DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY - SOCIOCULUTRAL THEORIES OF DEVELOPMENT Flashcards
Who is lev Vygotsky?
Russian psychologist working in Marxist era
- sceptical of reductionist approaches
- saw society like the culture and organisation as important factors in sharpening children’s psychological development
What did Vygotsky propose?
A sociocultural theory of congivitve development
Whats the major contributions of Vygotsky?
Social factors, given little consideration in Piaget theory
What did Piaget emphasis in the unit of study?
Emphasis the child as active constructor of their own cognition
Views children as little scientists
Limited emphasis on social factors
How did Piaget see the social environment as?
External, distinct from the child
- serves only to motivate change in equilibration
What did Vygotsky say about unit of study?
Agrees that children actively construct their own cognition
- agrees social factors cause cognitive change
But goes beyond thi
- cognition is inherently social
- cognition incorporates socially evolved tools like language, art.
- children construct their own knowledge from the tools and ko shared by the culture
Whats the principles of Vygotskys theory?
Sociocultural origins
- developmental through social interactions
Cultural tools
- developmental through psychological tools
Less explicit than Piaget
Whats the sociocultural origins of cognition?
Mental functioning is based on social process
- development occurs in social interactions
- which influence development
- cognitions built by internalising socially shared process
Whats examples of internalisation?
- learning to point
Learning to point
- Vygotsky suggest pointing evolves from unsuccessful reaching
Adults interpret act as directing shared attention to the object
Child comes to link the act with its social function
Explain the example of internalisation tying shoelaces?
Adults assists child with verbal guidance
Child follows instructions, eventually internalising them
And no longer needs to hear instructions
Whats the zone of proximal developmental?
Distance between a child’s actual level of development and his/her higher level of development when duiding by a more able person
Whats the importance of zone of proximal developmental?
Gives a fuller picture of child’s abilities - potential competence need to gauge level of task complexity for successful learning
What does wood argue about ZPD?
- mothers asked to teach 4-5 year olds how t build a toy.
E xamined interactions
Children learn little when mother demonstrates/talks the task through
Children learn most when mother determines childs understanding
and offers instructions accordingly
What does cultural tools include?
Technical tools for acting on environmental like hammer
Psychological tools for thought like language, number systems, diagrams, maps and algebra
What does Vygotsky believe is the most importantly to central?
Psychological tools
Whats the difference between Piaget and Vygotsky for language?
Piaget: Cognition develops through action.
Did not see language as an important factor
Vygotsky: Cognition develops through language
What’s private speech?
Children talk aloud to themselves while playing
What does Piaget called it when children talk to themselves whilst playing?
Egocentric speech
Explain what Piaget believes about children’s language?
Observed utterances not made in response to others
• Child does not care whether others understand it
• Viewed it as non-social
• Interpreted as inability to take perspective of another person
• Monologues decline as child becomes less egocentric
What did Vygotsky argue about language and monologue/
• Believed monologues are important in organising thought:
• Facilitate complex problem solving
• Provide a foundation for cognition
• Monologues decline as they become internalised as ‘inner
speech’ around 7yrs
Whats the evaluation of language?
Some evidence in favour of Vygotsky’s idea – language facilitates
cognition
• Berk (1992): Children use more private speech when task is
more difficult
• Behrend et al (1990): Children who use private speech perform
better than those who do no
What did Bruner do?
Furthered Vygotsky’s theory
Vygostsky proposed ZPD, but was vague on how a child develops
cognitive ability through social interaction
Bruner sought to identify the important aspects of social interaction
Proposed the concept of ‘scaffolding’ : the ways in which an expert
assists a learner
Explain scaffolding?
Recruitment: Directs child’s attention and motivates child
Reduction of degrees of freedom: Simplifies the task
Direction maintenance: Motivates the child
Marking critical features: Highlight important features of task –
enables child to spot their own errors
Demonstration: Tutor demonstrates completion of the child’s
partially completed task
Whats the evaluation of the construction of sociocultural theories?
Highlighted importance of cultural & social factors in cognitive
development; previously given little consideration
•Emphasises that development is variable across cultures
e.g. children in literate societies develop cognitive abilities different
from children in preliterate societies
Piaget ignored culture -considered universal aspects of development
•Not constrained to developmental stages; is more continuous
•Implications for educational practice: ZPD, scaffolding
