He and Ruglia (арлуриg) and Leon Jeff (анелонте) later got the name of the social, cultural and historical theory of psychological development. Vygotsky is the founder of this school. This psychological school headed by Vygotsky, Leontev and Ruglja is the largest psychological school in contemporary Russia. Later, there were many psychologists, such as лиил, Gary Pei Lin, лвв, zankov, аввввввввв.
Vygotsky studied the development of species and individuals in psychology, especially his social origin theory of human psychology and the dependence theory of children's psychological development on education and teaching.
First, he founded the aforementioned "cultural-historical development theory" to explain the advanced psychological functions that are essentially different between human psychology and animals.
Vygotsky believes that because of the use of tools, people have a new way to adapt, that is, the indirect way of material production, rather than adapting to nature in a direct way like animals. The indirect experience of human beings, that is, the experience of social and cultural knowledge, is condensed in the production of human tools, which makes the law of human psychological development not restricted by the law of biological evolution, but by the law of social and historical development.
Of course, the tool itself does not belong to the psychological field, nor does it join the psychological structure. It is precisely because of this indirect "material production tool" that "spiritual production tool" appears in human psychology, that is, the unique language and symbols of human society. The similarity between production tools and language symbols is that they make indirect psychological activities produce and develop. The difference is that production tools point to the outside, causing changes in objects, and symbols point to the inside, which does not cause changes in objects, but affects people's behavior. Controlling nature and controlling behavior are interrelated, because people are changing their own nature while transforming nature.
Secondly, he discussed the essence of "development" and put forward his concept of cultural and historical development.
Vygotsky believes that in the eyes of psychologists, development refers to psychological development. The so-called psychological development refers to: a person's psychology (from birth to adulthood) is a process of gradual transformation from low-level psychological function to high-level psychological function under the influence of environment and education.
What is the sign of the development of psychological function from low level to high level? Vygotsky can be summarized into four aspects: 1. The random function of psychological activities; 2. The abstraction of psychological activities-the generalization of functions, that is to say, various functions are advanced because of the participation of thinking (mainly abstract logical thinking); 3. The relationship between various psychological functions is constantly changing and combining, forming an indirect psychological structure mediated by symbols or words; 4. Personalization of psychological activities.
What are the reasons for the development of psychological function from low level to high level? Vygotsky emphasized three points: first, it originated from the development of social culture-history and was restricted by social laws. Secondly, from the perspective of individual development, in the process of communication with adults, children form various new psychological functions on the basis of low psychological functions by mastering the intermediary links of high psychological functions-language and symbols. Third, advanced psychological function is the result of constant internalization.
It can be seen that Vygotsky's psychological development view is closely related to his cultural-historical development view. He emphasized that the advanced function of psychological development is the product of interpersonal relationship and social, cultural and historical development in the process of human material production; It is emphasized that the psychological development process is a qualitative change process, and a series of indicators are determined for this change process.
Thirdly, he put forward the relationship between teaching and development, especially the relationship between teaching and intellectual development.
On the relationship between teaching and development, Vygotsky put forward three important issues: first, the idea of "zone of proximal development"; First, teaching should be ahead of development; One is about the best time to study.
Vygotsky believes that at least two levels of development should be determined. The first level is the current level of development: this refers to the level of development of psychological functions formed as a result of a completed development system. Second, the level of problem-solving achieved with the help of others under the guidance is also the potential gained through teaching. In this way, in intellectual activities, the problems to be solved may be different from the original independent activities. Because of teaching, this difference has been eliminated with the help of others. This is the "zone of recent development". Teaching creates the nearest development area, and the dynamic state between the first development level and the second development level is determined by teaching.
According to the above ideas, Vygotsky put forward that "teaching should be ahead of development". This is his most important theory about the relationship between teaching and development. In other words, teaching can be defined as artificial development, and teaching determines the development of intelligence, which is not only reflected in the content, level and characteristics of intellectual activities, but also in the speed of intellectual development.
How to give full play to the role of teaching, Vygotsky emphasized "the best period of learning". If you leave the best age to learn a certain skill, it will be unfavorable from the perspective of development, and it will also hinder the intellectual development of children. Therefore, to start a certain kind of teaching, maturity and development must be the premise, but more importantly, teaching should first be based on the psychological function that is beginning to form, and walk in front of the formation of psychological function.
Fourthly, he analyzed the process of intelligence formation and put forward the theory of "internalization".
In the study of children's thinking genesis, many international psychologists put forward the theory that external actions are "internalized" as intellectual activities. Vygotsky is one of the earliest advocates of "internalization" theory. He pointed out that the most important feature of teaching is that teaching creates the nearest development zone, that is, teaching arouses and promotes a series of internal development processes of students. Let students master the experience of all mankind through teaching and internalize it into their own inner wealth. Vygotsky's internal chemistry theory is based on his tool theory. He believes that human spiritual production tools or "psychological tools", as mentioned above, are all kinds of symbols. The use of symbols will fundamentally transform psychological activities, not only in the development of human beings, but also in the development of individuals. Students cannot use language as a tool to organize psychological activities in their early years. The forms of psychological activities are "direct and involuntary, low-level and natural". Only by mastering the tool of language can we transform it into "indirect and casual, advanced, social and historical" psychological skills. The new and advanced forms of social, historical and psychological activities are first formed as external activities, then "internalized" into internal activities, and then "silently" carried out in the mind.