Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Reyhaneh Noorinezhad ¹
• Afzal Sadat Hosseini ²

¹ Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education , Tehran Branch, Tehran University, Tehran , Iran.

² Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education , Tehran Branch, Tehran University, Tehran , Iran.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate visual representations of the concept of God in drawings by Iranian girls in grades 1 to 3 during the 2024–2025 academic year in Tehran. Using a qualitative thematic analysis, 246 drawings were collected and examined. For quantitative analysis of dominant colors, Python was utilized with OpenCV for image processing, k-means clustering via scikit-learn, and color palettes plotted using Matplotlib and Seaborn. The pre-trained ResNet50 model was also employed to extract advanced visual features. Results revealed that children depicted God through symbols such as light, clouds, human faces, angels, and natural elements, reflecting their religious beliefs, experiences, and cultural context. Younger children’s drawings were more concrete, while older children’s representations were more symbolic. Emotional colors and affective symbols were prominent, indicating the important role of emotional factors in children’s religious experiences. This research highlights the Iranian cultural context, offers new perspectives for comparative studies in non-Western societies, and calls for revising purely cognitive models of religious development.

Keywords

• Children painting
• Cognitive growth
• Religious development
• Representation of God
• Thematic analysis