11.20.06

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Intro, Ch 1-3

Posted in Socio-historic perspectives, Annotated References - Class readings at 1:11 am by youngsah

Vygotsky, L. (1978).  Mind in Society.  Intro, Ch 1-3

Introduction.  – Historical background on Vygotsky including state of psychology at the time, influence of Russian revolution, and incorporating Marxism into psychology.

Ch. 1 Tool and Symbol in Child Development – Some talk on what others think and then an argument that humans are different from animals not in tool use but in language and the subsequent organization that it brings.

Ch. 2 The Development of Perception and Attention – One difference between children/humans and animals is that humans can think about things that aren’t there.  There is also a discussion of the system of signs.

Ch. 3 Mastery of Memory and Thinking.  This chapter talks about how sign manipulation becomes more and more sophisticated.  Also, talk of interfunctional relations and how memory of different aged children is not only different in itself, it’s used differently.

In these chapters Vygotsky asserted that the use of language, specifically signs, is the basis and organization for thinking, planning, and especially higher level thinking.  There also seems to be a push here both to distance man/child from animals as well as distancing Vygotsky’s ideas from what has gone before.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Ch 4-6

Posted in Socio-historic perspectives, Annotated References - Class readings at 12:16 am by youngsah

Vygotsky, L. (1978).  Mind in Society.  Ch 4-6 

Ch. 4 Internalization of Higher Psychological Functions – Vygotsky clarifies somewhat the relation between tool and sign as well as talks about how simple reactions become more complex processes and are then internalized.
Ch. 5 Problems of Method - Vygotsky makes the claim that though their perspectives may differ psychologist study things in strikingly similar ways.  He then goes in to contrast his approach, which focuses on analyzing processes and explanation.  Later there is a discussion of choice research.
Ch. 6 Educational Implications – Talks about three different perspectives in thinking about learning and development, then contrasts these with ZPD. I probably didn’t get as much out of chapter 4 as I should have, some more focused reading might be warranted.  I also added on Chapter 6 because I’m a fan of ZPD.  I liked Vygotsky’s approach to criticizing the scientific approach of other psychologists in chapter 5.  I’m sure they all weren’t studying things in the same way, but to be able to say that most were does make one think.