.322