Lev Vygotsky: Biography Of The Famous Russian Psychologist
Lev Vygotsky (sometimes spelled Vygotsky) is a key author in developmental and educational psychology , although he also made important contributions to the field of neuropsychology and founded the historical-cultural psychological approach. His theory and his work are framed in the context of the proletariat revolution that took place in Russia and in which he directly participated.
In this article we will talk about Vygotsky’s biography and main ideas and contributions to psychology and other social sciences. We will focus on his relationship with the development of evolutionary and educational psychology, although we will also mention his influence on other disciplines.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was born in 1896 in Orsha, Belarus, although he grew up in the city of Gomel. At that time the country was part of the Russian Empire, which was still governed by a tsar, although the revolutionary movement that would lead to the emergence of the Soviet Union would not take long to flourish. As a young man Vygotsky wanted to be a literary critic.
In 1913 he began to study Law at the University of Moscow ; The educational range she was able to access was limited because she came from a Jewish family. He graduated 4 years later and returned to his hometown; There he began teaching psychology and logic classes. In 1917 the October Revolution took place and Vygotsky became involved in political activity.
Some time later, in 1924, Vygotsky began to become famous after impressing the Russian experimental psychology community with a speech on neuropsychology. From then on he worked as a researcher and as a professor at the Moscow Institute of Experimental Psychology.
During this period of his life Vygotsky was a prolific author as well as an important instructor in the field of psychology However, in 1926 he lost his job due to tuberculosis; He died from this disease in 1934, when he was only 37 years old, leaving a broad theoretical legacy that was collected by Aleksandr Luria and others.
Among the most notable works of this author we find “Educational psychology”, “The mind in society”, “The historical meaning of the crisis of psychology”, “The development of higher psychological processes”, “Psychology of art” and “Thought and Speech,” his most influential book, which was published after his death.
Main ideas of his theory
Vygotsky’s professional life focused mainly on development during childhood , in developmental psychology and in educational philosophy. However, his ideas were also relevant to fields such as philosophy and the methodology of science, the study of higher mental functions or the interaction between human beings.
According to Vygotsky, people develop our behavioral repertoire during childhood from interaction with other people in the environment. In this sense, the weight of culture is very relevant, which explains the internalization of a series of specific behaviors, habits, knowledge, norms or attitudes that we observe in those around us.
Thus, for example, he defined thinking as internal language and stated that it is acquired through exposure to the speech of other people. This internal language would fulfill the function of regulating one’s own behavior, especially during childhood and during the early stages of development it would manifest itself in the child’s external speech towards himself.
Vygotsky also gave great importance to the socializing functions of play. This author argued that children internalize cultural norms, social roles or interpersonal skills through play. Furthermore, the use of symbols and imagination is very relevant in the acquisition of abstract thinking.
The main differences between Vygotsky’s ideas and the approaches of Jean Piaget, the other fundamental theorist of the time, include the absence of stages of development, the focus on language and the role of adults in learning, or the emphasis on individuality, in interpersonal interaction and in the role of the sociocultural context.
Contributions to psychology
Vygotsky is considered one of the most influential authors in many of the branches of current psychology, although during his time he did not obtain as much recognition as Piaget, Skinner or Pavlov worldwide until decades after his death. This has been attributed to both his involvement with the Soviet Communist Party and his untimely death.
One aspect of Vygotsky’s theory that has generated particular interest is the concept of the zone of proximal development, key in learning. This term refers to the distance between the behaviors that a child can perform by himself and what he is capable of doing with the help of other people with greater mastery of a specific aspect.
Vygotsky called “scaffolding” the process by which an adult helps a child carry out a specific task As the child gains greater knowledge or skill, educators should proportionally increase the difficulty of the exercises so that he continues to take advantage of the zone of proximal development.
The emergence of the historical-cultural psychological approach, which had the objective of determining the relationships between culture, mind and brain in a specific spatial and temporal context, is also attributed to the influence of Vygotsky, as well as that of Aleksandr Luria. and other close collaborators.
