Vygotsky

Question 0

Socio-historical location - family

Answer 0

• 1 of 8 children
• dad banker, mom teacher
• known as “little professor” - mock trials
• Jewish (gained entry into uni - lottery system)

Question 1

Socio-historical location

Answer 1

17 nov 1896-1934 (38)

• Gomel, western Russia
• tasked with indoctrination of communism
• ideas about human development influenced by his env (post-revolutionary Russia 1920s)
• influenced by broad range of writings, inclu. Freud, Piaget, bhvrists, gestalt theorists

Question 2

Socio-historical location

Answer 2

1917- communist revolution
V had law degree, went back to Gomel - became a teacher (lit and psych) at 2ndary school and college
1924 - Moscow Institute of Psychology
1934 - died of tuberculosis
——–his colleagues and students kept his ideas alive (communist state banned his work)

Question 3

Assumptions?

Answer 3

Technological determinism 
Tool-and-result 
Social constructivist 
Development is enculturation 
Educational agenda (indoctrination)

Question 4

Technological determinism???

Answer 4

Influenced by Karl Marx

Question 5

Tool-and-result

Answer 5

The tools of investigation determine the results, or what we learn about the mind
- how we measure determines what we measure and how we ascribe causation
Bhvrists scientific approach (epistemology) - unable to provide an adequate explanation of the uniqueness of human development (ontology), as compared to animals
-> NB bhvrists generalised findings from animals onto human bhvr

Question 6

Ontology

Answer 6

(Tool-and-result)

• what (we study)
• refers to the substantive content, or the knowledge itself
• > concepts employed to make sense of the world

Question 7

Epistemology

Answer 7

Methods and ways thru which content is constructed

Question 8

Social constructivist assumption

Answer 8

Humans are born into a pre-existing social world
Social-> creates -> indi
- we learn how to become members of our fams and communities by appropriating methods in which members of that society interact with each other

Question 9

Social constructivist language

Answer 9

Lang is the MECHANISM for interaction between Indis, and FRAMEWORK for the structure & content of consciousness (ie it defines/expresses human consciousness)

Question 10

Social constructivist

Answer 10

The social world and interaction with others - provides a framework for the nature of our thinking

Question 11

Development is enculturation

Answer 11

Ways of thinking (tools) are ideological because they are used by distinct groups of people to perpetuate a set of belief or ways of doing things

Question 12

Educational agenda

Answer 12

Indoctrination

• > focus of theory is development caused by instruction
• support of parents, teachers, older children - crucial to development of the mind

Question 13

Explanatory account

Answer 13

• conflict between external (social) and internal (individual) ways of thinking
• the natural and cultural lines of development

Question 14

Basic principles underlying the Vygotskian framework (explanatory account)
(Related to assumptions…)

Answer 14

• children construct their knowledge (constructionism)
• development can’t be separated from its social context (social constructionism)
• learning can lead to dvpt (enculturation)
• Lang plays a central role in mental dvlpment (cultural tools)

Question 15

Natural lines of development

Answer 15

Refers to the genetic organic growth & maturation of the child
-> thus biological characteristics and impairments were important

Question 16

Cultural lines of development

Answer 16

Vygotsky emphasised these much more
-> improvement of psychology function, mastering the cultural methods of bhvr, working out new methods of reasoning, dvlpment of Lang as a tool of communication

Question 17

Social vs individual

Answer 17

> Social 1. ext.

2. living circumstances/relations btw people - Lang, ideology, practice
3. instruction
4. Scientific concepts

> Indi 1. Int

2. Natural and cultural lines/ natural: genetic inheritance/ cultural: acquired/internalised
3. Development
4. Everyday concepts

Question 18

Strengths of Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 18

• gazing beyond the individual
• role of the social/cultural aspects in cog dvpt = sociocultural
• can be applied broadly to different sociocultural contexts
• dialectical historical materialism = role of history/material conditions/conflict in dvpt change

Question 19

Weaknesses of Vygotsky’s theory

Answer 19

• problems in exogenesis {external causes} (looking at external social world to understand indi problems)
• social determinism (ignores indi’s agency)
• no evidence for existence of int mental structures

Question 20

Behaviourist tool-and-result

Answer 20

Scientific approach (epistemology) - unable to provide an adequate explanation of the uniqueness of human development (ontology), as compared to animals
NB bhvrists generalised (findings from animals into human bhvr)

Question 21

Freudian approach to tool-and-result

Answer 21

Presented a circular form of logic (epistemology) in which consciousness e.g. Free-association was used to account for consciousness (ontology) ie contents of the mind

Question 22

Tool-and-result

Answer 22

Tools of investigation (epistemology) determined the results, or what we know about the mind (ontology)

Question 23

Constructionism

Answer 23

Children construct their knowledge

Question 24

Social constructionism

Answer 24

Development cannot be separated from its social context

Question 25

Enculturation

Answer 25

Learning can lead to development

Question 26

Cultural tools

Answer 26

Language plays a central role in mental development

Question 27

Strengths

Answer 27

Support widely
Beyond the indi
Sociocultural
Can be applied broadly 
Dialectical historical materialism