Robert W. Rieber

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

Psychology : theoretical-historical perspectives

Vicissitudes of Fechnerian Psychophysics in America Neglect of G.E. Muller in the History of American Psychology Why Study Wundtian Psychology? Solomon Diamond, Francis Galton and American Psychology William James on the Demise of Positivism and the Denial and Affirmation of the Self The Americanization of Psychology Before William James Politics and American Psychology Diverse Relations Between Psychology and Evolutionary Thought Gestalt Psychology and Evolutionary Psychology The Experimental Analysis of Operant Behaviour - a History The Historical Antecedents of Contemporary Behaviourism The Assimilation of Psychoanlaysis in America - From Popularization to Vulgarization In Tribute to Piaget - a Look at His Scientific Impact in the United States - Genetic Epistemology and Developmental Psychology Some Recent Research and its Link With a New Theory of Groupings and Conservations Based on Commutability Thought and Things - James Mark Baldwin and the Biosocial Origins of Mind the Historical and Contemporary Significance of Vygotskys Sociohistorical Psychology Sitzfleisch, the Zeitgeist and the Hindsightgeist.

Genesis of Higher Mental Functions

The third level of our research is closest to the historical method of considering higher forms of behavior that we have adopted. The analysis and structure of higher mental processes lead us directly to disclosing the basic problem of the whole history of the cultural development of the child, to elucidating the genesis of higher forms of behavior, that is, the origin and development of the mental forms that are the subject of our study.

Imagination and Its Development in Childhood

For the old psychology, which viewed all forms of man’s mental activity as associative combinations of accumulated impressions, the problem of imagination was an irresolvable puzzle. This psychology was forced to reduce imagination to other functions. The essential feature that distinguishes imagination from other forms of mental activity is that it does not repeat combinations of accumulated impressions but builds a new series of impressions from them. The very foundation of the activity that we refer to as imagination is the introduction of something new into the flow of our impressions, the transformation of these impressions such that something new, an image that did not previously exist, emerges. The problem of imagination was therefore inherently irresolvable for associative psychology since it represented all activity as a combination of elements and images that are already present in consciousness.

On Psychological Systems

What I plan to report here grew out of our joint experimental work and represents a certain, not yet completed, attempt to theoretically interpret what was determined in quite a number of investigations. [1] The main goal of these investigations was to draw together two lines of investigation—the genetic and the pathological one. Thus, this attempt (not formally, but according to its essence) can be regarded as an attempt to point out the new problems that emerge here. These emerge because we now compare a number of psychological problems which have thus far been investigated in the plane of the development of functions with the same problems stated in the plane of the loss of these functions and select what may have practical value for the investigations of our laboratory.

Substance and Shadow

While no subject deserves closer attention than that of war, an important component phenomenon of the mentality needed to wage war has gone largely undiscussed—enmification.l Though it is possible to think of war in terms of purely objective aims, as the continuation of diplomacy by other means, as Clausewitz’s famous phrase has it, “War is inconceivable without a clearly defined image of the enemy.” States at war may justify their strategic interests with rationales derived from current social and historical conditions. But the sheer aggressiveness of war, the use of unlimited force in the pursuit of those strategic objectives, both requires and engenders a deep-seated sense of enmity between participants. A battlefield without enemies cannot exist.

Development of Higher Mental Functions During the Transitional Age

The development of higher mental functions during the transitional age reveals most clearly the patterns that characterize the process of development of the nervous system and behavior.

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.

The Language of the Psychopath

The language of the psychopathic personality is described along with a review of the literature and various psycholinguistic examples of its importance for theory and research. Recommendations are made for future advancements in this field.

Cross-Cultural Comparisons on Psychosemantics of Icons and Graphics

Abstract This study is to report a cross-cultural comparison on perceptions of icons and graphics and their relationships. Data were ratings of 10 icons and 10 graphics against 21 bipolar semantic differential scales from 325 college students in three countries, Mexico. Columbia, and Japan. Cross-cultural factor analyses resulted in the identification of four semantic (three affective and one denotative) features, three icon factors, and three graphic factors. Indigenous cultural means of these iconic and graphic factors were computed and used to probe cross-cultural similarities and differences in perceptions. Psychosemantics of icon factors wm further predicted by graphic factors through canonical correlation. This study concludes the importance of implicit cultural meanings of nonverbal figures in intercultural communications. The implications of this study are also discussed.