Vygotsky Lev Semenovich: biography, main works. The formation of the psychological theory of L.S.

Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich (1896-1934) - Soviet psychologist, creator of the cultural-historical theory of the development of higher mental functions. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born on November 5, 1896 in the city of Orsha. A year later, the Vygotsky family moved to Gomel. It was in this city that Leo graduated from high school. After graduating from high school, L.S. Vygotsky entered Moscow University, where he studied at the Faculty of Law.

He worked at the Moscow State Institute of Experimental Psychology (1924-1928), at the State Institute of Scientific Pedagogics (GINP) at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute and at the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute. A. I. Herzen (both in 1927-1934), the Academy of Communist Education (AKV) (1929-1931), the 2nd Moscow State University (1927-1930), and after the reorganization of the 2nd Moscow State University - in the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. A. S. Bubnov (1930-1934), as well as in the Experimental Defectological Institute founded by him (1929-1934); also gave lecture courses at a number of educational institutions and research organizations in Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent and Kharkov, for example, at the Central Asian State University (SAGU) (in 1929).

Vygotsky was engaged in a wide range of pedagogy, consulting and research activities. He was a member of many editorial boards and wrote extensively himself. Despite the materialistic form of his theory, Vygotsky adhered to the empirical evolutionist direction in the study of cultural differences in thinking, creating an approach to psychology. Investigating verbal thinking, Vygotsky solves the problem of localization of higher mental functions as structural units of brain activity in a new way. Studying the development and decay of higher mental functions on the material of child psychology, defectology and psychiatry, Vygotsky comes to the conclusion that the structure of consciousness is a dynamic semantic system of affective volitional and intellectual processes that are in unity.

In 1928-32, Vygotsky, together with his colleagues Luria and Leontiev, participated in experimental research at the Academy of Communist Education. Vygotsky headed the psychological laboratory, while Luria headed the entire faculty. Vygotsky was best known for his psychological theory, which became widely known as the Cultural-Historical Conception of the Development of Higher Mental Functions, whose theoretical and empirical potential has not yet been exhausted. The essence of this concept is the synthesis of the doctrine of nature and the doctrine of culture. The theory represents an alternative to existing behavioral theories, and above all to behaviorism. According to the author himself, the study of the basic laws of the development of culture can give an idea of ​​the laws of personality formation. Lev Semenovich considered this problem in the light of child psychology. The spiritual development of the child was placed in a certain dependence on the organized influence of adults on him. Lev Semenovich has many works devoted to the study of mental development and the patterns of personality formation in childhood, the problems of teaching and teaching children at school. It was Vygotsky who played the most prominent role in the development of the science of defectology. He created in Moscow a laboratory for the psychology of abnormal childhood, which later became an integral part of the Experimental Defectological Institute. In studying the psychological characteristics of abnormal children, Vygotsky placed the main emphasis on the mentally retarded and deaf-blind-mute.

In the works of Vygotsky, the problem of the relationship between the role of maturation and learning in the development of higher mental functions of the child is considered in detail. He formulated the most important principle, according to which the preservation and timely maturation of brain structures is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the development of higher mental functions. The main source for this development is the changing social environment, to describe which Vygotsky introduced the term social situation of development, defined as “a peculiar, age-specific, exclusive, unique and inimitable relationship between the child and the reality surrounding him, primarily social”. It is this attitude that determines the course of development of the child's psyche at a certain age stage.

A significant contribution to educational psychology is the concept of the zone of proximal development introduced by Vygotsky. The zone of proximal development is “the area of ​​not matured, but maturing processes”, which includes tasks that a child at a given level of development cannot cope with on his own, but which he is able to solve with the help of an adult; This is the level reached by the child so far only in the course of joint activities with an adult.

At the last stage of his scientific activity, Vygotsky became interested in the problems of thinking and speech, and he wrote the scientific work Thinking and Speech. In this fundamental scientific work, the main idea is the inextricable connection that exists between thinking and speech. Vygotsky first suggested, which he himself soon confirmed, that the level of development of thinking depends on the formation and development of speech. He revealed the interdependence of these two processes.

During the life of Lev Semenovich, his works were not allowed to be published in the USSR. From the beginning of the 1930s a real persecution began against him, the authorities accused him of ideological perversions. On June 11, 1934, after a long illness, at the age of 37, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky died.

Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich (1896–1934) - an outstanding scientist, thinker, an outstanding Soviet psychologist, teacher, neurolinguist, inventive experimenter, thoughtful theorist, connoisseur of literature, professor at the Institute of Experimental Psychology in Moscow, one of the founders of the Soviet school of psychology , classic of world psychological science, creator of cultural and historical. The outstanding Soviet psychologist A.R. Luria in his scientific autobiography, paying tribute to his mentor and friend, wrote: “It would not be an exaggeration to call L.S. Vygotsky as a genius. In unison, the words of B.V. Zeigarnik: "He was a man of genius who created Soviet psychology." Any Russian psychologist will probably agree with these assessments.To this day, the ideas of Vygotsky and his school form the basis of the scientific worldview of thousands of true professionals; new generations of psychologists not only in Russia, but throughout the world draw inspiration from his scientific works.

Biography of L.S. Vygotsky is not rich in external events. His life was filled from within. A subtle psychologist, an erudite art critic, a talented teacher, a great connoisseur of literature, a brilliant stylist, an observant defectologist, an inventive experimenter, and a thoughtful theorist. All this is so. But above all, Vygotsky was a thinker.

“Lev Semenovich Vygotsky undoubtedly occupies an exceptional place in the history of Soviet psychology. It was he who laid the foundations that became the starting point for its further development and largely determined its current state ... There is almost no area of ​​psychological knowledge in which L.S. Vygotsky would not have made an important contribution. Psychology of art, general psychology, child and educational psychology, psychology of abnormal children, patho- and neuropsychology- in all these areas he introduced a new stream, "- so the journal" Questions of Psychology "wrote on the 80th anniversary of the birth of Vygotsky. It is hard to believe that these words refer to a person who has devoted a little more than ten years of his life to psychology - and difficult years, burdened by a fatal illness, the difficulties of everyday life, misunderstanding and even harassment.

UNIVERSITIES AND EDUCATION

Gomel. The house in which from 1897 to 1925. the Vygodsky family lived

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky, the second of eight children of a bank employee, was born on November 5 (17), 1896 in Orsha, not far from Minsk. His parents were not rich, but highly educated, spoke several languages. Their example was followed by the son, who perfectly mastered English, French and German.

In 1897 the family moved to Gomel, which Vygotsky always considered his hometown. Here he spent his childhood, here in 1913 he graduated with honors from the gymnasium. Vygotsky decided to continue his education at Moscow University. He was lucky, he got into the "percentage rate" for people of Jewish origin. Before this category of young people, the choice of faculties was small. The most real prospects for a professional career were promised by the specialty of either a doctor or a lawyer.

When choosing a specialty, the young man succumbed to the persuasion of his parents, who thought that a medical education could provide his son with an interesting job and livelihood in the future. But classes at the medical faculty did not captivate Vygotsky, and less than a month after entering the university, he transferred to the faculty of law. After graduating from this faculty, he could enter the bar, and not the public service. This gave permission to live outside the "Pale of Settlement".

Along with the state university, Vygotsky attended classes at an educational institution of a special type, created at the expense of the liberal leader of public education A.L. Shanyavsky. It was a people's university, without compulsory courses and visits, without tests and exams, where anyone could study. The diploma of Shanyavsky University had no official recognition. However, the level of teaching there was extremely high. The fact is that after the student unrest of 1911 and the repressions that followed, over a hundred prominent scientists left Moscow University in protest against government policy (including Timiryazev, Vernadsky, Sakulin, Chebyshev, Chaplygin, Zelinsky, etc.), and many others. of them found shelter at the Shanyavsky People's University. Psychology and pedagogy at this university was taught by P.P. Blonsky.

At Shanyavsky University, Vygotsky became close to liberal-minded youth, and the well-known literary critic Yu. Aikhenwald became his mentor. The very atmosphere of the people's university, communication with its students and teachers meant much more to Vygotsky than classes at the Faculty of Law. And it is not at all accidental that years later, seriously ill, he turned to Eichenwald with a request for the publication of his works.

LEGAL VIEW

Legal education left its mark on Vygotsky's worldview. A friend of his youth, S.F. Dobkin recalled how in 1916, having arrived in Gomel for a vacation, Vygotsky, together with his comrades, organized a kind of "literary court". Garshin's story "Nadezhda Nikolaevna" was chosen for discussion, the hero of which commits murders out of jealousy.

When assigning roles, Vygotsky had to choose the role of either prosecutor or defense counsel. He agreed to both, ready to defend opposing points of view. At first, this surprised the comrades: how is it possible - even though the court is literary, but is it possible to defend any of the irreconcilable positions? Dobkin writes: “Then I understood what was the matter. He knew how to see the arguments in favor of both sides. It was this approach to the circumstances of the case that was brought up by the future lawyer at the faculty. But Lev Semenovich, by the very way of thinking, was alien to one-sidedness, bias, excessive confidence in the correctness of just such and such a concept. A remarkable ability to understand not only what was internally close to him, but also someone else's point of view, is characteristic of his entire scientific activity.

FIRST PASSION

Interest in psychology awakened in Vygotsky during his student years. The first books in this area that are known to have been read by him are the well-known treatise by A.A. Potebny "Thought and Language", as well as the book by W. James "The Varieties of Religious Experience". S.F. Dobkin also names Z. Freud's "Psychopathology of Everyday Life", which, according to him, greatly interested Vygotsky. Probably, this lively interest subsequently brought Vygotsky into the ranks of the Russian Psychoanalytic Society, which, however, was an uncharacteristic page in his scientific biography. Judging by his writings, Freud's ideas did not have a noticeable influence on him. What can not be said about the theory of A. Adler. The concept of compensation, central to Adler's individual psychology, subsequently becomes the cornerstone of Vygotsky's defectological concept.

The fascination with psychology that originated in his student years determined the entire subsequent fate of Vygotsky. He himself wrote about it this way: "Even at the university, he took up a special study of psychology ... and continued it throughout all the years." And later he confirmed: “Scientific classes in psychology began at the university. Since then, he has not interrupted work in this specialty for a single year. It is interesting that special psychological education as such practically did not exist at that time, and L.S. Vygotsky, like most of the pioneers of this science, was not a certified psychologist.

In an official note about his research work, Vygotsky wrote: “I began to engage in research work in 1917 after graduating from university. He organized a psychological office at the pedagogical college, where he conducted research.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ATMOSPHERE IN RUSSIA

These words refer to the Gomel period of his activity. Vygotsky returned to his native city in 1917 and took up teaching work. In Gomel, he wrote two large manuscripts, which were soon brought to Moscow - "Pedagogical Psychology" (published in 1926, new edition - 1991) and "Psychology of Art", defended as a dissertation, but published only many years after his death. Prior to that, she went to the lists and was popular both among the few psychologists at that time and artists.

Both works give grounds to evaluate the "early" Vygotsky as a mature independent thinker, highly erudite and looking for new ways to develop scientific psychology in that historical situation when psychology in the West is in crisis, and in Russia the ideological leadership of the country demanded that the principles of Marxism be introduced into science.

In Russia, in the pre-revolutionary period, a paradoxical situation arose in the scientific study of the psyche.

On the one hand, there were psychological centers (the main one being the Psychological Institute at Moscow University), where the obsolete psychology of consciousness dominated, which was based on the subjective method.

On the other hand, the science of behavior was created by the hands of Russian physiologists, based on an objective method. Its research programs (authored by V.M. Bekhterev and I.P. Pavlov) made it possible to study the regularity of the mechanism of behavior based on the same principles that all natural sciences follow.

The concept of consciousness was assessed as idealistic. The concept of behavior (based on conditioned reflexes) - as materialistic. With the victory of the revolution, when the state-party organs demanded that idealism be exterminated everywhere, these two trends found themselves in an unequal position. Reflexology (in the broadest sense) received all-round state support, while supporters of views considered alien to materialism were dealt with through various repressive measures.

MEETING WITH LURIIA

In this atmosphere, Vygotsky took a peculiar position. He accused the universally triumphant reflexologists of dualism. His original plan was to combine knowledge of behavior as a system of reflexes with the dependence of this behavior, when it comes to a person, on consciousness embodied in speech reactions. He made this idea the basis of his first programmatic report, which he delivered in January 1924 in Petrograd at the Congress of Behavior Researchers.

The speech of the speaker, an "enlightener" from Gomel, attracted the attention of the congress participants with its novelty of thought, the logic of presentation, and the persuasiveness of the arguments. And with all his appearance, Vygotsky stood out from the circle of familiar faces. The clarity and harmony of the main provisions of the report left no doubt that the provincial was well prepared for a representative assembly and successfully expounded the text lying in front of him on the pulpit.

When, after the report, one of the delegates approached Vygotsky, he was surprised to see that there was no text of the lengthy report. There was a blank sheet of paper in front of the speaker. This delegate, who wished to express his admiration for Vygotsky's speech, was by that time already well known, despite his youth, for his experimental work (which Bekhterev himself patronized) and his studies in psychoanalysis (Freud himself corresponded with him), and later the world-famous psychologist A. R. Luria. In his scientific biography, Luria wrote that he divides his life into two periods: a small, insignificant period before meeting Vygotsky, and a large and significant one after meeting him.

The report made by Vygotsky made such an impression on Luria that he, being the scientific secretary of the Psychological Institute, immediately rushed to convince K.N. Kornilov, who headed the institute, immediately, immediately, lure this unknown person from Gomel to Moscow. Vygotsky accepted the offer, moved to Moscow, and was settled right in the institute's basement. He began to work in direct collaboration with A.R. Luria and A.N. Leontiev.

"OTHER" INTERESTS

He entered graduate school and formally was, as it were, a student of Luria and Leontiev, but immediately became, in essence, their leader - the famous "troika" was formed, which later grew into the "eight".

None of the young people who were part of these peculiar associations then imagined that fate had brought them into contact with a wonderful person who, at the age of 27, was already an established scientist. They did not know that at the age of 19 he wrote a wonderful work "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" and a number of other well-known works today (psychological analysis of fables, stories by I.A. Bunin), that before coming to Moscow he managed to develop a completely new a look at the psychology of art and its role in human life, in fact, laying the foundations of a psychological approach to literary creativity. Vygotsky himself did not mention these works of his, and it did not occur to his comrades at the Psychological Institute that he might have another wide range of interests - the thoughts that he shared with them were so deep that they seemed not to can leave room in the mind of a person for nothing else.

TO GO BEYOND

Vygotsky's thought developed in a completely new direction for psychology at that time. He showed for the first time - did not feel, did not assume, but convincingly demonstrated - that this science is in the deepest crisis. Only in the early eighties in the collection of his works will be published a brilliant essay "The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis." In it, Vygotsky's views are most fully and accurately expressed. The work was written shortly before his death. He was dying of tuberculosis, the doctors gave him three months to live, and in the hospital he wrote feverishly to state his main thoughts.

Their essence is as follows. Psychology actually split into two sciences. One - explanatory, or physiological, it reveals the meaning of phenomena, but leaves all the most complex forms of human behavior beyond its borders. Another science is descriptive, phenomenological psychology, which, on the contrary, takes the most complex phenomena, but only talks about them, because, according to its supporters, these phenomena are inaccessible to explanation.

Vygotsky saw the way out of the crisis in getting away from these two completely independent disciplines and learning to explain the most complex manifestations of the human psyche. And here was made a major step in the history of Soviet psychology.

Vygotsky's thesis was this: in order to understand the internal mental processes, one must go beyond the limits of the organism and look for explanations in the social relations of this organism with the environment. He liked to repeat: those who hope to find the source of higher mental processes within the individual fall into the same mistake as the monkey trying to find his reflection in the mirror behind the glass. Not inside the brain or spirit, but in signs, language, tools, social relations lies the solution to the mysteries that intrigue psychologists. Therefore, Vygotsky called his psychology either “historical”, since it studies the processes that arose in the social history of a person, or “instrumental”, since, in his opinion, the unit of psychology was, in his opinion, tools, household items, or, finally, “cultural”, because these things and phenomena are born and develop in culture - in the organism of culture, in its body, and not in the organic body of the individual.

ACTIVE RESISTANCE

Thoughts of this kind sounded paradoxical then, they were taken with hostility and absolutely not understood. Not without sarcasm, Luria recalled how Kornilov said: “Well, just think, “historical” psychology, why do we need to study different savages? Or - "instrumental". Yes, any psychology is instrumental, so I also use a dynamoscope. The director of the Institute of Psychology did not even understand that it was not at all about the tools that psychologists use, but about those means, tools that a person himself uses to organize his behavior ...

Vygotsky's cultural-historical concept aroused active resistance. Articles began to appear in which its author was convicted of various kinds of deviations from true science. One of the most dangerous was written by a certain Feofanov, an employee of the same institute. He called it "On an Eclectic Theory in Psychology", but the printing house printed "On an Electrical Theory..." This amusing typo greatly reduced the lethal force of the article, but the following ones were typed more carefully. New ideas did not easily enter science.

SIGNS OF CULTURE

Even in The Psychology of Art, Vygotsky introduced the concept of an aesthetic sign as an element of culture. The appeal to sign systems, which are created by the culture of the people and serve as intermediaries between what is denoted by systems of signs, and the subject (the person who operates with them), changed Vygotsky's general approach to mental functions. As applied to humans, unlike animals, he considers sign systems as a means of cultural development of the psyche. This deeply innovative idea prompted him to include the sign-mediated level of their organization in the range of human mental functions.

Getting acquainted with Marxism, he transfers the Marxist doctrine of tools of labor to signs. Signs of culture are also tools, but special ones - psychological ones. Tools of labor change the substance of nature. Signs do not change the external material world, but the human psyche. First, these signs are used in communication between people, in external interaction. And then this process from the external becomes internal (the transition from outside to inside was called internalization). Thanks to this, “the development of higher mental functions” takes place (under this title Vygotsky wrote a new treatise in 1931).

Guided by this idea, Vygotsky and his students conducted a large series of studies of the development of the psyche, primarily of its functions such as memory, attention, and thinking. These works were included in the golden fund of research on the development of the psyche in children.

INNOVATIVE VIEWS

For a number of years, the main research program of Vygotsky and his students consisted in a detailed experimental study of the relationship between thinking and speech. Here the meaning of the word (its content, the generalization contained in it) came to the fore. How the meaning of a word changes in the history of a people has long been studied by linguistics. Vygotsky and his school, following the stages of this change, discovered that such changes occur in the process of development of individual consciousness. The results of this many years of work were summarized by the monograph "Thinking and Speech" (1934), which, unfortunately, he never saw printed, but which is on the bookshelf of thousands of psychologists in many countries of the world.

While working on the monograph, he simultaneously emphasized the importance of studying the motives that drive thought, those motives and experiences without which it does not arise and does not develop.

He devoted the main attention to this topic in a large treatise on emotions, which again remained unpublished for decades.

It should be remembered that Vygotsky directly connected all the works concerning the development of the psyche with the tasks of educating and educating the child. In this area, he put forward a whole cycle of productive ideas, in particular, the concept of the "zone of proximal development" that has become especially popular. Vygotsky insisted that only learning that “runs ahead of development” is effective, as if pulling it along, revealing the child’s ability to solve problems with the participation of a teacher that he cannot cope with on his own.

Vygotsky substantiated a great many other innovative ideas, further developed by his numerous students and followers.

OVERCOMING ADVERSE

Tashkent, 1929 L.S. Vygotsky leads classes
at the Central Asian State University

According to M.G. Yaroshevsky, despite his early death (he did not live to be 38 years old), Vygotsky was able to enrich his science in such a significant and versatile way as none of the outstanding psychologists of the world. He had to overcome many difficulties on a daily basis, connected not only with a catastrophically deteriorating state of health, material hardships, but also with hardships caused by the fact that he was not given a decent job, and in order to earn money, he had to go to lecture in other cities. He struggled to feed his small family.

One of the listeners of his lectures - A.I. Lipkina recalls that students, feeling his greatness, were surprised at how poorly he was dressed. He gave lectures in a rather shabby coat, from under which cheap trousers were visible, and on his feet (in the harsh January 1934) - light shoes. And this is in a seriously ill tuberculosis patient!

Students from many Moscow universities flocked to his lectures. Usually the auditorium was overcrowded, and lectures were listened to even standing at the windows. Walking around the audience, with his hands clasped behind his back, a tall, slender man with surprisingly radiant eyes and an unhealthy blush on his pale cheeks, in an even, calm voice, introduced the listeners, who were hanging on his every word, with new views on the mental world of man, which for future generations will acquire the value of the classics. To this it must be added that the unorthodox sense of psychological analysis that Vygotsky cultivated constantly aroused suspicions in vigilant ideologists of deviations from Marxism.

HAMLET'S STATE

After the memorable decree of 1936, his works on the child's soul were included in the proscription list. With the liquidation of pedology, one of the leaders of which he was declared, they ended up in a "special depository". Dozens of years passed before Vygotsky was recognized throughout the world as the greatest innovator and the triumphal procession of his ideas began. Brought up in Moscow schools and laboratories, they gave a powerful impetus to the movement of scientific and psychological thought both in our country and in many countries of the world.

Moscow, May 1933 Lev Semenovich
with his wife Roza Noevna and daughters
Gita and Asya

When, in the spring of 1934, Vygotsky was taken to a sanatorium in Serebryany Bor due to another terrible attack of illness, he took only one book with him - his beloved Shakespeare's Hamlet, the notes to which served him for many years as a kind of diary. In a treatise on tragedy, he wrote in his youth: "Not determination, but readiness - such is the state of Hamlet."

According to the memoirs of the nurse who treated Vygotsky, his last words were: "I'm ready." In the time allotted to him, Vygotsky performed more than any psychologist in the entire history of the history of human science.

The creators of the American Biographical Dictionary of Psychology, who included Vygotsky in the cohort of the greats, conclude the article about him with the following words: “There is no point in guessing what Vygotsky could achieve if he lived as long as, for example, Piaget, or if he lived to his century. He would certainly criticize modern psychobiology and theories of consciousness constructively, but there is no doubt that he would do it with a smile.

Reading mode

Defectology in the scientific biography of L.S. Vygotsky*

The problems of defectology occupied a significant place in the activity and in the work of Lev Semenovich. During the entire Moscow period of his life, all ten years, Lev Semenovich, in parallel with psychological research, conducted theoretical and experimental work in the field of defectology. The proportion of studies carried out on this issue is very large ...

Lev Semenovich began his scientific and practical activities in the field of defectology as early as 1924, when he was appointed head of the abnormal childhood subdepartment at the People's Commissariat of Education. We have already written about his bright and turning point for the development of defectology report at the II Congress of the SPON. I would like to note that interest in this field of knowledge proved to be persistent, and it increased in subsequent years. L.S. Vygotsky not only carried out intensive scientific work, but also did a great deal of practical and organizational work in this area.

In 1926, he organized a laboratory for the psychology of abnormal childhood at the Medical and Pedagogical Station (in Moscow, Pogodinskaya st., 8). During the three years of its existence, the employees of this laboratory have accumulated interesting research material and done important pedagogical work. About a year Lev Semenovich was the director of the entire station and then became her scientific advisor.

In 1929, on the basis of the laboratory named above, the Experimental Defectological Institute of the Narkompros (EDI) was created. I.I. was appointed director of the institute. Danyushevsky. Since the inception of EDI and Until the last days of his life, L.S. Vygotsky was his supervisor and consultant.

The staff of scientists gradually increased, the base for research expanded. The institute carried out examination of an abnormal child, diagnosis and planning of further corrective work with deaf and mentally retarded children.

Until now, many defectologists recall how scientific and practical workers flocked from different districts of Moscow to observe how L.S. Vygotsky examined the children and then analyzed each individual case in detail, revealing the structure of the defect and giving practical recommendations to parents and teachers.

EDI had a communal school for children with behavioral problems, an auxiliary school (for mentally retarded children), a school for the deaf, and a clinical diagnostic department. In 1933 L.S. Vygotsky together with the director of the Institute I.I. Danyushevsky decided to study children with speech disorders.

Conducted by L.S. Vygotsky at this institute, research is still fundamental for the productive development of problems in defectology. Created by L.S. Vygotsky, the scientific system in this area of ​​knowledge has not only historiographical significance, but also significantly influences the development of the theory and practice of modern defectology.

It is difficult to name the work of recent years in the field of psychology and pedagogy of an abnormal child, which would not be influenced by the ideas of Lev Semenovich and would not directly or indirectly refer to his scientific heritage. His teaching still does not lose its relevance and significance.

In the field of scientific interests L.S. Vygotsky had a wide range of issues related to the study, development, education and upbringing of abnormal children. In our opinion, the most significant are the problems that help to understand the essence and nature of the defect, the possibilities and features of its compensation and the correct organization of the study, education and upbringing of an abnormal child. Let us briefly characterize some of them.

Lev Semenovich's understanding of the nature and essence of anomalous development differed from the widespread biologization approach to a defect. L.S. Vygotsky considered the defect as a "social dislocation" caused by a change in the child's relationship with the environment, which leads to a violation of the social aspects of behavior. He comes to the conclusion that in understanding the essence of abnormal development, it is necessary to single out and take into account the primary defect, secondary, tertiary and subsequent layers above it. Distinguishing between primary and subsequent symptoms of L.S. Vygotsky considered it extremely important in the study of children with various pathologies. He wrote that elementary functions, being the primary disadvantage arising from the very core of the defect and being directly related to it, are less amenable to correction.

The problem of defect compensation was reflected in most of the works of L.S. Vygotsky devoted to the problems of defectology.

The theory of compensation that he was developing organically entered the problem of the development and decay of higher mental functions that he was investigating. Already in the 20s. L.S. Vygotsky put forward and substantiated the need for social compensation for a defect as a task of paramount importance: “Probably, sooner or later, humanity will defeat both blindness, and deafness, and dementia, but much sooner will it defeat them socially and pedagogically than medically and biologically.”

In subsequent years, Lev Semenovich deepened and concretized the theory of compensation. Extraordinarily important for improving the theory of compensation and the problem of teaching abnormal children was put forward by L.S. Vygotsky's position on the creation of detours for the development of a pathologically developing child. In his later works, L.S. Vygotsky repeatedly returned to the question of detours in development, noting their great significance for the process of compensation. “In the process of cultural development,” he writes, “the child replaces some functions with others, laying detours, and this opens up completely new possibilities for the development of an abnormal child. If this child cannot achieve something directly, then the development of detours becomes the basis of his compensation.

L.S. Vygotsky, in the light of the problem of compensation he developed, pointed out that all defectological pedagogical practice consists of creating detours for the development of an abnormal child. This, according to L.S. Vygotsky, "alpha and omega" of special pedagogy.

So, in the works of the 20s. L.S. Vygotsky only in the most general form put forward the idea of ​​replacing biological compensation with social compensation. In his subsequent works, this idea takes on a concrete form: the way to compensate for a defect is in the formation of detours in the development of an abnormal child.

Lev Semenovich argued that a normal and abnormal child develops according to the same laws. But along with general laws, he also noted the peculiarity of the development of an abnormal child. And as the main feature of the abnormal psyche, he singled out the divergence of the biological and cultural processes of development.

It is known that in each of the categories of abnormal children, for various reasons and to varying degrees, the accumulation of life experience is delayed, so the role of education in their development is of particular importance. A mentally retarded, deaf and blind child needs early, properly organized education and upbringing to a greater extent than a normally developing child who is able to independently draw knowledge from the outside world.

Describing defectiveness as a "social dislocation", Lev Semenovich does not at all deny that organic defects (with deafness, blindness, dementia) are biological facts. But since the educator has to deal in practice not so much with the biological facts themselves as with their social consequences, with the conflicts that arise when an abnormal child enters life, L.S. Vygotsky had sufficient reason to assert that the upbringing of a child with a defect is fundamentally social in nature. Incorrect or late upbringing of an abnormal child leads to the fact that deviations in the development of his personality are aggravated, behavioral disorders appear.

To pull an abnormal child out of a state of isolation, to open before him wide opportunities for a truly human life, to involve him in socially useful work, to educate him as an active conscious member of society - these are the tasks that, according to L.S. Vygotsky, the special school should decide first of all.

Having refuted the false opinion about the reduced "social impulses" in an abnormal child, Lev Semenovich raises the question of the need to educate him not as a disabled dependent or socially neutral being, but as an active conscious person.

In the process of pedagogical work with children with sensory or intellectual disabilities, L.S. Vygotsky considers it necessary to focus not on the child's "golden spots of illness", but on the "poods of health" he has.

At that time, the essence of the correctional work of special schools, which was reduced to training the processes of memory, attention, observation, sensory organs, was a system of formal isolated exercises. L.S. Vygotsky was one of the first to draw attention to the painful nature of these trainings. He did not consider it right to separate the system of such exercises into separate classes, into turning them into an end in itself, but advocated such a principle of correctional and educational work, in which the correction of shortcomings in the cognitive activity of abnormal children would be part of the general educational work, would be dissolved in the entire learning process and education, was carried out in the course of gaming, educational and labor activities.

Developing in child psychology the problem of the relationship between learning and development, L.S. Vygotsky came to the conclusion that learning should precede, run ahead and pull up, lead the development of the child.

Such an understanding of the correlation of these processes led him to the need to take into account both the current (“actual”) level of the child’s development and his potential capabilities (“zone of proximal development”). Under the "zone of proximal development" L.S. Vygotsky understood the functions “in the process of maturation, functions that will ripen tomorrow, which are now still in their infancy, functions that can be called not the fruits of development, but the buds of development, the flowers of development, i.e. the one that is just maturing."

Thus, in the process of developing the concept of "zone of proximal development", Lev Semenovich put forward an important thesis that when determining the mental development of a child, one cannot focus only on what he has achieved, i.e. on the passed and completed stages, but it is necessary to take into account the “dynamic state of its development”, “those processes that are now in the state of formation”.

According to Vygotsky, the "zone of proximal development" is determined in the process of solving problems that are difficult for the child's age, with help from an adult. Thus, the assessment of the child's mental development should be based on two indicators: susceptibility to the assistance provided and the ability to solve similar problems independently in the future.

In his daily work, encountering not only normally developing children, but also conducting a survey of children with developmental disabilities, Lev Semenovich became convinced that the ideas about development zones are very productive when applied to all categories of abnormal children.

The leading method of examining children by pedologists was the use of psychometric tests. In a number of cases, interesting in themselves, they nevertheless did not give an idea about the structure of the defect, about the real possibilities of the child. Pedologists believed that abilities could and should be measured quantitatively in order to subsequently distribute children to different schools, depending on the results of this measurement. Formal assessment of children's abilities, carried out by tests, led to errors, as a result of which normal children were sent to special schools.

In his works, L.S. Vygotsky criticized the methodological inconsistency of the quantitative approach to the study of the psyche with the help of test trials. According to the figurative expression of the scientist, during such surveys, "kilometers were added up with kilograms."

After one of the reports made by Vygotsky (December 23, 1933) he was asked to give his opinion on the tests. Vygotsky answered this in the following way: “At our congresses, the smartest scientists were arguing about which method is better: laboratory or experimental. It's like arguing which is better: a knife or a hammer. A method is always a means, a method is always a path. Can we say that the best way is from Moscow to Leningrad? If you want to go to Leningrad, then, of course, this is so, but if you want to go to Pskov, then this is a bad way. This is not to say that tests are always good or bad, but one general rule can be said that tests in themselves are not an objective indicator of mental development. Tests always reveal signs, and signs do not indicate the development process directly, but always need to be supplemented by other signs.

Answering the question of whether tests can serve as a criterion for actual development, L.S. Vygotsky said: “It seems to me that the question is what tests and how to use them. This question can be answered in the same way as if I were asked whether a knife can be a good tool for a surgical operation. Watching what? A knife from the Narpit cafeteria would certainly be a bad tool, but a surgical knife would be a good one.”

“The study of a difficult child,” wrote L.S. Vygotsky, - more than any other child type, should be based on long-term observation of him in the process of education, on pedagogical experiment, on the study of the products of creativity, play and all aspects of the child's behavior.

"Tests for the study of the will, the emotional side, fantasy, character, etc., can be used as an auxiliary and indicative tool."

From the above statements by L.S. Vygotsky can be seen: he believed that tests in themselves cannot be an objective indicator of mental development. However, he did not deny the admissibility of their limited use along with other methods of studying the child. In essence, Vygotsky's view of tests is similar to that currently held by psychologists and speech pathologists.

Much attention in his works L.S. Vygotsky paid attention to the problem of studying abnormal children and their correct selection in special institutions. Modern principles of selection (comprehensive, holistic, dynamic, systematic and complex study) of children are rooted in the concept of L.S. Vygotsky.

Ideas L.S. Vygotsky about the features of the child's mental development, about the zones of actual and immediate development, the leading role of training and education, the need for a dynamic and systematic approach to the implementation of corrective action, taking into account the integrity of personality development, and a number of others are reflected and developed in theoretical and experimental studies of domestic scientists, and also in the practice of different types of schools for abnormal children.

In the early 30s. L.S. Vygotsky worked fruitfully in the field of pathopsychology. One of the leading provisions of this science, contributing to the correct understanding of the abnormal development of mental activity, according to well-known experts, is the position on the unity of intellect and affect. L.S. Vygotsky calls it the cornerstone in the development of a child with a intact intellect and a mentally retarded child. The significance of this idea goes far beyond the problems in connection with which it was expressed. Lev Semenovich believed that “The unity of intellect and affect ensures the process of regulation and mediation of our behavior (in Vygotsky’s terminology, “changes our actions”).”

L.S. Vygotsky took a new approach to the experimental study of the basic processes of thinking and to the study of how higher mental functions are formed and how they disintegrate in pathological states of the brain. Thanks to the work carried out by Vygotsky and his collaborators, the decay processes received their new scientific explanation...

The problems of speech pathology, which interested Lev Semenovich, began to be studied under his leadership at the EDI School-Clinic of Speech. In particular, from 1933-1934. One of the students of Lev Semenovich, Roza Evgenievna Levina, was engaged in the study of Alalik children.

Lev Semenovich is the author of attempts of a thorough psychological analysis of the changes in speech and thinking that occur during aphasia. (These ideas were subsequently developed and developed in detail by A.R. Luria).

The theoretical and methodological concept developed by L.S. Vygotsky, ensured the transition of defectology from empirical, descriptive positions to truly scientific foundations, contributing to the formation of defectology as a science.

Such well-known defectologists as E.S. Bein, T.A. Vlasova, R.E. Levina, N.G. Morozova, Zh.I. Shif, who were lucky enough to work with Lev Semenovich, assessed his contribution to the development of theory and practice as follows: “His works served as a scientific basis for the construction of special schools and a theoretical substantiation of the principles and methods for studying the diagnosis of difficult (abnormal) children. Vygotsky left a legacy of enduring scientific significance, which entered the treasury of Soviet and world psychology, defectology, psychoneurology and other related sciences.

Fragments of the book by G.L. Vygodskaya and T.M. Lifanova, Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky. Life. Activity. Strokes for a portrait. - M.: Meaning, 1996. - S. 114–126 (abridged).*

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The contribution of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky to psychology

Completed by: Andreichikova A.O.

1st year student of the FAR-s-o-13-1 group

Checked by: Assoc., Ph.D. Gulakova M.V.

Stavropol - 2013

Introduction

1. The contribution of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky to psychology

1.1 Biography of L.S. Vygotsky

1.2 Scientific contributions

2. The merits of a scientist as a psychologist

2.1 Cultural-historical theory of L.S. Vygotsky

2.2 Thinking and speech

2.3 Levels of formation of thought in a word

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Vygotsky Lev Semenovich - an outstanding domestic psychologist, teacher, creator of the concept of the development of higher mental functions. Bibliography of L.S. Vygotsky has 191 works. Vygotsky's ideas received wide resonance in all sciences that study man, including linguistics, psychiatry, ethnography, and sociology. They determined a whole stage in the development of humanitarian knowledge in Russia and still retain their heuristic potential. Vygotsky was engaged in a wide range of pedagogy, consulting and research activities. He was a member of many editorial boards and wrote extensively himself. Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky is called the Mozart of psychology, and yet one can say that this man came to psychology from outside. Lev Semenovich did not have a special psychological education, and it is quite possible that this fact allowed him to take a fresh look, from a different point of view, at the problems facing psychological science. His innovative approach is largely due to the fact that the traditions of empirical academic psychology did not weigh on him.

The generally recognized scientific merits of L.S. Vygotsky in that he introduced a new, experimental genetic method for studying mental phenomena; developed the doctrine of age as a unit of analysis of child development; offered a new understanding of the course, conditions, source, form, specifics and driving forces of the mental development of the child; described the epochs, stages and phases of child development, as well as the transitions between them in the course of ontogenesis; revealed and formulated the basic laws of the mental development of the child. Thanks to his research activities, many kids with developmental problems were able to feel like full-fledged people. The founder of defectology is the psychologist and teacher Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. The scientist paid much attention to children with visual, hearing and mental retardation. He developed a theory of effective learning to anticipate the child's abilities and development. “Birthing in direct social contacts of a child with adults, higher functions then “rotate” in his mind” - on the basis of this idea, Vygotsky created a new direction in the study of child psychology. The scientific works of the scientist underlie the modern educational psychology of the United States.

Relevance: Lev Semyonovich turns 116 years old from the date of birth.

Purpose: to learn about Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky and his contribution to psychology.

In order to achieve the goal, we have set the following tasks:

1) Study the biography of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky.

2) Study the scientist as a psychologist.

3) Learn about the merits of Lev Semyonovich.

1. The contribution of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky to psychology

1. 1 Biography

Lev Semenovich was born in the Belarusian town of Orsha, but a year later the Vygotskys moved to Gomel and settled there for a long time. His father, Semyon Lvovich Vygodsky, graduated from the Commercial Institute in Kharkov and was a bank clerk and insurance agent. Mother, Cecilia Moiseevna, devoted almost her entire life to raising her eight children (Lev was the second child). The family was considered a kind of cultural center of the city. For example, there is information that Vygotsky the father founded a public library in the city. Literature was loved and known in the house, and it is no coincidence that so many famous philologists came from the Vygotsky family. In addition to Lev Semenovich, these are his sisters Zinaida and Claudia; cousin David Isaakovich, one of the prominent representatives of "Russian formalism" (somewhere in the early 20s he began to publish, and since both of them were engaged in poetics, it is natural to want to "disengage" so that they are not confused, and therefore Lev Semenovich Vygodsky I replaced the letter "d" in my last name with "t"). Young Lev Semenovich was fond of literature and philosophy. Benedict Spinoza became and remained his favorite philosopher until the end of his life. Young Vygotsky studied mainly at home. Only the last two classes he studied at the Ratner private gymnasium in Gomel. He excelled in all subjects. At the gymnasium, he studied German, French, Latin, at home, in addition, English, ancient Greek and Hebrew. After graduating from high school, L.S. Vygotsky entered Moscow University, where he studied at the Faculty of Law during the First World War (1914-1917). At the same time, he became interested in literary criticism, and in several journals his reviews of the books of Symbolist writers - the rulers of the souls of the then intelligentsia: A. Bely, V. Ivanov, D. Merezhkovsky appeared. During these student years, he wrote his first work - the treatise "The Tragedy of Hamlet Danish W. Shakespeare." After the victory of the revolution, Vygotsky returned to Gomel and took an active part in the construction of a new school. The beginning of his scientific career as a psychologist falls on this period, since in 1917 he began to engage in research work and organized a psychological office at the pedagogical college, where he conducted research. In 1922-1923. he conducted five studies, three of which he later reported at the II All-Russian Congress on Psychoneurology. These were: "The methodology of reflexological research as applied to the study of the psyche", "How psychology should be taught now" and "The results of a questionnaire on the mood of students in the final grades of Gomel schools in 1923. ". In the Gomel period, Vygotsky imagined that the future of psychology lay in the application to the causal explanation of the phenomena of consciousness of reflexological methods, the dignity of which lies in their objectivity and natural scientific rigor. The content and style of Vygotsky's speeches, as well as his personality, literally shocked one of the participants in the congress - A. R. Luria The new director of the Moscow Institute of Psychology, N. K. Kornilov, accepted Luria's proposal to invite Vygotsky to Moscow. Thus, the ten-year Moscow stage of Vygotsky's work began in 1924. This decade can be divided into three periods. Having just arrived in Moscow and having passed the exams for the title of researcher of the 2nd category, Vygotsky delivered three reports in six months. In terms of further development of the new psychological concept conceived in Gomel, he builds a behavior model based on the reactions The term "reaction" was introduced in order to distinguish the psychological approach from physiological. He introduces into it signs that allow to correlate the behavior of the organism regulated by consciousness with the forms of culture - language and art. After moving to Moscow, he was attracted by a special area of ​​practice - working with children suffering from various mental and physical defects. In essence, his entire first year in Moscow can be called "defectological". He combines classes at the Institute of Psychology with active work in the People's Commissariat of Education. Having shown brilliant organizational skills, he laid the foundations of the defectological service, and later became the scientific director of the special scientific and practical institute that still exists. The most important direction of Vygotsky's research in the first years of the Moscow period was the analysis of the situation in world psychology. He writes a preface to Russian translations of the works of the leaders of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, gestaltism, trying to determine the significance of each of the directions for developing a new picture of mental regulation. Back in 1920, Vygotsky fell ill with tuberculosis, and since then outbreaks of the disease have more than once plunged him into a "borderline situation" between life and death. One of the most severe outbreaks struck him at the end of 1926. Then, having got into the hospital, he set about one of his main studies, which he gave the name "The Meaning of the Psychological Crisis." The epigraph to the treatise was the biblical words: "The stone, which the builders despised, became the cornerstone." This stone he called practice and philosophy. The second period of Vygotsky's work (1927-1931) in his Moscow decade was instrumental psychology. He introduces the concept of a sign, which acts as a special psychological tool, the use of which, without changing anything in the substance of nature, serves as a powerful means of transforming the psyche from natural (biological) into cultural (historical). Thus, the didactic "stimulus-response" scheme adopted by both subjective and objective psychology was rejected. It was replaced by a triadic one - "stimulus - stimulus - reaction", where a special stimulus - sign acts as an intermediary between an external object (stimulus) and the body's response (mental reaction). This sign is a kind of tool, when operating with which an individual from his primary natural mental processes (memory, attention, associated thinking) develops a special system of functions of the second sociocultural order, inherent only to a person. Vygotsky called them the highest mental functions. The most significant achievement of this period by Vygotsky and his group was summarized in a lengthy manuscript, The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions.

1. 2 Scientificcontribution

The formation of Vygotsky as a scientist coincided with the period of perestroika, in which he took an active part. In search of methods for an objective study of complex forms of mental activity and behavior of the individual, Vygotsky subjected to critical analysis a number of philosophical and most of his contemporary psychological concepts (“The Meaning of the Psychological Crisis,” a manuscript), showing the futility of attempts to explain human behavior by reducing higher forms of behavior to lower elements.

Investigating Vygotsky in a new way solves the problem of localization of higher mental functions as structural units of activity. Studying the development and decay of higher mental functions on the material of a child, Vygotsky comes to the conclusion that structure is a dynamic semantic system of affective volitional and intellectual processes that are in unity. In the works of Vygotsky, the problem of the relationship between the role of maturation and learning in the development of higher mental functions of the child is considered in detail. He formulated the most important principle, according to which the preservation and timely maturation of brain structures is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the development of higher mental functions. The main source for this development is the changing social environment, to describe which Vygotsky introduced the term social situation of development, defined as “a peculiar, age-specific, exclusive, unique and inimitable relationship between the child and the reality surrounding him, primarily social”. It is this attitude that determines the course of development of the child's psyche at a certain age stage.

Thus, L.S. Vygotsky critically analyzed a number of philosophical and most of his contemporary psychological concepts (“The Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”, a manuscript), showing the futility of attempts to explain human behavior by reducing higher forms of behavior to lower elements.

Vygotsky psychological social age

2. The merits of a scientist as a psychologist

2.1 Cultural and historicaltheory

In the book "The History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions" a detailed presentation of the cultural-historical theory of the development of the psyche: according to Vygotsky, it is necessary to distinguish between lower and higher mental functions, and, accordingly, two plans of behavior - natural, natural (the result of the biological evolution of the animal world) and cultural, social -historical (the result of the historical development of society), merged in the development of the psyche.

The hypothesis put forward by Vygotsky offered a new solution to the problem of the relationship between lower (elementary) and higher mental functions. The main difference between them is the level of arbitrariness, that is, natural mental processes cannot be regulated by a person, people can consciously control. Vygotsky came to the conclusion that conscious regulation is associated with the mediated nature of higher mental functions. Between the influencing stimulus and the reaction of a person (both behavioral and mental), an additional connection arises through a mediating link - a stimulus-means, or

The difference from tools that also mediate higher mental functions, cultural behavior, lies in the fact that the tools are directed "outside", to transform reality, and the signs "inside", first to transform other people, then to control one's own behavior. The word is a means of arbitrarily directing attention, abstracting properties and synthesizing them into meaning (arbitrary control of one's own mental operations.

The most convincing model of mediated activity that characterizes the manifestation and realization of higher mental functions is “situation This classical situation of uncertainty, or a problematic situation (a choice between two equal possibilities), interests Vygotsky primarily from the point of view of the means that allow one to transform (solve) situation. By casting lots, a person “artificially introduces into the situation, changing it, new ones that are not connected with it in any way. Thus, the cast die becomes, according to Vygotsky, a means of transforming and resolving the situation.

Thus, the hypothesis put forward by Vygotsky offered a new solution to the problem of the relationship between lower (elementary) and higher mental functions. The main difference between them is the level of arbitrariness.

2.2 Thinking and speech

In the last years of his life, Vygotsky focused on studying the relationship between thought and word in the structure of his work Thinking and Speech (1934), which was devoted to the study of this problem. According to Vygotsky, the genetic roots of thinking and speech are different.

So, for example, experiments that discovered the ability of chimpanzees to solve complex problems showed that human-like intelligence and expressive speech (absent in monkeys) function independently.

The relationship between thinking and speech as a variable. There is a pre-speech stage in the development of the intellect and a pre-intellectual stage in the development of speech. Only then thinking and speech intersect and merge.

The speech thinking that arises as a result of such a merger is not a natural, but a socio-historical form of behavior. It has specific (in comparison with natural forms of thinking and speech) properties. With the emergence of speech thinking, the biological type of development is replaced by a socio-historical one.

Thus, L.S. Vygotsky devoted a lot of time to his work and research, and one of them is Thinking and Speech.

2.3 Levels formation thoughts in word

The relation of thought to word is impermanent; it is a process, a movement from thought to word and vice versa, the formation of a thought in a word. Vygotsky describes “the complex structure of any real thought process and its associated complex course from the first, most vague moment of the birth of a thought to its final completion in a verbal formulation” highlighting the following levels:

1. Motivation of thought

3. Inner speech

4. Semantic plan (that is, the meanings of external words)

5. External speech.

Conclusion

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky showed that not all learning is effective, but only that which is ahead of development and leads it along. Developing education takes into account not only what is available to the child in the process of independent activity (the zone of actual development), but also what he can do together with an adult (the zone of proximal development). These thoughts of L.S. Vygotsky have great importance and in our days for a teacher striving to improve the mental development of the child. Thanks to his research activities, many kids with developmental problems were able to feel like full-fledged people. The founder of defectology is the psychologist and teacher Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. The scientist paid much attention to children with visual, hearing and mental retardation.

Undoubtedly, Lev Vygotsky had a significant impact on domestic and world psychology, as well as on related sciences - pedagogy, defectology, linguistics, art history, philosophy. Lev Semyonovich had a lot of followers, students. One of them is A.R. Luria is a domestic psychologist. They created many works together.

In the 30s of the twentieth century, a lot has changed in the field of psychology, in which our compatriot L.S. Vygotsky showed a lot of merit.

Thus, we learned about Lev Semyonovich as a teacher, scientist, psychologist and creator of the concept of development of higher mental functions, as well as about his merits.

Listusedliterature

1. Vygotsky, L.S. Psychology. 1991. No. 4: The problem of the cultural development of the child (1928). [Text] - M .: "Bustbust", 1772 - 230 p.

2. Vygotsky, L.S. [electronic resource]

3. Godfroy, J. What is psychology [Text] - M.: Mir, 1999 -376 p.

4. Stepanov, S.S. - Psychology in faces - M .: Publishing house EKSMO-Press, 2001 - 384 p.

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"Consciousness as a Problem of Behavior" (1925), "The Development of Higher Mental Functions" (1931), "Thinking and Speech" (1934)

L.S. Vygotsky Developed a doctrine of the development of mental functions in the process of mastering cultural values ​​mediated by communication. Cultural signs(first of all, the signs of the language) serve as a kind of tools, operating with which the subject, influencing the other, forms his own inner world, the main units of which are meanings (generalizations, cognitive components of consciousness) and meanings (affective-motivational components). Mental functions given by nature (" natural”) are transformed into functions of the highest level of development (“ cultural"). Thus, mechanical memory becomes logical, the associative flow of ideas becomes purposeful thinking or creative imagination, impulsive action becomes arbitrary, and so on. Are all internal processes a product interiorization. Every function in the child's cultural development appears on the scene twice, on two planes - first social, then psychological. First between people as an interpsychic category, then within the child as an intrapsychic category. Originating in the child's direct social contacts with adults, the higher functions then "grow" into his consciousness" ("History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions", 1931). Based on this idea of ​​Vygotsky, a new direction in child psychology was created, including the provision on "zone of proximal development" which had a great influence on simultaneous domestic and foreign experimental studies of the development of the child's behavior. The principle of development was combined in Vygotsky's concept with the principle of consistency. He developed the concept of "psychological systems", which meant integral formations and the form of various forms of interfunctional connections (for example, connections between thinking and memory, thinking and speech). In the construction of these systems, the main role was given initially to the sign, and then to the meaning as a “cell”, from which the fabric of the human psyche grows, in contrast to the psyche of animals. Together with his students, Vygotsky experimentally traced the main stages of the transformation of meanings in ontogeny (Thinking and Speech, 1934), proposed a hypothesis adequate to the principle of development about the localization of mental functions as structural units of brain activity. Vygotsky's ideas are used not only in psychology and its various branches, but also in other human sciences (in defectology, linguistics, psychiatry, art history, ethnography, etc.).

Considering the state of psychological science, L.S. Vygotsky noted that Russian science is characterized by the closeness of the problem of personality and its development. He singled out four main ideas of the concept of personality.


The first idea is the idea of ​​individual activity. Interpreting the signs of the language as mental tools, which, unlike the tools of labor, do not change the physical world, but the consciousness of the subject they operate on. The tool was considered as a possible point of application of the forces of the individual, and the individual himself acted as a carrier of activity. Vygotsky, on the other hand, discovered the development of the meanings of words in ontogenesis, the change in their structure during the transition from one stage of mental development to another. Before a person begins to operate with words, he already has a pre-verbal mental content (elementary mental functions), to which psychological development gives a qualitatively new structure (higher mental functions arise) and the laws of cultural development of consciousness come into effect, qualitatively different from "natural", natural development of the psyche (which is observed, for example, in animals).

The second idea is Vygotsky's idea about the main feature of human mental functions: their mediated nature. The function of mediation is provided by signs, with the help of which behavior is mastered, its social determination takes place. The use of signs restructures the psyche, strengthening and expanding the system of mental activity.

The third idea is the interiorization social relations. Acts of internalization, as Vygotsky noted, are carried out mainly in the processes of communication. Communication was considered as a process based on intellectual understanding and conscious transmission of thoughts and experiences using a known system of means. The latter means that social relations, while remaining tool-mediated, bear the imprint of individuality, there is a transfer of individual characteristics of communicating people and the formation of their ideal representation in someone else's "I". In this, Vygotsky sees the difference between education and upbringing, since the first is the transmission of “meanings”, and the second is “personal meanings” and experiences. In this regard, he introduces the concept of "zone of proximal development" for learning. It refers to the discrepancy between the level of tasks that a child can solve independently or under the guidance of an adult. Education, distributing such a “zone”, leads to development.

And, finally, the fourth idea - the formation of a personality consists in transitions between the states "in oneself", "for others", "being for oneself". According to Vygotsky, a person becomes for himself what he is in himself, through what he presents to others. The personality as a system reveals itself twice: for the first time - in acts of socially oriented activity (in actions and deeds), the second time - in acts that complete the act, based on the counter activity of another person.

Vygotsky's views lead to an understanding of personality as a special form of organizing the mutual activity of a given individual and other individuals, where the real being of the individual is connected with the ideal being of other individuals in him and where at the same time the individual is ideally represented in the real being of other people (aspects of individuality and personalization). Thus, Vygotsky's ideas, which developed mainly in the psychology of cognitive processes, laid the foundation for the Russian approach to understanding psychology.

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