David K. Robinson

The essential Vygotsky

Introduction: A Dialogue with Vygotsky Section I: Problems of General Psychology: Thinking and Speech Section introduction Chapter 1: The Problem and the Method of Investigation Chapter 2: The Genetic Roots of Thinking and Speech Chapter 3: Thought and Word Chapter 4: Perception and Its Development in Childhood Chapter 5: Emotions and Their Development in Childhood References and Notes to Section I Section II: The Fundamentals of Defectology (Abnormal Psychology and Learning Disabilities) Section Introduction Chapter 6: Introduction: The Fundamental Problems of Defectology Chapter 7: The Difficult Child Chapter 8: The Dynamics of Child Character Chapter 9: The Collective as a Factor in the Development of the Abnormal Child Section III: Problems of the Theory and History of Psychology: Crisis in Psychology Section Introduction Chapter 10: The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology: A Methodological Investigation Sevtion IV: The History of the Development of High Term Mental Functions: Exegesis of Vygotskys Text Section Introduction Chapter 11: The Structure of Higher Mental Functions Chapter 12: Mastering Attention Section V: Child Psychology: Vygotskys Conception of Psychological Development Section Introduction Chapter 13: Development of Thinking and Formation of Concepts in the Adolescent Chapter 14: Dynamics of Structure of the Adolescents Personality Chapter 15: The Crisis at Age Seven Section VI: Scientific Legacy:Tool and Sign in the Development of the Child Section Introduction Chapter 16: The Problem of Practical Intellect in the Psychology of Animals and the Psychology of the Child Chapter 17: The Function of Signs in the Development of Higher Mental Processes Chapter 18: Sign Operations and Organization of Mental Processes Chapter 19: Analysis of Sign Operations of the Child Bibliography of Works about Vygotsky Index

Wundt, Vygotsky and Bandura: A cultural-historical science of consciousness in three acts

This article looks at three historical efforts to coordinate the scientific study of biological and cultural aspects of human consciousness into a single comprehensive theory of human development that includes the evolution of the human body, cultural evolution and personal development: specifically, the research programs of Wilhelm Wundt, Lev Vygotsky and Albert Bandura. The lack of historical relations between these similar efforts is striking, and suggests that the effort to promote cultural and personal sources of consciousness arises as a natural foil to an overemphasis on the biological basis of consciousness, sometimes associated with biological determinism.

Wilhelm Wundt in History

1. Wundt before Leipzig S. Diamond. 2. Wundt and the Temptations of Psychology K. Danziger. 3. The Unknown Wundt: Drive, Apperception, and Volition K. Danziger. 4. A Wundt Primer: The Operating Characteristics of Consciousness A.L. Blumenthal. 5. Wundt and the Americans: From Flirtation to Abandonment R.W. Rieber. 6. Reaction-time Experiments in Wundts Institute and Beyond D.K. Robinson. 7. Laboratories for Experimental Psychology: Gottingens Ascendancy over Leipzig in the 1890s E.J. Haupt. 8. The Wundt Collection in Japan M. Takasuna. Bibliography of Wilhelm Wundts Writings, as Compiled by Eleonore Wundt D.K. Robinson. Writings of Wilhelm Wundt, by Year. Index.

Dynamics and Structure of the Adolescent’s Personality

We are approaching the end of our study. We began with a review of the changes that occur in the structure of the organism and its most important functions during the period of sexual maturation. We were able to trace the complete restructuring of the whole internal and external system of activity of the organism, the radical change in its structure and the new structure of organic activity that is connected with sexual maturation. Tracing many stages, passing from drives to interests, from interests to mental functions, and from these to the content of thinking and to creative imagination, we have seen how the new structure of the adolescent’s personality, which differs from the structure of the child’s personality, is formed.

Development of Thinking and Formation of Concepts in the Adolescent

The history of the development of thinking in the transitional age is itself undergoing a certain transitional stage from the old construction to a new understanding of maturation30 of the intellect. This understanding arises on the basis of new theoretical views of the psychological nature of speech and thinking, of development, and of the functional and structural interrelation of these processes.

The Problem and the Method of Investigation

The first issue that must be faced in the analysis of thinking and speech concerns the relationship among the various mental functions, the relationship among the various forms of the activity of consciousness. This issue is fundamental to many problems in psychology. In the analysis of thinking and speech, the central problem is that of the relationship of thought to word. All other issues are secondary and logically subordinate; they cannot even be stated properly until this more basic issue has been resolved. Remarkably, the issue of the relationships among the various mental functions has remained almost entirely unexplored. In effect, it is a new problem for contemporary psychology.

The Function of Signs in the Development of Higher Mental Processes

We have considered some of the complex behavior of the child and have concluded that in a situation connected with the use of tools, the behavior of a small child differs substantially and in a major way from the behavior of the human-like ape. We could say that in many ways, it is characterized by an opposite structure and that instead of a complete dependence of the operation with tools on the structure of the visual field (as in the ape), in the child we observe a significant emancipation from it. Due to the participation of speech in the operation, the child acquires an incomparably greater freedom than is observed in the instrumental behavior of the ape; the child has the possibility of resolving the practical situation by using tools that are not in the direct field of his perception; he controls the external situation with the help of preliminarily mastering himself and preliminarily organizing his own behavior. In all of these operations, the very structure of the mental process changes substantially; direct actions on the environment are replaced by complex mediated acts. Speech included in the operation was the system of psychological signs that acquired a very special functional significance and resulted in a complete reorganization of behavior.

Perception and Its Development in Childhood

The theme of our lecture today1 is the problem of perception in child psychology. You know, of course, that no chapter of contemporary psychology has been as fundamentally rewritten in the past 15–20 years as that concerned with the problem of perception. You know that the skirmish between the representatives of the old and the new psychology has been more intense here than in any other domain of research. Nowhere has the structural tradition placed its new conceptions and experimental research methods in such sharp opposition to the old, associative tradition. If we consider concrete experimental material, the chapter on perception has clearly been more extensively rewritten than any other chapter of experimental psychology.

Analysis of Sign Operations of the Child

We are in a position to close the circle of our discussion and to return to what was indicated at the beginning of this work by the patterns that control the development of the practical intellect of the child, which is only a specific case of the patterns of construction of all higher mental functions. The conclusions we reached confirm this and show that higher mental functions arise as a specific neoformation, as a new structural whole that is characterized by the new functional relations that are being established within it. We have indicated that these functional relations are connected with the operation of using signs as a central and basic factor in the construction of every higher mental function. Thus, this operation appears to be the common trait of all higher mental functions (including the use of tools, which is always our point of departure), a trait that must be taken out of parentheses and subjected in the conclusion of our study to special consideration.

Report of the 46th Annual Meeting of Cheiron: the International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences.

The 46th Annual Meeting of Cheiron was hosted by Ingrid Ferreras at Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, on 19 to 22 June 2013. Program chair Cathy Faye arranged a diverse and engaging program, and conference registration numbered 77, plus 10 who paid a day-fee. Thunderstorms on the first day diminished the typical heat and humidity of the Washington DC region, so participants could enjoy walks on the beautiful Hood campus as well as into the historic town center. The first two paper sessions on Thursday afternoon dealt with social sciences and mental health. Michael Staub discussed Mischel’s marshmallow experiments; Thomas Heinzen explored moral panics; Larry Nichols spoke on Robert Merton’s social psychology; and Gerry Sullivan looked at contributions to cybernetics by Bateson and Mead at the 1942 Macy Conference. The second session featured contributions from young scholars: Courtney Thompson on insanity defense, Heather Murray on the “public sphere” of U.S. mental hospitals, Jenn Bazar on the Canadian institution for the criminally insane at Penetanguishene, and Brianne Collins (with Hank Stam) on psychosurgery in British Columbia during the mid-twentieth century. A reception in Coblentz Hall (also the site of the banquet on Saturday) gathered old friends to welcome new ones, as they examined five posters: Carmen Justo (São Paulo) on marketing psychology, Phyllis Wentworth on Progressive-era literature about orphans, Remy Amourous (Lausanne) on the legal status of French psychologists, and David Devonis on improvisation. Among international participants at this meeting were strong delegations from Brazil and Australia. Friday morning began with formal welcome by Ingrid Ferreras and the Dean of the Graduate School at Hood College, Maria Cowles. The first session had two presenters from Melbourne, Australia: Rod Buchanan, who discussed U.S. trial programs for psychologists prescribing drugs, and Gina Perry, who spoke on psychology and the New Journalism. There followed concurrent sessions (one of two sets at this meeting): on international settings and on “ways of knowing.” The former included Csaba Pléh on Géza Révész and the establishment of experimental psychology in Hungary, Rodrigo Miranda on the neurophysiology lab in São Paulo, Gabriel Cândido on the biography of Carolina Bori of Brazilia University, and Geoffry Blowers and Chin Hei Wong on psychic research in early twentieth-century China. “Ways of knowing” included Laura Edward on intuition studies of Karl Stern, Carolina Cardoso on philosophy of Edith Stein and William Stern, and Bob Kugelmann on persisting concepts of soul in the early twentieth century. The Friday afternoon sessions discussed how methodologies develop: Matthew Donahue and Jill Morawski on experimental technologies, Jacy Young on William James’s use of questionnaires, and Peter Collopy’s comparison of use of film in anthropology and in therapy. In a second session, Shayna Fox demonstrated networking in digital prosopography of early psychologists, and Ed Morris presented a method for exploring dimensions of the legacy of Watson’s behaviorist manifesto, a century later. For the evening event Cheiron members enjoyed an informative tour of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in the historical center of Frederick, which also offered excellent opportunities for dining in small restaurants afterward.