Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
 

VYGOTSKY - HIS LIFE
OVERVIEW
PHYLOGENEIS AND ONTOGENESIS
THE ROLE OF CULTURE
TOOLS AND MENTAL FUNCTIONS
THE SPECIAL ROLE OF LANGUAGE 
ZONE OF PROXIMAL GROWTH 
APPLING VYGOTSKY'S WORK

INTRODUCTION

"it is through others that we develop into ourselves "
(Vygotsky 1960/1981)

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was an important Russian psychologist noted for his research and theories dealing, in particular, with the relationship between language and thinking. His conception of a social explanation of human psychology, and his rejection of the prevailing philosophies, such as stimulus response theories and the Gestalt psychology movement, set him apart from his contemporaries. Even though during his short life he was unable to develop a comprehensive explanation of higher psychological functions his insights into a social account of psychology have been invaluable.

VYGOTSKY – HIS LIFE

“Marxist psychology is not a school amidst schools, but the only genuine psychology as a science.” (Vygotsky 1978)

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born on the 5^th November 1896, in Byelorussia, now Belarus. The decades following his birth were turbulent. Russia was in the midst of a revolution as the people expelled the Tsars and embraced socialism. This political climate had a profound influence on Vygotsky who would become an ardent supporter of the revolution seeking to apply Marxistprinciples to human psychology. Vygotsky came to believe that:

“If social change in class structure, institutions, and the division of labor can enhance cognitive functioning and reduce prejudice, conflict, and aggression, then psychological processes must have a social nature. That is, they must be formed and reformed by broad social factors.”(Vygotsky 1978)

Vygotsky had an eclectic career. He was educated as a lawyer and philologist, but chose initially to work as a schoolteacher. In his mid-twenties he became interested in psychology and although holding no formal qualifications in the discipline, prepared a paper for the 1924 Second Neurological Congress of Psychology in Leningrad. The paper was accepted and, as a result of his address, Vygotsky was invited to join the Faculty at the Moscow State University's Institute of Experimental Psychology. 
 

Vygotsky’s early work at Moscow State University brought him into contact with the "casualties of the revolution".He noted that many patients suffering from somatic and psychological traumas could be treated with social artefacts. Braille and sign language could compensate for vision and hearing problems. Social support, such as fiscal aid and guidance, could compensate for physical and psychological disabilities. These socially mediated compensations made it possible for the patients to resume reading, communicating, reasoning, and remembering. Ratner notes that Vygotsky's work in "defectology" complemented his political outlook and led him to the belief that such psychological phenomena as intelligence, reasoning, language, memory, personality, perception, madness, and emotions rest on cultural means.

 

Vygotsky was ill much of his later life having contracted tuberculosis, and he eventually died in 1934. Although his work was denounced by the government of the time it continued to be developed by his students and followers. 

 

Useful Links
http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2/sociohis.htm
http://www.kolar.org/vygotsky/

 

 

OVERVIEW 

Vygotsky died before developing a comprehensive theory to tie together his various concepts. Hence, he has provided insight into several areas, particularly language learning in children, without a broad-based theory to support it. Others, however, have continued to promote and develop his work. One such scholar, James Wertsch, identified three general themes which permeate Vygotsky’s work. In setting out these themes Wertsch (1991) emphasises that they are interconnected and must be viewed in relation to each other:

"the use of genetic, or developmental method;
the claim that higher mental functioning in the individual emerges out of social processes; 
and the claim that human social and psychological processes are fundamentally shaped by cultural tools, or mediational means."

Useful Links
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/soc_cult.html

For another version of Vygotsky's themes see: Lefrancois, G.R. (1994) Psychology for Teaching. Bvelmont, CA.: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

 

 

PHYLOGENEIS AND ONTOGENESIS

"The central fact about our psychology is the fact of mediation."(Vygotsky, 1982)

Vygotsky’s view of the development of the biological organism (phylogeneis) was heavily influenced by the work of Darwinand Engles. It was, therefore, essentially evolutionary in its nature. However, Vygotsky believed that the development of higher mental functioning was not simply the product of the biological development of the organism. For Vygotsky, although the evolutionary factors that shape the biological organism are a necessary and important precursor to the development of higher mental functioning, the development of higher mental functioning (or ontogenesis) itself was nevetheless the product of a range of historical, cultural and institutional factors in the environment in which the organism lived. The importance of the combined impact of both biological and sociocultural fctors is manifested particularly in Vygotsky's emphasis on the use of language to mediate thought and action. Vygotsky did not, however live long enough to, articulate the precise nature of the link between phylogeneis and ontogenesis.


Useful Link
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/

THEROLE OF CULTURE

 

"An adult's essence is found in the essence of the environmental conditions." (Vygotsky & Luria 1930/1993)

Vygotsky believed that the development of mental functions in an individual was social in origin. Patterns and levels of thinking are not determined purely by innate factors. Rather, they are the product of the cultural and social environment in which the individual lives. Consequently, where and how a child is raised will fundamentally influence how that child will think. 

 

Ratner, building on Vygotsky’s work, describes the two ways in which mental functions are shaped by social factors. First, they depend on, and originate in, social experience and treatment. Social experience from this view includes: the manner in which people stimulate and direct attention, what constitutes model behaviour, how the culture responds to various behaviours (encouraging, discouraging, or imitation), how bodily movements are controlled, and how the culture organizes the spatial relationships among individuals (e.g. how many people sleep in each bedroom and whether there are bedrooms). It is through directing attention toward some things and away from others that a culture shapes an individual's perceptions and emotions. Ratner gives the following examples:

"parents controlling when, where, and how a child responds to an insult (through modeling, encouraging, and discouraging behavior) determines the kinds and intensity of emotion that the child develops. Whether individuals are segregated or integrated by spatial relations affects whether they develop an individualistic or collective self-concept. Holding babies so that they face toward other people or toward the individual caretaker similarly inculcates collective or individualistic self-concepts, respectively."

Secondly, mental functions embody cultural artifacts. Cultural artefacts include: signs, symbols, linguistic terms, and humanly produced objects and instruments such as chairs and books. Ratner gives the following examples:

"Sitting in chairs and eating with utensils indicates a segregated bodily space in contrast to sitting next to someone on a bench and eating with one's hands. Living in a rectangular structure provides spatial cues that are different from those in circular structures."

Vygotsky believed that humans, unlike other animals, are not limited to their biological inheritance. Instead, they are able to use the artefacts and experiences of their ancestors, as depicted in their culture and society, to "assimilate the experiences of humankind". Consequently, humans have the ability to continue to develop intelligence and hence, Vygotsky argued, human society defies the laws of evolution. 

Useful Links

http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2/sociohis.htm
http://www.sk.com.br/sk-vygot.html

 

TOOLS AND MENTAL FUNCTIONS

"The thinking of a 3- to 4-year-old child has nothing in common with adult forms of thinking that have been created by culture."(Vygotsky & Luria 1930/1993)

Vygotsky distinguished between lower or elementary mental functions, which are those that are genetically inherited (i.e. natural mental abilities), and higher mental functions, which are developed through social interaction (i.e. thinking and logical memory). According to this view, as culturally developed humans we do not react directly to the environment. Rather, our psychology is mediated by cultural means. Wertsch (1991) identifies four major criteria differentiating elementary and higher mental functions: 

"the shift of control from the environment to the individual, that is, the emergence of voluntary regulation; 
the emergence of conscious realisation of mental process; 
the social origins and social nature of higher mental functions; 
and the use of signs to mediate higher mental functions."

The process of moving from elementary to higher mental functions is called semiotic mediation and an important mechanism in this transition is the use of tools and symbols. Vygotsky conceptualised tools and symbols as including various systems for counting; mnemonic techniques; algebraic symbol systems; works of art; schemes, diagrams, maps, mechanical drawings; and conventional signs although his primary area of interest was language. As children develop they can use tools not as objects, but as a means to achieve an end. Galant gives the following example:

"A child is seated at a table. On the other side of the table is a piece of candy tied to a string. The child is told that in order to be able to eat the piece of candy he/she has to stay in their seat to get it. At first the child tries to reach across the table and grab at it. However, after doing this a couple of times the child realizes that it's impossible to get it.

The instructor then prompts the child, by asking if there is anything there that can help you get it. The child then notices the string, but isn't sure how it will help. The child puts their hand on the string and the piece of candy moves. The child then gives the string a hard pull and gets the candy. The tool is this case is the string."

While Vygotsky viewed the mastery of tools as a necessary condition for the emergence of higher mental functioning, he used the example of apes as an illustration that it is not a sufficient condition. Apes have some skill in employing tools yet remain "slaves of the situation" functioning at an elementary level without self -wareness and an ability to think in complex ways. Unfortunately, Vygotsky was unable to specify the exact criteria necessary to move from the lower to the higher mental functions. However, Cole and Wertsch have suggested that higher mental functioning involves: 

"not a direct action on the world, but an indirect action, one that takes a bit of material matter used previously and incorporates it as an aspect of action. In so far as that matter has itself been shaped by prior human practice current action benefits from the mental work that produced the particular form of that matter." 

Thus, the development of the mind is a result of a blending of the biological development of the body and the development of the culture and physical world the individual lives in. 

 

Useful Links

http://psych.hanover.edu/vygotsky/subbot.htmlhttp://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock//virtual/colevyg.htm
 
 

THESPECIALROLE OF LANGUAGE

"The speech structures mastered by the child become the basic structures of his thinking."(Vygotsky, 1962)

Language was the form of mediation that interested Vygotsky the most. For him language is brought about by social processes and it is language that ultimately makes thought possible. Hence, Vygotsky viewed thought and speech as having different roots. For example, he alludes to apes, where intelligence occurs without speech, and parrots and babies, where speech occurs before or without intelligence. At some point in a child’s development, however, these two meet to form new behaviour. According to Guerra this is when "thought becomes verbal and speech becomes rational".

 

Galant outlines Vygotsky’s concept of speech acquisition as having three stages: 

Stage 1 (external speech)
The first stage of speech is unrelated to intellect or thinking. For example a child uses speech at this stage to express emotions such as crying, laughing or shouting. The objective is to control the behaviour of others (i.e. "I want milk").

Stage 2 (egocentric speech)

Stage two generally begins between the ages of 3 and 7. Lefrancois (1994) describes it as a time when speech "serves as a bridge between the primitive and highly public social speech of the first stage and the more sophisiticated and highly private inner speech of the third stage". At this time children believe that language must be spoken in order to direct behaviour. Consequently, children often talk to themselves directing their own behaviour (e.g. counting out loud).
 

Stage 3 (inner speech)

At the third and final stage the child is now able to direct their own thinking and behaviour and, according to Vygotsky, can engage in all forms of higher mental functions. Thus, the child can now count in their head, use logical memory-inherent relationships and inner signs.

Vygotsky believed that language played a central role in cognitive development. He argued that language was the tool for determining how a child will learn "how" to think because complex concepts are conveyed to the child through words. He used the example of when a child realises everything has a name. At this point, new objects present the child with a problem which he solves by naming the object. If the name of the object is unknown, then the child asks others for the name and this begins concept development. During the development of the concept everything occurs twice. In the first instance the word will be used for the purpose of communication, but once this has been internalised it becomes part of the child’s "inner speech". 

 

In explaining a child’s development Vygotsky used the terms "intermental" and "intramental" abilities. Intermental ability is located within the child. Lock provides the example of an infant crying. The child cries not as a means of communication, but as an expression of, for example, frustration or hunger. Nevertheless, a caregiver responds, a message has been received. At this stage, communication is provided not by the infant’s ability, but as a result of his or her relationship with others. It is only when the infant is aware that crying can be used to communicate, and uses it accordingly, that they have developed an intramental ability.

 

It should be noted that not everyone has agreed with Vygotsky’s theories of child development. For example, a contemporary of Vygotsky, Piaget, argued that children learn through action. From this view, children are born with or acquire schemas of how to interact with the world and as they grow they continue to form and reform these in their minds. The more the child participates, the more knowledge is gained. In contrast, Vygotsky saw the child’s development as the result of interaction with others. 

 

Useful Links
http://snycorva.cortland.edu/~ANDERSMD/VYG/VYG.HTML

http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock//virtual/trishvyg.htm

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/eflt/vyg.html

http://www.massey.ac.nz/~i75202/2001/lect17/lect1700.htm

ZONE OFPROXIMALGROWTH

" What the child is able to do in collaboration today he will be able to do independently tomorrow."(Vygotsky, 1978) 

Vygotsky argued that a child’s thinking and problem solving ability fell into three categories. Those that can be performed independently, those that can be performed with assistance and those which cannot be performed even with help. The zone of proximal development is the range of abilities between the two extremes. If a child uses his or her cognitive abilites with the help of others then these skills will develop to a point where the child can be independent. Cole and Wertsh describes it as:

 
"The Zone of Proximal Development is the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential as determined by problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" .

The theory behind this concept is that at a particular stage in a child’s development he or she can only solve some problems with assistance and or in collaboration with peers. The ability is outside the child's control. Once the problem solving activities have been internalized, these problems can be tackled independently. The view is that a child’s latent, or unexpressed, ability is measurable from the extent to which the child improves from guided instruction. 

Lefrancois (1994) gives the example of two five year olds who can usually answer questions most other average five year olds can answer. It might be said then that they share mental abilities corresponding to their chronological ages. However, if one of the children was prompted and can successfully answer questions corresponding to a much higher mental age then that child’s zone of proximal growth is greater than the other's. 

Useful Links

http://snycorva.cortland.edu/~ANDERSMD/VYG/VYG.HTML

http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/zpd.html

 APPLYING VYGOTSKY’S WORK

"Learning is an internal process, in effect we teach ourselves." (Vygotsky, 1978)

Vygotsky’s pioneering work in developmental psychology has arguably had the most profound influence on education. This is, perhaps, not surprsing as one of Vygotsky's aims was to provide a solution to the problem of educating the large number of illiterates in the new socialist state. While educationalists have mined, and continue to mine, Vygotsky's work for inspiration, Galant has highlighted three key concepts for application. The first is the "Zone of Proximal Development" discussed above. This posits that the aim of a teacher should be to lead a student from his or her existing skill level to his or her potential skill level. To do this, the curriculum must be based on the next stage of the child's development rather than on his or her current one.

The second is the importance of play. Vygotsky argued that we learn through interpreting the impressions and experiences that we have of the material world. He called, therefore, for the development of a child’s imagination through play.

 
"While imitating their elders in culturally patterned activities, children generate opportunities for intellectual development. Initially, their games are recollections and re-enactments of real situations; but through the dynamics of their imagination and recognition of implicit rules governing the activities they have reproduced in their games, children achieve an elementary mastery of abstract thought." (Vygotsky 1978)

Since children must learn through interaction it is important that teachers develop curricula that emphasises interaction.

Thirdly, languages must also play a key role in education. Educational institutions must facilitate a child's movement into the "third stage of speech" as it is at this stage that the child may access higher mental functions.

 

Useful Links

http://www.bestpraceduc.org/BPE/AboutBPE.html

http://snycova.cortland.edu/~andersmd/vyg/bio.html

http://www.marxist.com/science/vygotsky_501.html
 

REFERENCES

Cole, M. & Wertsch, J.V., (1996) Beyond the Individual - Social Antimony in Discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock//virtual/colevyg.htm

Galant, M., Vygotsky's Cultural/Cognitive Theory of Development .http://snycova.cortland.edu/~andersmd/vyg/bio.html

Guerra, C., Vygotsky. http://www.sk.com.br/sk-vygot.html

Lefrancois, G.R., (1994) Psychology for Teaching. Belmont, CA.: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Lock, A., (1998) Lecture 17: Vygotsky http://www.massey.ac.nz/~i75202/2001/lect17/lect1700.htm

Morris, C., Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development
http://www.igs.net/~cmorris/zpd.html

Nicholl, T., Yygotsky. http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock//virtual/trishvyg.htm

Oscarsson, M., Vygotsky - A REawakened Star http://www.marxist.com/science/vygotsky_501.html

Ratner, C., Historical and Contemporary Significance of Vygotsky's Sociohistorical . Psychology. http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2/sociohis.htm

Wertsh, J., (1991) Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action: Harvester Press. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1962) Thought and language. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processess. (M.Cole, V.John-Steiner, S.Scribner & E. Souberman, Eds. & Translators). Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1982) Collected works, Vol, 1 Problems in the theory and history of psychology: Moscow

Vygotsky, L.S. (1987). The collected works of L.S.Vygotsky. Vol 1: Problems of general psychology. N.Y.: Plenum press

Vygotsky, L.S. and Luria, A.R. (1993) Studies on the History of Behavior: Ape, Primitive and Child. Edited and translated by V.I. Golod and J.E. Knox. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
 
 

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