(S1,Ep7) Vygotsky's Role in the History of Psychology (Part 2)

Chat 2 with Nikolai Veresov, continued. (Originally published Jan 10, 2020 at Chats about CHT http://tiny.cc/kmylsz)

Highlights include:

1:00 - Nikolai's own role in clarifying Vygotsky's research contributions

5:00 - Should Conservatives be wary of this theory?

8:55 - Why was this theory created; what is its subject matter? (the importance of contextualizing the theory, and how it is distinct)

15:21 - The Why: 5 principles for conducting Vygotskian experiments (Nikolai's rationale)

21:32 - The What: 5 principles for conducting Vygotskian experiments (Crucial distinction: "We do not have objects under study; we do not have functions under study; we have PROCESSES under study")

25:03 - The Which: 5 principles for conducting Vygotskian experiments ("I select the principle that helps me to answer my research question")

30:50 - To what extent was Vygotsky susceptible to motivated reasoning and/or confirmation bias?

32:45 - The principle of drama (or category, or contradiction)

39:20 - Nikolai and colleagues' research studies using the principle of drama (includes the long quote cited below)

44:10 - A Vygotskian experiment with children: "the process of development of children's executive functions in the playworld" (paper here: http://tiny.cc/g73liz)

47:46 - A Vygotskian experiment with adults: "a new system of professional development for school psychologists" (paper here: http://tiny.cc/lh4liz)

53:45 - The principle of the "buds" of development

"What makes us different is that we went through different contradictions, collisions, challenges. As a psychologist, I'm interested in situations where we can specially create these dramatic collisions - for children and for adults - and then we look: Do they have enough higher psychological functions to overcome this? If they can not, how they can begin to interact with others in order to drink from this source of development -- because Vygotsky said that social environment is the source of development. But what does it mean, 'social environment is the source of development?' What does it mean that the river is the source of the water? The river is the source of the water only when somebody comes to the river and starts drinking from it. "

For more on the 5 principles:

http://nveresov.narod.ru/KIP.pdf - Nikolai's paper, "Introducing cultural historical theory: main concepts and principles of genetic research methodology"

http://tiny.cc/0oe4hz - my short article, "How to Use a Vygotskian Approach: a short guide for teachers & researchers"