Lev Semenovich Vygotsky

Vygotsky Lev Semyonovich, Soviet psychologist. Having criticized attempts to explain human behavior by reducing higher forms of behavior to lower elements, Vygotsky developed a cultural-historical theory of mental development (“Development of Higher Mental Functions,” 1930-31, publ. 1960).

According to Vygotsky, it is necessary to distinguish between two plans of behavior - natural (the result of the biological evolution of the animal world) and cultural (the result of historical development society), merged in the development of the psyche. The essence of cultural behavior is its mediation by tools and signs, with the former aimed “outward”, at transforming reality, and the latter - “inward”, first at transforming other people, then at controlling own behavior. In the last years of his life, Vygotsky focused on studying the structure of consciousness (“Thinking and Speech,” 1934). Exploring speech thinking, Vygotsky solves in a new way the problem of localizing higher mental functions as structural units of brain activity. Studying the development and decay of higher mental functions using 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.

Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory gave birth to the largest school in Soviet psychology, from which came A. N. Leontiev, A. R. Luria, P. Ya. Galperin, A. V. Zaporozhets, P. I. Zinchenko, D. B. Elkonin and others.

Philosophical encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983.

Works: Sketches on the history of behavior, M.-L., 1930 (together with A. R. Luria); Favorite psychological research, M., 1956; Psychology of Art, M., 19682; Collection soch., vol. 1 - 2-, M., 1982.

Vygotsky Lev Semenovich - Russian psychologist. Graduated from the Law Faculty of Moscow University (participated in the seminar G. G. Shpeta) and the historical and philosophical department of Shanyavsky University (where I took courses P. P. Blonsky, who played an important role in his spiritual development). After studying, he works in Gomel in various educational institutions, organizes psychological laboratory(1922-23). Early works - “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, W. Shakespeare” (1915-16), “Psychology of Art” (1925, published 1965) and “Educational Psychology” (1924, published 1926) - became an important stage in the formation his innovative concept of psychology. After the report on the 2nd All-Russian Congress in psychoneurology in January 1924 he was invited to work at the State Institute experimental psychology in Moscow. In 1925 he defended his dissertation “Psychology of Art” and gave a presentation at International Congress for the education of deaf and mute children (London). In the winter of 1925-1926, he wrote a large work, “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis” (published in 1982), in which he analyzed the crisis modern psychology and attempted to use a number of philosophical principles of Marxism to determine a program for overcoming this crisis. High philosophical methodological culture- acquaintance with the psychological trends of our time, creative productivity determined the rapid and rich in results evolution of the scientist’s views. In those same years, his close collaboration with A. N. Leontiev, A. R. Luria and other psychologists developed, and one of the leading schools in world psychology was formed - the Vygotsky school. Major milestones in his creative biography became the works: “Tool and Sign in the Development of the Child” (1930, published 1982), “History of the Development of Higher Mental Functions” (1931, published 1960), where the principles of the cultural-historical theory of mental development and the experimental-genetic method of its development were substantiated research. Vygotsky sees the essence of cultural behavior in its mediation by tools and signs, and the very formation of mental skills and abilities as a process of internalization. The last years of his life were devoted to the study of the problem of the structure of consciousness, its semantic and systemic structure. The book “Thinking and Speech” (1934) substantiates the approach to the structure of consciousness as a dynamic semantic system, representing the unity of affective, volitional and intellectual processes, and reveals the central role of the word in consciousness as a whole, and not in its individual functions. Premature death did not allow Vygotsky to complete many of his plans and undertakings.

Over the decades, the development of Soviet psychology, represented by such names as A. R. Luria, A. N. Leontiev, A. V. Zaporozhets, P. Ya. Galperin, D. B. Elkonin, P. I. Zinchenko, etc. , proceeded under the influence of Vygotsky. Unscrupulous scientific criticism(already from the beginning of the 1930s) after the defeat of pedology ended with the oblivion of his name. After 1956, Vygotsky's ideas gained significant popularity. In the 1960-70s. Several dozen editions of his works appeared in other countries of the world. Vygotsky is one of the creators of non-classical psychology, which is (according to Elkonin’s definition) the science of how from the objective world of art, from the world material culture and industry, the subjective world of the individual is born and arises.

A. I. Aleshin

New philosophical encyclopedia. In four volumes. / Institute of Philosophy RAS. Scientific ed. advice: V.S. Stepin, A.A. Guseinov, G.Yu. Semigin. M., Mysl, 2010, vol. I, A - D, p. 468.

Vygotsky Lev Semenovich (1896-1934) - Russian psychologist, creator of the cultural-historical concept of the development of higher mental functions.

Biography. In 1917 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, and at the same time from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of Shanyavsky University. Since 1924 he worked in the Moscow state institute experimental psychology, then - at the Institute of Defectology, which he founded. He taught courses at a number of universities in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kharkov. Professor at the Institute of Psychology in Moscow.

Research. Until the second half of the 1920s. dealt with the problem of art perception. He distinguished in the emotional sphere of an individual perceiving a particular work of art two differently directed affects, the opposition of which is resolved in catharsis, which is the basis of the aesthetic reaction. In the work “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis” he began to analyze common problems methodology and theory of psychology and the construction of the methodology of Marxist psychology. He developed the foundations of cultural-historical psychology, in which the leading role is played by instrumental actions and activity with signs. He worked on the problems of defectology in the laboratory of the psychology of abnormal childhood he created (1925-1926), formulating a new theory of the development of an abnormal child. In the last stage of his creativity, he explored the relationship between thinking and speech, the development of meanings in ontogenesis, egocentric speech (Thinking and speech. 1934; Thinking and speech // Collected works: In 6 vols. M.: Pedagogy, 1982. Vol. 2) . L. S. Vygotsky believed that inner speech comes from the so-called egocentric speech, which is a child’s conversation with himself out loud during play and other activities. With gradual devoicing and syntactic reduction, this speech becomes more and more abbreviated, idiomatic and predicative, and verbal forms become dominant in it. Upon reaching school age, egocentric speech is finally transformed into internal speech. L. S. Vygotsky came to the conclusion that consciousness is a dynamic semantic system in which affective, volitional and intellectual processes. Introduced the concept of zone of proximal development.

Historical context. He had a significant influence on both domestic (A. N. Leontiev, A. R. Luria, A. V. Zaporozhets, etc.) and world psychological thought.

Kondakov I.M. Psychology. Illustrated Dictionary. // THEM. Kondakov. – 2nd ed. add. And reworked. – St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 114-115.

Essays: Methodology of reflexological and psychological research. 1924; Pedagogical psychology. M., 1926; Imagination and creativity in childhood. M.; L, 1930; Studies on the history of behavior. M.; L., 1930 (jointly with A. R. Luria); Thinking and speech. Sotsekgiz, M.L., 1934; Mental development of children in the learning process. M, 1935; Developmental diagnostics and pedological clinic for difficult childhood. Sotsekgiz, M.-L., 1936; Favorites psychological works. M., 1956; Problems of emotions // Questions of psychology. 1958. No. 3; Development of higher mental functions. M, 1960; Psychology of art. M., 1968; Collection cit.: In 6 vols. M., 1982-1984.

Literature: Petrovsky A.V. History of Soviet psychology. M., 1967; Vygotsky’s scientific creativity and modern psychology / Ed. V.V. Davydova. M., 1981; Pumrey A. A. Cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky and modern psychology. M,: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1986; Veer R, Understanding Vygotsky. Oxford, 1991; Yaroshevsky M. G. L. Vygotsky in search of a new psychology. St. Petersburg, 1993; Yaroshevsky M. G. Science of behavior: Russian pun. M.; Voronezh, 1996; Vygotskaya G. L. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky: life, activities, touches to the portrait. M.: Smysl, 1996; L. S. Vygotsky // Psychology: Biographical Bibliographical Dictionary / Ed. N. Sheehy, E. J. Chapman, W. A. ​​Conroy. St. Petersburg: Eurasia, 1999; Leontyev A. A. Key ideas of L. S. Vygotsky - contribution to world psychology of the 20th century // Psychological Journal. 2001. No. 4. T. 22

Vygotsky Lev Semenovich (5(17). 11/1896, Orsha - 06/11/1934, Moscow) - psychologist. In the pre-revolutionary period, the author of an approach close to impressionism and existentialism, manifested in the treatise on Hamlet, where motifs about the well-known “sorrow of existence” are heard. Since 1917, he has been a teacher in Gomel. According to his views, Vygotsky becomes a supporter of natural science psychology, focused on the teachings of Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov as the foundation on which a new system of ideas about the determination of human behavior should be built ( Educational Psychology, 1924, published - 1926), including in the perception of works of art (Psychology of Art, 1925, published - 1965). In 1924, Vygotsky moved to Moscow and worked at the Institute of Psychology, which was tasked with restructuring research based on the philosophy of Marxism. In the article “Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior” (1925), he outlines a plan for the study of mental functions, based on their role as regulators of behavior, which in humans includes speech components. Based on K. Marx’s position on the difference between instinct and consciousness, Vygotsky points out that thanks to work, “experience is doubled” and a person acquires the ability to “build twice: first in thoughts, then in deeds” (Pedagogical Psychology. 1926. P. 177) .

Understanding the word as an action (first a speech reflex, then a speech reaction), Vygotsky sees in it a special sociocultural mediator between the individual and the world. He attaches great importance to its iconic nature, due to which the structure changes qualitatively mental life a person and his mental functions (perception, memory, attention, thinking). From the elementary they become the highest. Interpreting cultural signs as mental tools that, unlike tools of labor, change not the physical world, but the consciousness of the subject operating them, Vygotsky proposed an experimental program for studying how, thanks to these tools, a system of higher mental functions develops. This program was successfully carried out by him together with a team of employees who formed the Vygotsky school, the center of whose interests was the cultural development of the child. Along with normal children, Vygotsky great attention paid to abnormal (suffering from defects of vision, hearing, mental retardation), becoming the founder of a special science - defectology, in the development of which he defended humanistic ideals. The first essay analyzing the laws of the psyche in individual development person, was his work “Development of Higher Mental Functions” (1931, published 1960), which presents a diagram of the formation of the human psyche in the process of using signs as a means of regulation mental activity first in the external interaction of the individual with other people, and then in the sphere of managing his own behavior, the ability for which he will gain thanks to the transfer of the process of interaction from the outside to the inside ( interiorization). In subsequent works, Vygotsky focuses on the meaning of the sign, that is, on the (mainly intellectual) content associated with it. Thanks to this approach, he, together with his students, developed a theory of human mental development, embodied in his main work “Thinking and Speech” (1934). Vygotsky closely connected these studies with the problem of learning and its impact on mental development. In this regard, the concept of the “zone of proximal development” has gained popularity, according to which only that learning is effective that “runs ahead of development,” as if “pulling” it along with it, revealing the child’s ability to solve, with the participation of the teacher, those tasks that he cannot cope on his own. Mental development was interpreted by Vygotsky as inseparably linked with motivational (in his terminology, affective), therefore, in his research, he affirmed the principle of the unity of “intelligence and affect.” However, he was prevented from implementing this program early death. Only the preparatory work has survived in the form of a large manuscript “The Teaching of Emotions. Historical and Psychological Research" (1933), the main content of which is the analysis of "The Passions of the Soul" by R. Descartes - a work, according to Vygotsky, that determines the appearance of modern psychology of feelings with its dualism of lower and higher emotions. At the same time, he believed that the prospects for overcoming dualism were contained in Spinoza’s Ethics. Vygotsky's works were distinguished by a high methodological culture. The presentation of specific experimental and theoretical problems was invariably coupled with their philosophical understanding. This was most clearly reflected both in the essay on thinking, speech, emotions, and in the analysis of the ways of development of psychology and the causes of its crisis at the beginning of the 20th century.

In his work “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis” (1927, published in 1982), he saw this crisis in the collapse of psychology into separate directions, each of which offers its own, incompatible with the other, understanding of the subject and methods of psychology, and considered it necessary to overcome this process to create a special “general psychology” as a doctrine of basic concepts and explanatory principles. On this path, Vygotsky believed, psychology would be freed from spiritualistic influences, from all kinds of versions, from the inconsistency of studying the inner world of the subject objective method and causal analysis. Under the influence of the Marxist J. Politzer, Vygotsky put forward a project to develop psychology “in terms of drama.” Drama, according to Vygotsky, is expressed in a person’s external behavior (when there is a collision between people performing various roles“on the stage of life”) and internally, for example, in a conflict between mind and feeling. It is dramatization (including the collision of the biological with the social), and not articulate speech itself, that serves as a factor characterizing the specificity of human consciousness in contrast to other living beings. With the beginning of ideological repression, his creative searches were “branded” as “an idealistic revision of historical materialism.” Even more severe charges were brought against him with the ban on pedology, since, as a student of child psychology, he was considered one of its leaders. His works ended up in a special storage facility and were thereby removed from scientific circulation. Only in the 2nd half of the 50s did they begin to be published, arousing interest both in our country and abroad. They have received wide resonance in many disciplines, including aesthetics, semiotics, ethnography, cultural history, science, etc.

Russian philosophy. Encyclopedia. Ed. second, modified and expanded. Under the general editorship of M.A. Olive. Comp. P.P. Apryshko, A.P. Polyakov. – M., 2014, p. 119-120.

Works: Collection. cit.: In 6 vols. M., 1982-1984; Thinking and speech. M., 2011.

Literature: Bubbles L. A. Cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky and modern psychology. M., 1986; Yaroshevsky M. G. Vygotsky: in search of a new psychology. St. Petersburg, 1993; Vygodskaya G. L., Lifanova T. M. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky: Life. Activity. Touches to the portrait. M., 1996 (bib.); Mareev S. N. From the history of Soviet philosophy: Lukach Vygotsky - Ilyenkov. M., 2008.

Read further:

Philosophers, lovers of wisdom (biographical index).

Russian national philosophy (special project of KHRONOS)

Sochinenich:

Collection cit.: In 6 vols. M., 1982-1984.

Thinking and speech. Sotsekgiz, M.L., 1934;

Thinking and speech. M., 2011.

Methods of reflexological and psychological research. 1924;

Pedagogical psychology. M., 1926;

Imagination and creativity in childhood. M.; L, 1930;

Studies on the history of behavior. M.; L., 1930 (jointly with A. R. Luria);

Mental development of children in the learning process. M, 1935;

Developmental diagnostics and pedological clinic for difficult childhood. Sotsekgiz, M.-L., 1936;

Selected psychological works. M., 1956;

Problems of emotions // Questions of psychology. 1958. No. 3;

Development of higher mental functions. M, 1960;

Psychology of art. M., 1968;

Literature:

Yaroshevsky M. G., Gurgenidze G. S. L. S. Vygotsky on the nature of the psyche. - “VF”, 1981, No. 1;

Leontiev A. A. L. S. Vygotsky. M., 1990;

Bubbles L. A. Cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky and modern psychology. M., 1986;

Yaroshevsky M. G. Vygotsky: in search of a new psychology. St. Petersburg, 1993;

Vygodskaya G. L., Lifanova T. M. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky: Life. Activity. Touches to the portrait. M., 1996 (bib.);

Mareev S. N. From the history of Soviet philosophy: Lukach Vygotsky - Ilyenkov. M., 2008.

Berg E. E. L. S. Vygotsky "s Theory of the Social and Historical Origins of Consciousness, Umpubliched doktoral diss. Wisconsin, 1970, v. 2;

Ecology of knowledge. Psychology: The famous Russian psychologist and one of the founders of neurophysiology, Alexander Luria, has repeatedly admitted that “we owe everything good in the development of Russian psychology to Vygotsky.”

The famous Russian psychologist and one of the founders of neurophysiology, Alexander Luria, has repeatedly admitted that “in We owe this good thing in the development of Russian psychology to Vygotsky».

Lev Vygotsky- really iconic figure already for several generations of psychologists and humanists, and not only domestic ones.

After in 1962 English language His work “Thinking and Speech” was published, Vygotsky’s ideas spread widely in the USA, Europe, and then in other countries. When one of the American followers of the cultural-historical school, Uri Bronfenbrenner from Cornell University, managed to come to the USSR, he immediately confused Vygotsky’s daughter Gita Lvovna with the question: “I hope you know that your father is God for us?”

Vygotsky’s students, however, considered him a genius during his lifetime. As the same Luria recalls, at the end of the 20s, “our entire group devoted almost the entire day to our grandiose plan for the restructuring of psychology. L.S. Vygotsky was an idol for us. When he went somewhere, students would write poems in honor of his journey.”

Lev Vygotsky with his daughter Gita, 1934.

• Vygotsky came to psychology from among theatergoers and art lovers - from the world of the “Silver Age” of Russian culture, in which he was well versed.
• After the revolution he wrote reviews of theatrical performances and taught in his hometown of Gomel, prepared several works on Shakespeare's drama and developed the fundamentals of the psychology of art. Before the revolution, he attended the Shanyavsky People's University in Moscow, where he listened to lectures by literary scholar and critic Yuri Aikhenvald, philosopher Gustav Shpet and Georgy Chelpanov. Thanks to these courses and independent reading (in several languages), Vygotsky received an excellent education in the humanities, which he later supplemented with natural science.
• After the revolution, he wrote reviews of theatrical productions and taught in his hometown of Gomel, prepared several works on Shakespeare's drama and developed the foundations of the psychology of art.
• In 1924, he moved to Moscow again at the invitation of the Moscow Institute of Experimental Psychology, where he finally found his calling.

In the most difficult conditions post-revolutionary Russia Before he reached the age of 38, he proposed many solutions in psychological theory and pedagogy that remain fresh today.

Already in 1926, Vygotsky stated: not only domestic, but also world psychology is in crisis. A complete restructuring of its theoretical foundations is necessary. All the opposing schools, the rapid development of which occurred in the first quarter of the 20th century, can be divided into two parts - natural science and idealistic.

The first studies reflexes and reactions to stimuli, and the position of the latter was most clearly expressed by Wilhelm Dilthey, who argued that “we explain nature, but we understand mental life.”

This opposition and this crisis can only be overcome through the creation general psychology - through systematization and organization of individual data about the human psyche and behavior. It was necessary to combine explanation and understanding in a single and holistic approach to the analysis of the human psyche.

What is most common among all phenomena studied by psychology, what makes psychological facts a wide variety of phenomena - from the secretion of saliva in a dog to the enjoyment of tragedy; what is common between the ravings of a madman and the strictest calculations of a mathematician?

- Lev Vygotsky from “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”

A person is fundamentally distinguished by the fact that he uses consciousness and signs- and this is precisely what psychology had until then ignored (behaviourism and reflexology), considered in isolation from social practice (phenomenology) or replaced unconscious processes(psychoanalysis). Vygotsky saw the way out of the crisis in dialectical materialism, although he was skeptical about attempts to directly adapt Marxist dialectics to psychology.

Marx had fundamentally important provisions about the determining role of social relations, instrumental and sign activity in the formation of the psyche:

The spider performs operations reminiscent of those of a weaver, and the bee, with the construction of its wax cells, puts some human architects to shame. But even the worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that, before building a cell of wax, he has already built it in his head.

- Karl Marx "Capital", Chapter 5. The labor process and the process of valorization

General psychology overcoming differences different schools and approaches did not appear during Vygotsky’s lifetime, and they do not exist now. But in these revolutionary years in all respects, it seemed to many that this was quite possible: the general psychological theory somewhere nearby, “we now hold in our hands the thread from it,” he writes in 1926 in notes that were later revised and published under the title “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis.” At this time, Vygotsky was lying in the Zakharyino hospital, where he was urgently hospitalized due to an exacerbation of tuberculosis.

Luria later said: “ Doctors said that he had 3-4 months to live, he was placed in a sanatorium... And then he began to write frantically in order to leave behind some basic work».

Vygotsky’s classic scheme of behaviorism “stimulus - reaction” turns into the scheme “stimulus - sign (means) - reaction”. It was at this time that what would later be called “cultural-historical theory” began to take shape.

In 1927, Vygotsky was discharged from the hospital and, together with his colleagues, began conducting research on higher mental functions, which would bring him world fame. He studies speech and sign activity, genetic mechanisms of the formation of the psyche in the process of development of children's thinking.

The intermediate element transforms the entire scene of thinking, changes all its functions. What was a natural reaction becomes a conscious and socially conditioned cultural behavior.

3 theses of Vygotsky's psychology

« ...Every function in the cultural development of a child appears on the scene twice, on two levels, first social, then psychological, first between people as an interpsychic category, then within the child as an intrapsychic category. This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, to the formation of concepts, to the development of will.».

Similar ideas were once expressed by the French psychologist and philosopher Pierre Janet: he then transfers those forms of behavior that others initially applied to the child (“wash your hands,” “don’t talk at the table”) to himself.

This is what the famous formulation of the “general genetic law of cultural development” looks like:, which Vygotsky proposed in Thinking and Speech. We are talking here about the social origin of consciousness - but this formula can be interpreted in completely different ways.

Vygotsky does not at all claim that social factors entirely determine the development of the psyche. Just as it does not say that consciousness arises from natural, innate mechanisms of adaptation to the environment.

« Development is a continuous self-determined process, and not a puppet directed by pulling two strings" A child emerges as a separate personality only through interaction and active participation in the lives of others.

As Luria's experiments conducted in Uzbekistan in the early 30s showed, logical operations that we consider natural arise only in the context of formal learning. If they don't tell you at school what a circle is, the idea of ​​a circle itself will not come down to you from Plato's world of ideas.

For the illiterate, a triangle is a tea stand or an amulet, a filled circle is a coin, an unfinished circle is a month, and there is nothing in common between them.

Let's say you were offered the following syllogism:

1. On Far North where there is always snow, all bears are white.

2. New Earth located in the Far North.

3. What color are the bears there?

If you were not taught to reason in abstract concepts and solve abstract problems, then you will answer something like “I have never been to the North and have not seen bears” or “you should ask people who have been there and seen them.”

Pioneers walk along the Maidan with drums. Uzbekistan, 1928.

Vygotsky and Luria showed that many mechanisms of thinking that seem to be universal are in fact conditioned by culture, history and certain psychological tools that do not arise spontaneously, but are acquired through learning.

« A person introduces artificial stimuli, signs behavior and, with the help of signs, creates, acting from the outside, new connections in the brain”; “in the highest structure, the functional defining whole or focus of the entire process is the sign and the way of its use” .

Vygotsky emphasizes that all forms of behavior characteristic of humans have a symbolic nature. Signs are used as psychological tools: simplest example- This is a knot tied to memory.

Let's see how children play with blocks. This can be a spontaneous game in which pieces are piled on top of one another: this cube becomes a car, the next one a dog. The meaning of the figures is constantly changing, and the child does not come to any stable solution. The child likes it - the process itself brings him pleasure, and the result does not matter.

A teacher who considers such an activity pointless can ask the child to build a certain figure according to the drawn model. There is a clear goal here - the child sees where each cube should stand. But he is not interested in such a game. You can also offer a third option: let the child try to assemble a model from cubes, which is only approximately indicated. It cannot be copied - you need to find your own solution.

In the first version of the game, signs do not determine the child’s behavior - he is driven by the spontaneous flow of fantasy. In the second version, the sign (drawn model) acts as a predetermined sample that just needs to be copied, but the child loses his own activity. Finally, in the third version, the game gains a goal, but allows for multiple decisions.

This is precisely the form that human behavior has, mediated by signs that give it purpose and meaning without taking away freedom of choice.

«... By being involved in behavior, a psychological instrument changes the entire course and structure of mental functions. He achieves this by defining the structure of a new instrumental act, just as a technical tool changes the process of natural adaptation, determining the type of labor operations" But the action of a sign, unlike a weapon, is directed not outward, but inward. It not only conveys a message, but also acts as a means of self-determination.

Removal of the monument Alexander III in Moscow, 1918.

“The immaturity of functions at the time of the start of training is a general and fundamental law”; “Pedagogy should focus not on yesterday, but on tomorrow’s child development. Only then will she be able to bring to life, in the process of learning, those developmental processes that now lie in the zone of proximal development.”

The concept of the "zone of proximal development" is one of Vygotsky's most famous contributions to educational theory. A child can independently perform a certain range of tasks. With the help of leading questions and tips from the teacher, he can do much more. The gap between these two states is called the zone of proximal development. It is through her that any learning is always carried out.

To explain this concept, Vygotsky introduces a metaphor about a gardener who needs to monitor not only the ripened, but also the ripening fruits. Education should focus specifically on the future - what the child does not yet know how to do, but can learn. It is important to stay within this zone - not to dwell on what you have learned, but also not to try to jump too far ahead.

A person cannot exist separately from others - any development always occurs in a team. Modern science has achieved a lot not only because it stands on the shoulders of giants - no less important is the whole mass of people, who for the majority remain anonymous. Genuine talents arise not in spite of, but thanks to the surrounding conditions that push and direct their development.

And here Vygotsky’s pedagogy goes beyond the classroom: To ensure comprehensive human development, the entire society must change.

Many of Vygotsky's ideas and concepts remained unformed. Experimental work to test his bold hypotheses was mainly carried out not by himself, but by his followers and students (therefore most of specific examples This article is taken from the works of Luria). Vygotsky died in 1934 - unrecognized, reviled and forgotten for many years by everyone except narrow circle like-minded people. Interest in his theory was revived only in the 50-60s in the wake of the “semiotic turn” in humanities research.

​The famous “eight” of Vygotsky’s students. Standing: A.V. Zaporozhets, N.G. Morozova, and D.B. Elkonin, seated: A.N. Leontyev, R.E. Levina, L.I. Bozhovich, L.S. Slavina, A.R. Luria.

Today his work is relied upon as domestic representatives cultural-historical theory, as well as foreign sociocultural psychologists, cognitive scientists, anthropologists and linguists. Vygotsky’s ideas have become part of the compulsory baggage of educators around the world.

This might interest you:

How would you define who you are if not for the avalanche of cultural clichés that others bombard us with on a daily basis? How would you know that the major and minor premises of a categorical syllogism lead to a very specific conclusion? What would you learn if it weren't for teachers, notebooks, classmates, class books, and grades?

The reason for Vygotsky's continued influence is that he shows the importance of all these elements that so easily escape our attention. published

Activity theory (L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev, D. B. Elkonin)

Activity theory (L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontiev, L. Ya. Galperin, D. B. Elkonin, V. V. Davydov, A. V. Petrovsky, etc.) is based on the fundamental principle - the activity approach to psyche. Activity is the process of human interaction with the outside world, the process of solving vital problems. In the activity approach, the psyche is understood as a form of the subject’s life activity that ensures the solution of certain problems in the process of his interaction with the world. The psyche is not just a picture of the world, a system of images, but also a system of actions.

According to supporters of this theory, human mental development has social nature: the progress of humanity is determined not by biological, but by social laws. The species experience of humanity is not recorded through mechanisms genetic inheritance, but is fixed in the products of material and spiritual culture. Teaching and upbringing are specially organized types of human activity, during which they learn the experience of previous generations.

The unity of mental and external material activity is that both are activities. Both of these types of activity have an identical structure (goal, motive, object to which it is directed, specific set operations that implement action and activity; the pattern according to which it is performed by the subject is an act of his real life activity, belongs to the subject, acts as the activity of a specific person). Their unity lies in the fact that internal mental activity is a transformed external material activity, and is a product of external practical activity.

Activity gives rise to all mental phenomena, qualities, characteristics, processes and states. Unlike the individual, personality “is in no sense prior to his activity, just like his consciousness, it is generated by it.”

The main psychological components of activity are its motives. A. N. Leontyev divides motives into two types: incentive motives and meaning-forming motives.

Personal meanings are integrated by each other into a connected system, designated by A. N. Leontyev with the term " semantic formations personality." Hierarchical connections of motives form the core of personality. A. N. Leontiev noted: “The structure of personality is a relatively stable configuration of the main, internally hierarchized motivational lines... The internal relationships of the main motivational lines in the totality of human activities form, as it were, a common “ psychological profile“personality”. In the concept of A. N. Leontiev, the categories “personality”, “consciousness”, “activity” appear in their dialectical interaction, trinity.

A. N. Leontiev believed that personality is the social essence of a person, and therefore the temperament, character, abilities and knowledge of a person are not part of the personality as its substructures, they are only the conditions for the formation of this formation, social in its essence. Direction and will belong to the individual, because a volitional act cannot be considered outside the hierarchy of motives, and direction is a direct expression of motivational structures, i.e. personality core.

Cultural-historical concept Lev Semenovich Vygotsky proves that the answer to the human psyche lies not inside the brain or spirit, but in signs, language, tools, and social relationships. To understand higher mental processes (voluntary memory, attention, abstract logical thinking, speech), one must go beyond the boundaries of the body and look for explanations in public relations this organism with its environment. Child development is not subject to biological laws, but to socio-historical laws. The development of a child occurs through the appropriation of historically developed forms and methods of human activity. Thus, driving force of human development – this is training. But learning is not identical to development, it creates a zone of proximal development, sets in motion internal processes of development, which at first are possible for the child only in interaction with adults and in cooperation with friends, but then, permeating the entire internal course of development, they become the property of the child himself. The closest action zone is the distance between the level current development child and his level possible development, with the assistance of adults. L. S. Vygotsky wrote: “The zone of proximal development determines functions that have not yet matured, but are in the process of maturation; characterizes mental development for tomorrow.” The phenomenon of the zone of proximal development indicates the leading role of learning in the mental development of a child. Education can rebuild the entire system of consciousness(“one step in learning can mean a hundred steps in development”).

L. S. Vygotsky emphasizes that mental development is the holistic development of the entire personality. This theory reveals the social essence of man and the mediated nature of his activity (its instrumentality, symbolism). According to L. S. Vygotsky, higher mental functions arise initially as a form of collective behavior of the child, as a form of cooperation with other people, and only then do they become the individual functions and abilities of the child himself. So, at first speech is a means of communication between people, but in the course of development it becomes internal and begins to perform an intellectual function. Distinctive features higher mental functions – indirectness, awareness, arbitrariness, systematicity; they are formed during lifetime in the process of mastering special means developed during the historical development of society; the development of higher mental functions occurs in the learning process, in the process of mastering given patterns. The function of mediating higher mental processes is performed by signs with the help of which behavior is mastered and its social determination occurs. Tools of labor change the substance of nature. Signs of culture are also tools, but special, psychological ones. They change not the external material world, but the human psyche. Initially, these signs are used in communication between people, in external interaction. And then this process from external becomes internal (the process of interiorization). Thanks to this, the development of higher mental functions occurs. Cultural and social development act as the main condition for personal development.

Personality development as a process of socialization of the individual is carried out in certain social conditions family, immediate environment, region, country, in certain socio-political, economic conditions, in the ethno-sociocultural, national traditions of the people of which he is a representative. At the same time, at each phase of the life path, as L. S. Vygotsky emphasized, certain social situations of development take shape as unique relationships between the child and the social reality surrounding him. Adaptation to the norms and forms of interaction in force in society is replaced by the phase of individualization, the search for means and ways of indicating one’s individuality and dissimilarity, and then by the phase of integration of the individual into the community – these are all mechanisms personal development (according to A.V. Petrovsky).

No adult influence on processes mental development cannot be carried out without the real activity of the child himself. And the process of development itself depends on how this activity is carried out. The development process is the child’s self-movement due to his activity with objects, and the facts of heredity and environment are only conditions that do not determine the essence of the development process, but only various variations within the normal range. This is how the idea of ​​the leading type of activity arose as a criterion for the periodization of a child’s mental development.

According to A. N. Leontiev, "Some types of activities are at this stage leading and have greater importance for the further development of the individual, others - less. Some play the main role, others play a subordinate role."

Leading activity is characterized by the fact that basic mental processes are restructured in it and changes occur psychological characteristics personality at this stage of its development. The content and form of leading activity depends on the specific historical conditions in which the child’s development takes place. The change in leading types of activity takes a long time to prepare and is associated with the emergence of new motives that encourage the child to change the position he occupies in the system of relationships with other people. Development of the problem of leading activity in child development is a fundamental contribution domestic psychologists in child psychology. The studies of A.V. Zaporozhets, A.N. Leontyev, D.B. Elkonin, V.V. Davydov, L.Ya. Galperin showed the dependence of the development of mental processes on the nature and structure of various types of leading activity. In the process of child development, first the motivational side of the activity is mastered (otherwise the objects have no meaning for the child), and then the operational and technical side; in development, one can observe the alternation of these types of activities (D. B. Elkonin). When mastering socially developed ways of acting with objects, the child is formed as a member of society. Developing the ideas of L. S. Vygotsky, D. B. Elkonin considers each age based on the criteria (Table 2.1):

• – social situation of development – ​​a system of relationships into which a child enters in society;
• – the main or leading type of activity of the child during this period;
• – the main new formations of development, and new achievements in development lead to the inevitability of change in the social situation, to a crisis;
• – crisis – turning points in child development that separate one age from another. Major crises at 3 years and 11 years (teenage crisis) are crises of relationships, followed by orientation to human relations, and small crises at 1 and 7 years open orientation in the world of things.

Table 2.1. Periodization of mental development by D. B. Elkonin

	Leading activity	Leading party of socialization	Socialization environment	Positive developmental outcome according to Erikson	Negative developmental outcome according to Erikson	Neoplasms
Infancy (0–1 year)	Emotional communication with adults	Mastering the norms of communicating with people	Family, mother	Trust in the world, optimism	Distrust of the world, people, pessimism	Understanding people's words, developing visual thinking, mastering walking, and the appearance of the first words
Early childhood (1–3 years)	Subject activity	Mastering everyday activities		Independence, autonomy, neatness	Dependence on others, shame, guilt, aggressiveness	Development of speech, intelligence, perception, autonomy, “I myself”, identification of personality
Preschool childhood (3–6 years old)		Mastering social roles, norms of behavior and communication		Initiative, creativity, curiosity	Passivity, following a pattern,	From visual-figurative thinking, the transition to symbols, the formation of self-esteem, children's worldview, conscience, arbitrary behavior, character
Jr school age(7–11 years old)		Mastering skills, knowledge, development of intelligence	School, neighbors	Self-confidence, skill	Feelings of inferiority	Formation of abstract verbal-logical thinking, the ability to manage one’s behavior, reflection, self-esteem
Adolescence (11-14 years)	Communication with peers	Mastering the norms of communication and behavior	Peer group	Finding yourself, developing self-awareness	Role confusion, loneliness, feeling of incomprehensibility	Affirmation of one’s individuality, independence, formation of self-awareness, self-determination, “sense of adulthood”, sexual interests
Early adolescence (14–18 years old)	Study with a professional aspect	Mastering knowledge and skills	Peers, school	Choice of profession, worldview	Lack of professional and life plans	A worldview is formed, the ability to make life plans and choose ways to implement them, life perspective, feelings of friendship, love
Late adolescence (18–25 years old)	Labor, love	Mastering new forms of communication and behavior, new knowledge, professional skills	Friends and sex partners	Stable friendships, love relationships, career choices	Loneliness, isolation, superficial relationships, no interest in work	Stabilization of character, worldview, self-awareness, choice of profession, lifestyle, loved one, activity in the sexual sphere, formation of professional thinking
Maturity	work, family		Family, work colleagues	Creative potential, self-realization in work, children, creativity	Stagnation, regression, personality degradation	Flourishing and reaching the peaks of personal, spiritual, social, professional development

The child’s mental development occurs simultaneously along the following lines: cognitive sphere(formation of intelligence, development of cognitive mechanisms); psychological structure and content of activity (formation of goals, motives and development of their relationship, mastering methods and means of activity); personality (direction, value orientations, self-awareness, self-esteem, interaction with social environment etc.). In the studies of L. S. Vygotsky, A. N. Leontyev, D. B. Elkonin, L. I. Bozhovich, it was shown that the development of a child as an individual is determined by the consistent formation of personal new formations. L. I. Bozhovich gives their analysis within five age stages personal development:

• 1) the central personal new formation of the first year of life is the emergence of affectively charged ideas, which stimulate the child’s behavior despite the influences of the external environment;
• 2) towards the end early childhood By the age of three, the central new formation is the “I system” and the need to act on one’s own (“I myself”), born of this new formation. During this period, two forces collide: “I want” and “I need”, the formation of self-awareness occurs;
• 3) the period of 7–8 years is the formation of the child as a “social individual”; the child has a need for socially significant activities;
• 4) by the age of 12–14, the “ability to set goals” is formed, to identify and set conscious goals;
• 5) by the age of 15–16, a teenager has a “life perspective.”

V. S. Mukhina considers the development of personality as the consistent formation of the structure of a child’s self-awareness: “A generally significant value for society and the individual is the structure of human self-awareness, which is formed by a proper name, self-esteem and a claim to recognition, the presentation of oneself as a representative of a certain gender, the presentation of oneself in time (in the past, present and future), self-assessment in relation to rights and responsibilities."

Personality receives its structure from the specific structure of human activity and is therefore characterized by five potentials: cognitive, value, creative, communicative and artistic.

Epistemological (informative ) potential determined by the volume and quality of information available to the individual. This information consists of knowledge about outside world(natural and social) and self-knowledge. This potential includes the psychological qualities with which human cognitive activity is associated.

Axiological (value-based ) potential personality is determined by the system of value orientations acquired by it in the process of socialization in the moral, political, religious, aesthetic spheres, i.e. her ideals life goals, beliefs and aspirations. The unity of the psychological and ideological aspects of a person’s consciousness and his self-awareness is developed with the help of emotional-volitional and intellectual mechanisms, revealing himself in his worldview, worldview and worldview.

Creative potential personality is determined by its acquired and independently developed skills and abilities, abilities to act creatively or destructively, productively or reproductively, and the extent of their implementation in one or another area (or several areas) of labor, social-organizational and critical activity.

Communication potential personality is determined by the extent and forms of its sociability, the nature and strength of contacts it establishes with other people. In its content, interpersonal communication is expressed in a system of social roles.

Artistic potential personality is determined by the level, content, intensity of its artistic needs and how it satisfies them. The artistic activity of the individual unfolds in creativity, professional and amateur, and in the “consumption” of works of art.

Thus, a person is determined not by his character, temperament, physical qualities, etc., but by:

• 1) what and how she knows;
• 2) what and how she values;
• 3) what and how it creates;
• 4) with whom and how she communicates;
• 5) what are her artistic needs and how does she satisfy them.

The main thing is what is the measure of responsibility for one’s actions, decisions, fate.

The implementation of the activity approach in social psychology of personality is presented in concepts of activity-based mediation of interpersonal relationships by Artur Vladimirovich Petrovsky. The fundamental categories in this concept are personality, activity and team. Interpersonal relationships in a group are mediated by the content and values ​​of the group. Social and psychological phenomena in a group are determined by the content of this activity, the multi-level structure of group activity, and the level of development of groups. The vector of this development is from a diffuse group to the development of a team, which is a group where “interpersonal relationships are mediated by socially valuable and personally significant content joint activities... Personality can only be understood in a system of stable interpersonal connections that are mediated by the content, values, and meaning of joint activity for each of the participants.”

Everyone knows Freud, Jurg - the majority, Carnegie and Maslow - many. Vygotsky Lev Semenovich is a name more likely for professionals. The rest had only heard the name and best case scenario may be associated with defectology. That's all. But this was one of brightest stars domestic psychology. It was Vygotsky who created a unique direction that has nothing to do with the interpretation of becoming human personality any of the science gurus. In the 30s, everyone in the world of psychology and psychiatry knew this name - Lev Semenovich Vygotsky. The works of this man created a sensation.

Scientist, psychologist, teacher, philosopher

Time does not stand still. New discoveries are being made, science is moving forward, restoring in some ways and rediscovering in others what was lost. And if you conduct a street survey, it is unlikely that many respondents will be able to answer who Lev Semenovich Vygotsky is. Photos - old, black and white, blurry - will show us the young handsome man with a thoroughbred elongated face. However, Vygotsky never became old. Perhaps fortunately. His life flashed like a bright comet on the arch national science, flashed and went out. The name was consigned to oblivion, the theory was declared erroneous and harmful. Meanwhile, even if we discard the originality and subtlety of Vygotsky’s general theory, the fact that his contribution to defectology, especially children’s, is invaluable is beyond doubt. He created a theory of working with children suffering from damage to the sensory organs and mental disorders.

Childhood

November 5, 1986 It was on this day that Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born in Orsha, Mogilev province. The biography of this person did not contain bright and amazing events. Wealthy Jews: father is a merchant and banker, mother is a teacher. The family moved to Gomel, and there a private teacher, Solomon Markovich Ashpiz, was involved in teaching the children, a rather remarkable figure in those parts. He did not practice traditional teaching methods, but those that were almost never used in educational institutions Socratic dialogues. Perhaps it was this experience that determined Vygotsky’s own unusual approach to teaching practice. His cousin, David Isaakovich Vygodsky, a translator and famous literary critic, also influenced the formation of the worldview of the future scientist.

Student years

Vygotsky knew several languages: Hebrew, Ancient Greek, Latin, English and Esperanto. Studied at Moscow University, first at Faculty of Medicine, then transferred to law school. For some time he studied science in parallel at two faculties - law and history and philosophy, at the University. Shanyavsky. Later, Lev Semenovich Vygotsky decided that he was not interested in jurisprudence and focused entirely on his passion for history and philosophy. In 1916, he wrote a two-hundred-page work devoted to the analysis of Shakespeare's drama Hamlet. He later used this work as his thesis. This work was highly appreciated by experts, since Vygotsky used a new, unexpected method of analysis, which allows one to look at a literary work from a different angle. Lev Semenovich was only 19 years old at that time.

When Vygotsky was a student, he worked a lot on literary analysis, published works on the works of Lermontov and Bely.

First steps into science

After the revolution, having graduated from university, Vygotsky first left for Samara, then with his family looked for work in Kyiv and, in the end, returned to his native Gomel, where he lived until 1924. Not a psychotherapist, not a psychologist, but a teacher - this is precisely the profession that Lev Semenovich Vygotsky chose. short biography those years can fit into a few lines. He worked as a teacher in schools, technical schools, and courses. First he headed the theater department of education, and then the art department, wrote and published (critical articles, reviews). For some time, Vygotsky even worked as an editor for a local publication.

In 1923, he was the leader of a group of students at the Moscow Pedological Institute. Experimental work This group provided material for study and analysis that Lev Semenovich Vygotsky could use in his works. His activity as a serious scientist began precisely in those years. At the All-Russian Congress of Psychoneurologists in Petrograd, Vygotsky made a report based on the data obtained as a result of these experimental studies. The work of the young scientist created a sensation; for the first time words were heard about the emergence of a new direction in psychology.

Carier start

It was with this speech that the career of the young scientist began. Vygotsky was invited to the Moscow Institute of Experimental Psychology. Outstanding psychologists of that time - Leontyev and Luria - already worked there. Vygotsky not only organically fit into this scientific team, but also became an ideological leader, as well as an initiator of research.

Soon, practically every practicing psychotherapist and defectologist knew who Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was. The main works of this outstanding scientist will be written later, but at that time he was a brilliant practitioner for everyone, personally engaged in pedagogical and therapeutic activities. Parents of sick children made incredible efforts to get an appointment with Vygotsky. And if you managed to become an “experimental sample” in the laboratory of anomalous childhood, it was considered an incredible success.

How did a teacher become a psychologist?

What is so unusual about the theory that Lev Semenovich Vygotsky proposed to the world? Psychology wasn't his specialized subject, he is, rather, a linguist, literary critic, cultural scientist, and practicing teacher. Why exactly psychology? Where?

The answer lies in the theory itself. Vygotsky was the first to try to move away from reflexology; he was interested in the conscious formation of personality. Figuratively speaking, if a person is a house, then Vygotsky psychologists and psychiatrists were interested exclusively in the foundation. Of course it is necessary. Without this there will be no home. The foundation largely determines the building - shape, height, some design features. It can be improved, improved, strengthened and isolated. But this does not change the fact. The foundation is just the foundation. But what will be built on it is the result of the interaction of many factors.

Culture determines the psyche

If we continue the analogy, it was precisely these factors that determine the final appearance of the house that Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was interested in. The main works of the researcher: “Psychology of Art”, “Thinking and Speech”, “Psychology of Child Development”, “Pedagogical Psychology”. The scientist's range of interests clearly shaped his approach to psychological research. A person passionate about art and linguistics, a gifted teacher who loves and understands children - this is Lev Nikolaevich Vygotsky. He clearly saw that it was impossible to separate the psyche and the products it produced. Art and language are products of activity human consciousness. But they also determine the emerging consciousness. Children do not grow up in a vacuum, but in the context of a certain culture, in language environment, which has a great impact on the psyche.

Educator and psychologist

Vygotsky understood children well. He was a wonderful teacher and sensitive loving father. His daughters said that they had a warm, trusting relationship not so much with their mother, a strict and reserved woman, but with their father. And they noted that main feature Vygotsky's attitude towards children was a feeling of deep, sincere respect. The family lived in a small apartment, and Lev Semenovich did not have a separate place to work. But he never pulled the children back, did not forbid them to play or invite friends to visit. After all, this was a violation of the equality accepted in the family. If guests come to their parents, children have the same right to invite friends. To ask not to make noise for a while, as an equal to an equal, is the maximum that Vygotsky Lev Semenovich allowed himself. Quotes from the memoirs of the scientist’s daughter, Gita Lvovna, will allow you to look “behind the scenes” of the life of an outstanding Russian psychologist.

Vygotsky's daughter about her father

The scientist’s daughter says that there was not much separate time dedicated to her. But her father took her with him to work, to college, and there the girl could freely look at any exhibits and preparations, and her father’s colleagues always explained to her what, why and why she needed it. So, for example, she saw a unique exhibit - Lenin’s brain, stored in a jar.

Her father did not read children's poems to her - he simply did not like them, he considered them tasteless and primitive. But Vygotsky had an excellent memory, and he could recite many classical works by heart. As a result, the girl developed excellently in art and literature, without at all feeling her age inadequacy.

People around about Vygotsky

The daughter also notes that Vygotsky Lev Semenovich was extremely attentive to people. When he listened to the interlocutor, he concentrated on the conversation completely. During the dialogue with the student, it was impossible to immediately make out who was the student and who was the teacher. The same point is noted by other people who knew the scientist: janitors, servants, cleaners. They all said that Vygotsky was extremely sincere and a friendly person. Moreover, this quality was not demonstrative, developed. No, it was just a character trait. Vygotsky was very easily embarrassed; he was extremely critical of himself, but at the same time he treated people with tolerance and understanding.

Work with children

Perhaps it was sincere kindness, the ability to deeply feel other people and treat their shortcomings with condescension that led Vygotsky to defectology. He always maintained that limited abilities in one thing are not a death sentence for a child. The flexible child's psyche actively seeks opportunities for successful socialization. Dumbness, deafness, blindness are just physical limitations. And the child’s consciousness instinctively tries to overcome them. Main Responsibility doctors and teachers - to help the child, push him and support him, as well as provide alternative opportunities for communication and obtaining information.

Vygotsky paid special attention to the problems of mentally retarded and deaf-blind children as the most problematic socialized children, and achieved great success in organizing their education.

Psychology and culture

Vygotsky was keenly interested in the psychology of art. He believed that this particular industry is capable of exerting a critical influence on the individual, releasing affective emotions that cannot be realized in ordinary life. The scientist considered art to be the most important tool of socialization. Personal experiences form personal experience, but emotions caused by the influence of a work of art form external, public, social experience.

Vygotsky was also convinced that thinking and speech are interconnected. If developed thinking allows you to speak a rich, complex language, that is, there is an inverse relationship. The development of speech will lead to a qualitative leap in intelligence.

He introduced a third element into the consciousness-behavior connection familiar to psychologists - culture.

Death of a Scientist

Alas, Lev Semenovich was not a very healthy person. At the age of 19, he contracted tuberculosis. For many years the disease lay dormant. Vygotsky, although he was not healthy, still coped with his illness. But the disease progressed slowly. Perhaps the situation was aggravated by the persecution of the scientist that unfolded in the 1930s. Later, his family sadly joked that Lev Semenovich died on time. This saved him from arrest, interrogation and imprisonment, and his relatives from reprisals.

In May 1934, the scientist’s condition became so severe that he was prescribed bed rest, and within a month the body’s resources were completely exhausted. On June 11, 1934, the outstanding scientist died and talented teacher Vygotsky Lev Semenovich. 1896-1934 - only 38 years of life. Over the years, he has accomplished an incredible amount. His works were not immediately appreciated. But now many practices of working with abnormal children are based precisely on the methods developed by Vygotsky.

1896-1934) - well-known in world psychology of owls. psychologist. The greatest fame was brought to V. by the cultural and historical concept of the development of higher mental functions he created, the theoretical and empirical potential of which has not yet been exhausted (which can be said about almost all other aspects of V.’s creativity). IN early period creativity (until 1925) V. developed the problems of the psychology of art, believing that the objective structure of a work of art evokes in the subject at least two opposing affects, the contradiction between which is resolved in catharsis, which underlies aesthetic reactions. A little later, V. develops problems of methodology and theory of psychology (“The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”), outlines a program for constructing a concrete scientific methodology of psychology based on the philosophy of Marxism (see Causal-dynamic analysis). For 10 years, V. was engaged in defectology, creating in Moscow a laboratory for the psychology of abnormal childhood (1925-1926), which later became integral part Experimental Defectological Institute (EDI), and developed a qualitatively new theory of the development of an abnormal child. In the last stage of his work, he took up problems of the relationship between thinking and speech, the development of meanings in ontogenesis, problems of egocentric speech, etc. (“Thinking and Speech”, 1934). In addition, he developed problems of the systemic and semantic structure of consciousness and self-awareness, the unity of affect and intellect, various problems of child psychology (see Zone of proximal development, Learning and development), problems of mental development in phylo- and sociogenesis, the problem of cerebral localization of higher mental functions and many etc.

He had a significant influence on domestic and world psychology and other sciences related to psychology (pedology, pedagogy, defectology, linguistics, art history, philosophy, semiotics, neuroscience, cognitive science, cultural anthropology, systems approach and etc.). V.’s first and closest students were A. R. Luria and A. N. Leontiev (“troika”), later they were joined by L. I. Bozhovich, A. V. Zaporozhets, R. E. Levina, N. G. Morozova, L. S. Slavina ("five"), who created their original psychological concepts. V.'s ideas are developed by his followers in many countries of the world. (E. E. Sokolova.)

Added ed.: Main works of V.: Collection. op. in 6 vols. (1982-1984); "Educational Psychology" (1926); "Sketches on the History of Behavior" (1930; co-authored with Luria); "The Psychology of Art" (1965). The best biographical book about V.: G. L. Vygodskaya, T. M. Lifanova. "Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky" (1996). See also Instrumentalism, Intellectualization, Interiorization, Cultural-historical psychology, Double stimulation method, Functionalism, Experimental genetic method for studying mental development.

VYGOTSKY Lev Semenovich

Lev Semenovich (1896-1934) - Russian psychologist who contributed greatly scientific contribution in the field of general and educational psychology, philosophy and theory of psychology, developmental psychology, psychology of art, defectology. Author of the cultural-historical theory of behavior and development of the human psyche. Professor (1928). Having graduated from the Faculty of Law of the First State Moscow University and at the same time from the Faculty of History and Philology of the People's University A.L. Shanyavsky (1913-1917), taught from 1918 to 1924 at several institutes in Gomel (Belarus). Played an important role in literary and cultural life of this city. Even in the pre-revolutionary period, V. wrote a treatise on Hamlet, which contains existential motifs about the eternal sorrow of existence. He organized a psychological laboratory at the Gomel Pedagogical School and began work on the manuscript of a textbook on psychology for secondary school teachers (Pedagogical Psychology. Short course, 1926). He was an uncompromising supporter of natural science psychology, focused on the teachings of I.M. Sechenov and I.P. Pavlov, which he considered the foundation for building new system ideas about determination human behavior, including when perceiving works of art. In 1924, V. moved to Moscow and became an employee of the Institute of Psychology of Moscow State University, of which K.I. was appointed director. Kornilov and who was given the task of restructuring psychology on the basis of the philosophy of Marxism. In 1925, V. published the article Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior (Collected Psychology and Marxism, L.-M., 1925) and wrote the book Psychology of Art, in which he summarizes his work of 1915-1922. (published in 1965 and 1968). He subsequently returned to the topic of art only in 1932 in a single article, dedicated to creativity actor (and from the standpoint of socio-historical understanding of the human psyche). From 1928 to 1932 V. worked at the Academy of Communist Education named after. N.K. Krupskaya, where he created a psychological laboratory at the faculty, the dean of which was A.R. Luria. During this period, V.'s interests concentrated around pedology, which he tried to give the status of a separate discipline and conducted research in this direction (Pedology of the Adolescent, 1929-1931). Together with B.E. Warsaw published the first domestic Psychological Dictionary(M., 1931). However, political pressure on Soviet psychology was increasing. The works of V. and other psychologists were subjected to sharp criticism in the press and at conferences from an ideological position, which made it very difficult further development research and their implementation in pedagogical practice. In 1930, the Ukrainian Psychoneurological Academy was founded in Kharkov, where A.N. Leontyev and A.R. Luria. V. often visited them, but did not leave Moscow, because During this period, he established relations with the Leningrad State University. In the last 2-3 years of his life, he began to formulate a theory of child development, creating the theory of the zone of proximal development. Ten years on the road to psychological science V. created a new scientific direction, the basis of which is the doctrine of the socio-historical nature of human consciousness. At the beginning of his scientific career, he believed that new psychology is designed to integrate with reflexology into a single science. Later, V. condemns reflexology for dualism, since, ignoring consciousness, it took it beyond the limits of the bodily mechanism of behavior. In the article Consciousness as a problem of behavior (1925), he outlined a plan for the study of mental functions, based on their role as indispensable regulators of behavior, which in humans includes speech components. Based on K. Marx’s position on the difference between instinct and consciousness, V. proves that thanks to work, experience is doubled and a person acquires the ability to build twice: first in thoughts, then in deeds. Understanding the word as an action (first speech complex, then - a speech reaction) V. sees in the word a special sociocultural mediator between the individual and the world. He gives special meaning its symbolic nature, due to which the structure of a person’s mental life and his mental functions (perception, memory, attention, thinking) change from elementary to higher. Interpreting the signs of language as mental tools, which, unlike tools of labor, do not change physical world, and the consciousness of the subject operating them, V. proposed an experimental program for studying how, thanks to these structures, a system of higher mental functions develops. This program was successfully carried out by him together with the team of employees who formed School B. The center of interests of this school was the cultural development of the child. Along with normal children, V. paid great attention to abnormal ones (suffering from defects of vision, hearing, mental retardation), becoming the founder of a special science - defectology, in the development of which he defended humanistic ideals. The first version of their theoretical generalizations concerning the patterns of mental development in ontogenesis, V. outlined in the work Development of Higher Mental Functions, written by him in 1931. This work presented a scheme for the formation of the human psyche in the process of using signs as a means of regulating mental activity - first in the external interaction of an individual with other people, and then the transition of this process from outside to inside, as a result of which the subject gains the ability to control his own behavior (this process was called interiorization). In subsequent works, V. focuses on the study of the meaning of a sign, that is, on the (mainly intellectual) content associated with it. Thanks to this new approach, he, together with his students, developed an experimentally substantiated theory of child mental development, embodied in his main work Thinking and Speech (1934). He closely connected these studies with the problem of learning and its impact on mental development, covering a wide range of problems of great practical importance. Among the ideas he put forward in this regard, the position on the zone of proximal development gained particular popularity, according to which only that learning is effective that runs ahead of development, as if pulling it along with it, revealing the child’s ability to solve, with the participation of the teacher, those tasks that he can independently solve. can't cope. Important In the development of a child, V. attached importance to the crises that a child experiences during the transition from one age level to another. Mental development was interpreted by V. as inseparably linked with motivational (in his terminology, affective), therefore, in his research, he affirmed the principle of the unity of affect and intelligence, but his early death prevented him from implementing a program of research analyzing this principle of development. Only the preparatory work has survived in the form of a large manuscript, The Doctrine of Emotions. A historical and psychological study, the main content of which is the analysis of the Passions of the Soul by R. Descartes - a work that, according to V., determines the ideological appearance of modern psychology of feelings with its dualism of lower and higher emotions. V. believed that the prospect of overcoming dualism was contained in the Ethics of V. Spinoza, but V. did not show how it would be possible to rebuild psychology based on Spinoza’s philosophy. V.'s works were distinguished by a high methodological culture. The presentation of specific experimental and theoretical problems was invariably accompanied by philosophical reflection. This was most clearly reflected both in works on thinking, speech, emotions, and in the analysis of the ways of development of psychology and the causes of its crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. V. believed that the crisis has a historical meaning. His manuscript, which was first published only in 1982, although the work was written in 1927, and called - Historical the meaning of a psychological crisis. This meaning, as V. believed, was that the disintegration of psychology into separate directions, each of which presupposes its own, incompatible with the other, understanding of the subject and methods of psychology, is natural. Overcoming this tendency towards the disintegration of science into many separate sciences requires the creation of a special discipline of general psychology as a doctrine of fundamental general concepts and explanatory principles that allow this science to maintain its unity. For these purposes philosophical principles psychology must be rebuilt and this science must be freed from spiritualistic influences, from the version according to which the main method in it should be an intuitive understanding of spiritual values, and not an objective analysis of the nature of the individual and his experiences. In this regard, V. outlines (also unrealized, like many of his other plans) a project for developing psychology in terms of drama. He writes that personality dynamics are drama. Drama is expressed in external behavior when there is a clash between people playing different roles on the stage of life. In internally drama is associated, for example, with a conflict between reason and feeling, when the mind and heart are not in harmony. Although his early death did not allow V. to realize many promising programs, his ideas, which revealed the mechanisms and laws of cultural development of the individual, the development of his mental functions (attention, speech, thinking, affects), outlined fundamentally new approach to the fundamental issues of the formation of this personality. This has significantly enriched the practice of teaching and raising normal and abnormal children. V.'s ideas received wide resonance in all sciences that study man, including linguistics, psychiatry, ethnography, sociology, etc. They determined whole stage in the development of humanitarian knowledge in Russia and still retain their heuristic potential. Proceedings.V published in Collected Works in 6 volumes - M, Pedagogy, 1982 - 1984, as well as in the books: Structural Psychology, M., Moscow State University, 1972; Problems of defectology, M., Education, 1995; Lectures on pedology, 1933-1934, Izhevsk, 1996; Psychology, M., 2000. L.A. Karpenko, M.G. Yaroshevsky