The outstanding Russian scientist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896-1934), who worked in many areas of psychology and created several original scientific theories, did everything possible to ensure that child psychology became a full-fledged science, with its own subject, method and laws; he did everything so that this science could solve the most important practical problems of teaching and raising children. The stages of formation and development of Russian child psychology are inextricably linked with the name of Vygotsky.
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M.: EKSMO-Press, 2000. - 1008 p. (Series “World of Psychology”).
The book contains all the main works of the outstanding Russian scientist, one of the most authoritative and famous psychologists, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky.
The structural construction of the book is made taking into account the program requirements for the courses “General Psychology” and “Developmental Psychology” of psychological faculties of universities.
For students, teachers and everyone interested in psychology. Contents: Methodology
Historical meaning of psychological crisis General psychology
Psychology
About behavior and reactions
Three elements of reaction
Reaction and reflex
Hereditary and acquired reactions
Hereditary or unconditioned reflexes
Instincts
Origin of hereditary reactions
The doctrine of conditioned reflexes
Super reflexes
Complex forms of conditioned reflexes
The most important laws of higher nervous activity (behavior) of a person
Laws of inhibition and disinhibition
Psyche and reaction
Animal behavior and human behavior
Adding reactions into behavior
The principle of dominance in behavior
The constitution of man in connection with his behavior
Instincts
Origin of instincts
The relationship between instinct, reflex and reason
Instincts and biogenetic laws
Two extremes in views on instinct
Instinct as a mechanism of education
The concept of sublimation
Emotions
Concept of emotions
Biological nature of emotions
Psychological nature of emotions
Attention
Psychological nature of attention
Installation characteristics
Indoor and outdoor installation
Attention and distraction
Biological significance of the installation
Attention and habit
Physiological correlate of attention
The work of attention in general
Attention and apperception
Memory and imagination: consolidation and reproduction of reactions
The concept of plasticity of matter
Psychological nature of memory
Composition of the memory process
Memory types
Individual characteristics of memory
Limits of memory development
Interest and emotional coloring
Forgetting and erroneous remembering
Psychological functions of memory
Memory technique
Two types of playback
Reality of fantasy
Functions of the imagination
Thinking as a particularly complex form of behavior
The motor nature of thought processes
Conscious behavior and will
Psychology of language
Me and It
Analysis and synthesis
Temperament and character
Meaning of terms
Temperament
Body structure and character
Four types of temperament
The problem of vocation and psychotechnics
Endogenous and exogenous character traits About psychological systems
Consciousness as a problem in behavioral psychology
Psyche, consciousness, unconscious
Thinking and speech Preface
Problem and research method
The problem of child speech and thinking in the teachings of J. Piaget
The problem of speech development in the teachings of V. Stern
Genetic roots of thinking and speech
Experimental study of concept development
Research on the development of scientific concepts in childhood
Thought and word Developmental psychology
History of the development of higher mental functions.
The problem of the development of higher mental functions
Research method
Analysis of higher mental functions
Structure of higher mental functions
Genesis of higher mental functions
Oral speech development
Background to the development of written speech
Development of arithmetic operations
Mastering attention
Development of mnemonic and mnemotechnical functions
Development of speech and thinking
Mastering your own behavior
Education of higher forms of behavior
The problem of cultural age
Conclusion. Future avenues of research. Development of the child’s personality and worldview Lectures on psychology
Lecture one. Perception and its development in childhood
Lecture two. Memory and its development in childhood
Lecture three. Thinking and its development in childhood
Lecture four. Emotions and their development in childhood
Lecture five. Imagination and its development in childhood
Lecture six. The problem of will and its development in childhood Tool and sign in child development
Chapter first. The problem of practical intelligence in animal psychology and child psychology
Experiments on the practical intelligence of a child
The function of speech in the use of tools. The problem of practical and verbal intelligence
Speech and practical action in child behavior
Development of higher forms of practical activity in a child
Path of development in the light of facts
Function of socialized and egocentric speech
Changing the function of speech in practical activities
Chapter two. The function of signs in the development of higher mental processes
Development of higher forms of perception
Division of the primary unity of sensorimotor functions
Rebuilding memory and attention
Arbitrary structure of higher mental functions
Chapter three. Sign operations and organization of mental processes
The problem of the sign in the formation of higher mental functions
Social genesis of higher mental functions
Basic rules for the development of higher mental functions
Chapter Four. Analysis of the child’s sign operations
Structure of a sign operation
Genetic analysis of sign surgery
Further development of sign operations
Chapter five. Methodology for studying higher mental functions
Conclusion. The Problem of Functional Systems
Use of tools in animals and humans
Word and action Questions of child psychology
Age problem
The problem of age periodization of child development
Structure and dynamics of age
The problem of age and development dynamics
Infancy
Newborn period
Social situation of development in infancy
Genesis of the main neoplasm of infancy
Main neoplasm of infancy
Basic theories of infancy
Crisis of the first year of life
Early childhood
Crisis of three years
Seven Years Crisis
Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) was the same age as J. Piaget and his main opponent, but he had to live and work in the field of psychology almost half a century less than his famous colleague. And he had barely a dozen employees, and not 500, as in the International Center of J. Piaget. But he became the founder of Soviet psychology, and in the last two decades he has been rediscovered abroad, in the USA, by revising and developing his work. There it is attributed to the cognitive direction, considering Vygotsky’s central question the idea that the development of a child’s intelligence depends on the historical development of knowledge, that the world acquires meaning for us as we assimilate the meanings shared by the people around us. We develop our understanding of the world through collaboration with more knowledgeable people. We are not only given knowledge, but also taught and given examples of methods of cognitive activity.
In analyzing the cognitive development of a child, L. S. Vygotsky proposed to distinguish between two levels. What a child can do and understand on his own is his real level of development, and what he can do and understand with the help of an adult or more knowledgeable peers is his zone of proximal development. The closest level shows capabilities, the real one shows training. So, in elementary school, many students cannot solve a problem on their own, but if the teacher asks questions about what is given, what needs to be learned, what needs to be learned first, and so on, the students successfully solve it. Questions ask them how to reason, and the task becomes understandable and accessible. Americans call this “learning in thinking.”
The transition from the zone of proximal development to the level of real, actual development occurs in education, both at school and in life. It is learning that drives development and leads it along. This formula of L. S. Vygotsky became fundamental in the Soviet education system. But diagnostics taking into account the zone of proximal development have yet to be developed; without this aspect, testing will not give an objective picture.
In contrast to the theorists of behavioral psychology (behaviorism) and psychoanalysis, L. S. Vygotsky set his task to study consciousness - “the pinnacle psychology.” He affirms the cultural-historical and symbolic nature of consciousness. Signs and meanings are created by society, their assimilation reorganizes the child’s mental activity. In his work “Development of Higher Mental Functions” (1931), as well as in his main work “Thinking and Speech” (1934), he showed the presence of lower, natural mental processes and higher functions, which differ in the level of voluntariness, they can be controlled . Higher mental functions are mediated by signs, mainly speech; they are acquired in communication with adults and only then pass into the internal plane of consciousness through the mechanism of interiorization. This is the “rebirth of a function,” opening the way to its further improvement. For example, a child’s memory as a recording of emotionally charged events is not similar to a schoolchild’s memory, which is based on logical text processing, repetition and self-test. Equally secondary are logical thinking, detailed perception, will, self-awareness - the entire psyche of a developed person.
L. S. Vygotsky did not highlight the problem of personality; he believed that the cultural (secondary) aspect of a child’s attitude to the world is an indicator of his general, including personal development. Personality is identified with self-awareness. Personality is supernatural in a person, the result of his cultural development; it is formed in the process of interiorization of traditions, social forms of behavior, which become methods of individual adaptation and self-regulation.
Personal structures are a fusion of affect and intellect; they are the result of experiencing environmental influences. Depending on the age and development of intelligence, a child experiences even the same influences differently. This is the “social situation of development” - a concept introduced by L. S. Vygotsky. Development can be smooth, evolutionary and abrupt, crisis. Crises change the social situation, strain relationships and take the child to a new stage of development. These are the pros and cons of crises.
The periods of mental development were determined empirically and therefore coincide among different authors. L. S. Vygotsky proposed the scientific basis for periodization, highlighting two criteria: dynamic and substantive. According to the first criterion, the period is considered as calm, lytic, or stormy, critical. According to the second criterion, new formations are distinguished that are characteristic of a given age: type of intelligence, type of activity, personal position, etc. He described in detail the critical periods: the neonatal crisis, the crisis of one year, three years, seven years, thirteen, seventeen. Each one highlights both destructive tendencies and creative, positive ones that make up personal growth.
The social environment in the concept of L. S. Vygotsky does not oppose the individual and does not serve only as a condition for maturation; it is a source of development that shapes ever new complex forms of an individual’s mental life. Education as a general form of social life rebuilds the system of consciousness.
L. S. Vygotsky formulated a number of laws of child mental development.
1. Development is a qualitative change, and a child is not a small adult.
2. Mental development does not coincide with physical age; it has its own rhythm and pace. A year of life in childhood is not equal to a year of life in adolescence.
3. Each function, each aspect of the child’s psyche develops in its own time, has a peak of manifestations and subsequent attenuation, stabilization. Thus, children have a pronounced growth function; they strive to become more mature, but in adolescence this desire is minimized and fades away. A change in one function causes a change in others, and consciousness remains a systemic formation. (For example, the development of speech causes the development of verbal memory, logical thinking, etc.)
The concept of L. S. Vygotsky, which developed in the early 30s of the last century, had certain shortcomings.
1. In the structure of consciousness, the intellect is presented in detail and the motivational-need sphere is much weaker.
2. Communication, as the basis of cognitive development, was reduced to verbal interaction without due attention to the instrumental objective activity of the child himself.
3. While sharply emphasizing the role of assimilation of social experience, the role of one’s own activity in personality development was underestimated.
4. The concept was poorly supported by facts.
However, the approach to explaining the essence of mental development was so new and convincing that on its basis the most interesting studies were carried out by the students and followers of L. S. Vygotsky.
An important role in the development of genetic psychology during the Soviet period was played by Sergei Leonidovich Rubinstein (1889-1960). In his monumental work “Fundamentals of General Psychology” (1940), he summarized all the data available in world science at that time on the development of each mental process, personality traits and activities. He formulated the basic principle of development as “external through internal” - external influences are refracted through the internal state of a person, his needs, interests, level of readiness to perceive these influences. There is no separate development process - a child develops in the process of learning and upbringing.
The cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky was further developed in the works of his students and followers. Alexey Nikolaevich Leontiev (1903-1979) introduces the category of activity into psychology, highlighting motives, goals, means and methods in its structure. If Vygotsky presents learning, the “appropriation” of social experience, mainly as verbal communication between a child and an adult, then A. N. Leontiev shows the role of children’s activities organized by adults. The child’s own actions are the main way of “appropriating” historical experience, the way of forming the abilities necessary for such actions. The forms and types of activity may be different, but in each age period a certain activity acts as the leading activity, most influencing development and giving rise to mental new formations. It serves as the main characteristic of age. A change in leading activity marks a transition to a new age level. A. N. Leontiev studied play as the leading activity of a preschooler in more detail.
Daniil Borisovich Elkonin (1904-1984) identified two types of leading activities. In the first type, it is aimed at mastering the basic meanings of human actions: motives and norms of relationships in the human world. This is the emotional communication of a baby, the play of a preschooler, and the communication of teenagers. Another type includes the assimilation of methods of action in the world of objects. These are the child’s objective manipulations, the educational activities of a primary school student, and the educational and professional activities of a high school student. D. B. Elkonin devoted a special study to role-playing game, presenting it as a model of social relations (“Psychology of Game”, 1978).
Together with V.V. Davydov, D.B. Elkonin developed a system of developmental education in primary school, providing a higher level of theoretical thinking for children.
Lidiya Ilyinichna Bozhovich (1908-1981) studied the personal aspects of mental development, the emotional-need sphere. It proves that the basic human need that ensures development is the need for new experiences, the need for novelty. It is expressed in the orienting reflex, necessary for the formation of any conditioned reflex. Novelty causes imitation and assimilation of social experience. Communication and attachment to an adult as a source of information develop on this need; interests and inclinations are based on it. No impact on a child’s personality will be effective without elements of novelty.
Research into personality ontogenesis was continued by Maya Ivanovna Lisina. She considered communication as a type of activity, highlighting its motives, goals and means. The child’s mastery of new forms of communication with adults determines the social situation of development and serves as a condition and indicator of development.
Versatile research into the psychology of preschool childhood was conducted by Alexander Vladimirovich Zaporozhets and the staff of the Scientific Research Institute of Preschool Education of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the USSR, which he created. Opposing the early education of children according to school programs, he substantiated the idea of amplification, that is, development through the enrichment of children's activities: games, visual and subject activities, enrichment of the subject environment. (The importance of the early periods of childhood for the formation of a child’s personality).
A. V. Zaporozhets investigated the significance of practical actions in the development of voluntary behavior in children, and identified perceptual actions as the basis for the development of perception and sensations. The actions of feeling, examining, and comparing with a standard allow you to create a clear image of an object. On this theoretical basis, methods of sensory education in preschool institutions were created.
Under the editorship of A.V. Zaporozhets and D.B. Elkonin, collective monographs “Psychology of preschool children. Development of cognitive processes" and "Psychology of personality and activity of a preschool child."
Psychologists of the Soviet period studied the patterns of mental development, focusing mainly on the conditions of organized influence of an adult on a child in preschool institutions and school. There, the main postulate of L. S. Vygotsky, “learning drives development,” was more clearly visible. The spontaneous activity of the child and the conditions of family upbringing as important factors in the development of personality are less represented.
Questions of child psychology Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
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Title: Issues in child psychology
About the book “Questions of Child Psychology” by Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
Lev Semenovich Vygotsky is an outstanding Soviet psychologist who made a huge contribution to child psychology and to the theory of developmental learning. His work “Issues of Child Psychology” is an important step towards understanding the child’s personality both for teachers and for every parent, so this book must be read by everyone who is involved with children, from infancy to primary school age.
Lev Semenovich very thoroughly brings the reader to the problem of age-based periodization of child development. Starting to read the work, we are faced with examples of several groups of periodization of children's development according to various characteristics and evidence of their inconsistency. After much research, the author comes to the conclusion that the most correct criterion for dividing a child’s development into separate periods is the so-called age-related crises - sharp leaps in mental, emotional and social development. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky dedicated this book to each of these periods, their transitions and connections with each other.
The author begins the description of age periodization from infancy, namely, from the neonatal period. The psychologist dwells in detail on the features of the daily routine and lifestyle of a recently born baby - the organization of sleep and vigorous activity, nutritional rules, interaction with parents and the immediate environment, and especially with the mother.
Vygotsky also reveals the connection between the baby’s physical development and the emotional and speech, as well as the social environment. Thanks to the research of a Soviet scientist, we can understand all the sensations that the baby experiences during birth and in the next few months. This chapter ends with the first crisis situation, which takes the child to a qualitatively new level - the crisis of the first year.
With the beginning of this period, the baby experiences new mental changes associated with a deeper knowledge of the world: the child masters walking and begins to master speech. Also, the first age crisis is characterized by the active development of the emotional-volitional sphere. Parents notice that their obedient and curious baby becomes stubborn and more capricious, often protesting against authoritarian methods of influence. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky not only describes the features of this period, but also gives valuable advice to parents and teachers on how to communicate with a one-year-old child in accordance with the situation in which his personality is developing.
In addition to these topics, the book “Issues of Child Psychology” highlights the features of the development of a child’s personality during early childhood and senior preschool age, and also provides a detailed description of the crises of three and seven years.
