VYGOTSKY'S SOCIOHISTORICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS

Transcription

1 VYGOTSKY'S SOCIOHISTORICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS

2 COGNITION AND LANGUAGE A Series in Psycholinguistics Series Editor: R. W. RIEBER Recent Volumes in this Series: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT AMONG SIOUX CHILDREN Gilbert Voyat THE COLLECTED WORKS OF L. S. VYGOTSKY Volume 1: Problems of General Psychology Edited by Robert W. Rieber and Aaron S. Carton DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: Three Ways of Looking at a Child's Narrative Carole Peterson and Allyssa McCabe THE DISCURSIVE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF EVIDENCE Symbolic Construction of Reality Salomon Rettig LANGUAGE AND COGNITION: Essays in Honor of Arthur J. Bronstein Edited by Lawrence J. Raphael, Carolyn B. Raphael, and Miriam B. Valdovinos MEANING AND CONTEXT: An Introduction to the Psychology of Language Hans Hormann Edited and with an Introduction by Robert E. Innis UNDERSTANDING MEXICANS AND AMERICANS: Cultural Perspectives in Conflict Rogelio Diaz-Guerrero and Lorand B. Szalay THE USE OF WORDS IN CONTEXT: The Vocabulary of College Students John W. Black, Cleavonne S. Stratton, Alan C. Nichols, and Marian Ausherman Chavez VYGOTSKY'S SOCIOHISTORICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS Carl Ratner A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment. For further information please contact the publisher.

3 VYGOTSKY'S SOCIOHISTORICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS CONTEMPORARY APPLICATIONS Carl Ratner Humboldt State University Arcata, California Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

4 Ratner, Carl. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Vygotsky's sociohistorical psychology and its contemporary applications / Carl Ratner. p. cm. - (Cognition and language) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. 1. Vygotskii, L. S. (Lev Semenovich), Psychology. 3. Social psychology. I. Title. II. Series. BF109.V95R '.92-dc20 CIP ISBN DOI / ISBN (ebook) Springer Science+Business Media New York 1991 Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1991 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991 All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher

5 This book is dedicated to my mother, to whom lowe the better part of my sociohistorical psychology

6 Preface The social character of psychological phenomena has never been easy to comprehend. Despite the fact that an intricate set of social relations forms our most intimate thoughts, feelings, and actions, we believe that psychology originates inside our body, in genes, hormones, the brain, and free will. Perhaps this asocial view stems from the alienated nature of most societies which makes individual activity appear to be estranged from social relations. One might have thought that the emergence of scientific psychology would have disclosed the social character of activity which naive experience had overlooked. Unfortunately, a century and a half of psychological science has failed to comprehend the elusive social character of psychological phenomena. Psychological science has evidently been subjugated by the mystifying ideology of society. This book aims to comprehend the social character of psychological functioning. I argue that psychological functions are quintessentially social in nature and that this social character must be comprehended if psychological knowledge and practice are to advance. The social nature of psychological phenomena consists in the fact that they are constructed by individuals in the process of social interaction, they depend upon properties of social interaction, one of their primary purposes is facilitating social interaction, and they embody the specific character of historically bound social relations. This viewpoint is known as sociohistorical psychology. It was articulated most profoundly and comprehensively by the Russian psychologists Lev Vygotsky and Alexander Luria during,the 1920s and 1930s. Unfortunately, their work has remained marginal in the Soviet Union and in the West, unable to penetrate into mainstream psychological science. The present book attempts to demonstrate that sociohistorical psyvii

7 viii PREFACE chology is a valid view of psychological phenomena which can redirect psychological science toward fruitful future development. While psychologists occasionally touch on the ~ o c icharacter a l of psychological phenomena, they fail to fully comprehend it or appreciate its centrality. One reason for this failure is that psychological phenomena are intellectually fractured into separate faculties and components. This fragmentation relegates social character to being one component of one or another faculty. Social character is thereby prevented from being central to all psychological functions. In other words, the asocial view of psychology is supported by an atomistic view. Appreciating the social character of psychology therefore requires replacing this atomistic view with an integral conception of all psychological phenomena as having a common social basis and character. Such an integral, comprehensive conception constitutes a paradigm. I hope to demonstrate that employing sociohistorical psychology as a paradigm will provide a coherent understanding of diverse psychological functions including cognition, perception, emotions, memory, language, personality, and psychological dysfunction. Furthermore, the paradigmatic use of sociohistorical psychology will advance the discipline of psychology to a more profound comprehension of its subject matter and a more effective application of this knowledge to practice. A work of this scope cannot be written without substantial help from other people. Among the many individuals who have contributed in numerous ways I would like to express special appreciation to the following for their invaluable assistance: Roy D' Andrade, Michael Cole, James Wertsch, Norris Minick, Theodore Sarbin, Solomon Asch, Bill Livant, Bud Andersen, Gus Bagakis, Phil and Elaine German,- Bernard Ratner, Tom Langehaug, David Bakhurst, Derek Edwards, Mark Kaplan, Josh Weinstein, Susan Frances, Kim McCreery, and Bob Robbins. I am especially indebted to Edith Gold, John Mandes, and Lumei Hui for their painstaking editorial assistance.

8 Contents Introduction Human Psychology's General Features 11 The Mediated Nature of Human Psychology 11 The Interdependence of Consciousness and Sociality 19 Rudimentary Consciousness and Sociality of Animals Human Consciousness and Sociality A Social Model of Psychology The Interdependence of Consciousness, Sociality, and Tool Use Psychology's Concrete Social Character 69 The Social Constitution and Variability of Content 70 Color Perception 70 Auditory Perception. 72 Olfactory Perception 73 Size Constancy 73 Spatial Perception.. 74 Conceptual Categorization 75 Emotions Needs The Social Constitution and Variability of Form 87 ix

9 x CONTENTS Decontextualized vs. Contextualized Mental Processes Time Sense Color Perception and Conceptualization Shape Perception and Conceptualization Logic.... Measurement and Quantification Memory.... Personhood.... The Social Basis of Abstraction.... Variation of Mental Processes along Other Dimensions Psychological Universals, True and False The Relation between General and Concrete Psychological Features. False Psychological Universals The Development of Psychology in the Individual.... The Transition from Infantile Reflexes to Social Psychological Functions.... Culture and Socialization The Nonmechanical Character of Socialization Capacity and Performance... The Social Psychology of Genius Psychology's Functional Autonomy from Biology.... Genes and Psychology Sense Receptors and Psychology Hormones and Psychology Sexuality Aggression Emotions

10 CONTENTS xi The Cortex and Psychology Madness Definition of Madness Sociohistorical Analysis of Madness. 247 Causes of Madness Anomalous Disruptive Events 249 Normative, Enduring Social Sit\,\ations 254 Symptoms Cultural Variations Variations Fashioned from Psychiatric Concepts 271 Social Class Variations 272 Gender Variations Treatment Therapy Nonsocial Analyses of Madness 282 Causes Diathesis-Stress Model 283 Attachment Theory 291 Humanistic Psychology 292 Symptoms Treatment Therapy Behavior Modification 302 Biomedical Treatment 302 Humanistic Therapy. 303 Conclusion: Political Aspects of Psychological Doctrines References 321 Author Index 355 Subject Index 361

11 We are so little accustomed to treat social phenomena scientifically that certain of the propositions contained in this book may well surprise the reader. However, if there is to be a social science, we shall expect it not merely to paraphrase the traditional prejudices of the common man but to give us a new and different view of them; for the aim of all science is to make discoveries, and every discovery more or less disturbs accepted ideas.... The reader must bear in mind that the ways of thinking to which he is most inclined are adverse, rather than favorable to the scientific study of social phenomena; and he must consequently be on his guard against his first impressions. Emile Durkheim, Preface to Rules of Sociological Method, 1938