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Series Editor: Professor George Butterworth, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling. Designed for a broad readership in the English-speaking world, this major series represents the best of contemporary research and theory in the cognitive, social abnormal and biological areas of development. (~l.

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Infancy and Epistemology: A ~ Piaget's Theory George Butterworth (ed.) ~------_ .. _=-Social Cognition: Studies on the Development of Understand~ George Butterworth and Paul Light (eds.) ":;:./ The Mental and Social Life r:.LBabies:How Parents Create Persons Kenneth Kaye...... ._Evolutio(J and Developmental Psychology George Butterrworth, Julie Rutkowska and Michael Scaife (eds.) The Child's Point of View: The Development of Cognition and umguaguage M. V. Cox Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union Jaan Valsiner

Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union

Department of Psychology University of North California at Chapel Hill

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First published in Great Britain in 1988 by THE HARVESTER PRESS UMITED 1 (i ShIp Street, Brighton, Sussex

List of Figures List of Tables Preface

Valsiner, Jaan Developmental psychology in the Soviet Union.-(The Developing body and mind; 6). I. Developmental psychology-Soviet Union I. Title II .. Series

Introduction: Understanding of Development and its Social-Historical Context

Soviet psychology: why is it of interest? Science and society: a general outline of their shared history Constraints on the understanding of development Summary: the relevance, and difficulty of learning about Soviet developmental psychology

155'.0947

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The Historical Context: Some Aspects of the Past of Russian Society

Soviet developmental psychology and its historical context Russian society and empire before 1917 The influence of European natural sciences on Russian thought Developmental ideas in Russian social thought Conclusions: Russian cultural history and developmental ideas

20 20 22 30 34 38

Developmental Ideas and the History of Psychology in Russian/Soviet Society 39

Evolutionary theory and Russian developmental psychology Russian neurophysiology and issues of development The nature of the social change in Soviet society in the 1920s The history of Soviet psychology in the 1920s The 'great break' in Soviet social sciences and its mechanism Soviet society and science, 1930s-1950s 'Pavlovization' of Soviet psychology Conclusions: ideas of development and the turmoils of history 40 48 66 77 89 98 110 115 117 118 124 125 140 150 165

IV

1. S. Vygotsky and Contemporary Developmental Psychology

The cultural-historical beginnings of Vygorsky's role in Soviet psychology Vygorsky's Marxism, and the study of development Criticism of psychology's experimental methodologies The process of internalization Vygotsky's ideas and Western psychology Conclusions: VygOtsky and contemporary developmental psychology

VI

Delleiopmental

Psychology in the Soviet Union

Mikhail Basov and the Structural-dynamic Perspective on Child Development

Basov's life and activities Basov's theotetical system Basov's dynamic structutalism Methodological integration: retrospective unity of extro- and introspection Summary: Basov's relevance in developmental psychology

166 168 170 188 203 204

Conclusions: Development of Developmental Psychology in the USSR

The modernizing funaion of historical analysis The developmental nature of Soviet psychology Heterogeneity of paradigms, and its social regulation General conclusions: society and t'le science of r1evelopmem

VI

Studies on the Development of Children's Action, Cognition, and Perception

The 'Kharkov school' and research on cognitive development Piagetian studies and Soviet cognitive-developmental psychology Moral cognition and personality developm~nt Development of speech and its functions in psychological development Development of visual-motor actions and perception in infancy A.M. Fonarev's research on infants' visual-orienting reaaions Research on infants' eye movements by A. A. Mit'kin and his colleagues Summary: interdependence of action, cognition and perception

207 208 222 223 227 229 230 233 238 240 241 242 252 253 266 278 282

Bibliography Appendix A: A Programme for an Interview with Children for the Study of their Social Knowledge Index

336 387 395

VII

Social Organization of Child Development

Research on social interaction Studies of interaction in infancy: M, I. Lisina and her laboratory Social class and child development in Soviet psychology Social formation of children's world views Individuals in collectives: social groups, their environments, and social development of children Social class, child development, and its environment Conclusions: lessons from Soviet research on social development

VIII Cultural Contexts of Child Development and

Psychological Research
The natsmen problem and psychological research in the 1920s Paedological expeditions of 1929 'Cultural-historical' expeditions to Central Asia Extinction of psychological research on natsmen child development Re-emergence of comparative-cultural research in the 1970s Conclusions 284 285 287 294 298 299 307

IX

Cultural Heterogeneity of Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union

Why is psychology in the USSR seen as homogeneous? Geographical heterogeneity of developmental psychology in the USSR Conclusion: developmental psychology in the USSR is geo-culturally heterogeneous

309 309 313 323

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Zhukovskaia, Z. M. (1930). 'The study of active haptic manipulation by . blmd children'. Voprosy izuchenia i vospitania lichnosti, 9, 1-2,86-90. Zimmerman, C. C. (1968). Sorokin, the world's greatest sociologist. Saskatoon: University of Saskatchewan Press. Zinchenko, P.I. (1961). Involuntary remembering (Neproizvol'noe zapominanie). Moscow: Izd. ANP RSFSR. Zinchenko, P. I. (1983-84). The problem of involuntary memory'. Soviet . psychology, 22, 2, 55-111 (Russian original, 1939). Zmchenko, V.P., Van-Tzi Tsin, & Tararkanov, V.V. (1962). 'The formation and development of perceptual actions'. Voprosi psihologii, No.3. Zinchenko, V. P. & Vergiles, N. Yu. (1969). The formation of the visual image. (Formirovanie zritel'nogo obraza). Moskva: Izdatel'sevo MGU.

APPENDIX A: A Programme for an Interview with Children for the Study of their Social Knowledge*

The first part

1. Physical causality
1. (a) Where does wind come from? (b) Why does it blow? 2. You have seen clouds moving in the sky. Why do they move? How does it happen? 3. (a) Does rlleSun move or not? Why does it move? How does it happen? (b) Does the moon move or not? Why does it move? What makes it move? (c) Do the stars move or not? Do the clouds move or not? 4. (about shadow): (a) Do you know what this is? (b) Why did the shadow appear? (c) Can you make a shadow with a book? How should one do it? Where will the shadow from the book fall? Why? 5. (a) Why does this thing fall? What makes it fall? (b) Why dOl1'tcolourful air ballons that are sold ~ the street fall? What ,holds them up, in the air? (c) Is an aeroplane heavy or light? (d) Why does it not fall? (e) Why do the sun, the moon and the stars not fall on to Earth? What olds them up? II. Boundaries and f res of life and being alive (What is considered alive and not alive. What objects have . consciousness and capability of feeling paiQL;~~+ ~.I)\; 1. Which objects are called 'living' and which 'not-living'? 2. Are the following living or not living: a stone, a stick, a tree, a flower, a worm, a fly, water, clouds, the Moon, an aeroplane? Why? . 3. Can the following objects think: (same list as above)? Why? 4. Will the following objects feel pain, if one hits them: (same list as above)? Why?
*Source: Basov (1931a), pp 747-50

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5. What do you want: to live or to die? Why? For what ~e do you want to live? 6. Do other people want to live arnot? Why do you think so? For what purpose do they want to live? 7. Do animals want to live or not? Why do you think so? (If answer is that they do): For what purpose do they rant to live? Do they know, for what purpose they live? Why do you think so? 8. Do plants live or not? Why do you think so? (If yes): Do they want to live? For what purpose? Do they know for what purpose they live? Why do you think so? III. The origins of things existing 1. Where do people originate (come from)? Where did you come from? Where did your father come from? Where did other people come from? 2. Where did horses, birds, fish, flies ... come from? 3. Where did B.ra~~s from? 4. Where do eart -: stones come from? Where do iron and glass come from? 5. Where do clouds originate? How did they appear in the sky? >Where is the sky from? Where is the snow, rain from? 6. Where do rivers originate? Where did water come from? Where did seas come from? 7. Where did the Sun originate? How did it appear in the sky? Where did the Moon originate? Where did the stars originate? Have they always been the wa _ they are today? Have the following always been like today: people, animals, plants, the Sun, the Moon, stars, or Earth? Was there a time when there was nothing? (If yes): What was then? .

10. Have you dream~d in your sleep? How did you see it-as you can see now, or in a different way? 11. Can one see with closed eyes, while not sleeping? Why? 12. What you dream about-can you touch it with your hands? Why? 13. What is it that you dream about in your sleep? 14. Have you heard about the soul? Do you have a soul? ~hat_is it like? Where is it? 15. Do the plants have souls? Where are they located? 16. And other objects? 17. (If the soul is said to exist): Does it die together with the person (animal), or plant? 18. (If not), what happens to it after death? How does it survive after death? L.., ().t~ V. Religion ., . 1. What is the sky? Has it always eXisted? How did It emerge? 2. Does God exist?,Why do you think so? (If yes: What is he like? Where is he? What does he do? Does he work?) Is there anything that is created by God? What exactly? 3. Should one pray to God? Why? Can God punish peop~e? For what? How? ~~;,ot,,,,. ~4.Ao/V 4. Do all people believe that God exists and pray to him? (If no: Which people do you like better? Why?). 5. Does the devil exist? Why do you think so? If 'yes': What is he like? Where is he? What does he do? Does he work? Is there anything that is created by the devil? What exactly? Can the devil punish people? How? For what? What should one do to avoid punishment?

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IV. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

The psychological and the physical Can you think? Think now about something. What did you think about? How do you think? With the help of what do you think? Can one think with closed mouth, ears, eyes? Can you see your thoughts? Can you touch them with your hands? Why can you not do it? 8. Can I see your thoughts? 9. How do you know what you are thinking about?

The second part

Work 1. Does your father (mother) work? Do you work? How? 2. What does it mean 'to work'? Does the teacher work? Why do ~ you think so? Does an engineer wo.rk? An artist? militiaman 1'" ,(~ on iliul)? Why do you thall< so? Do children work? 'y:oJ~ When do they work and when do they not work? Do t~ey \ n( work when they are playing ball or checkers, or somethlOg else? Why do \you think so? I.

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). Why do people work? If all people had as much money as they WJnt, could they live without working? Why do you think so? -I. Do all people work? Who does not work? Why is it that some work and others don't? (If the first question is answered 'all'): Has it always been in our country that everybody works? When was it different? Who did not work then? Why? J. Do all people abroad (in other countries) work? Who does not work? Why? () Can everybody do the work th~ want to? Why do you think so? Can an..xbodybe tau ht to do any work? Why do you think s~ ~ When you grow_ up-how would you like to live: with work \working) or without work, doing nothing? If you had enough money to last for your whole life, would you want to work? Why? What would you do then?

8. Whom would you like to be most-rich Bourgeois, worker, or peasant? Why?

or poor? Why?

II. Class society ~.;"l9' ~ I. Who are called 'bourgeoisie', 'worker', 'peas.ant'? What do they do? .2 Who are you: bourgeoisie, worker, or l?easant? And your father? Your mother? Why do you think so? 1. Which of the groups (bourgeoisie, workers, peasants) do the teachers belong to? Artists? Militiamen? Red Army soldiers? Why do you think so (in every case)? -j Who is called rich, poor? ') Why are some people rich and others poor? Are there rich and poor in every country all the time? Why do you think so? Can all people be equally rich? (If 'no': Why do you think so?; if 'yes': When does that happen? What must be done to achieve that?). 6. Is the bourgeoisie the same as the rich, or not? Bourgeoisie, workers, peasants-which of these are richer, who poorer? Can J bourgeois be poor? Why? Can workers be rich? In what way? Can peasants be rich? Why can they be so? Is a rich worker a bourgeois, or not? Or a rich peasant? Why do you think so? 7. Can it be that there are no bourgeoisie, workers, and peasants, and all people will be alike? (If 'not': Why do you think so?; if 'yes': When will that happen? What must be done to achieve that?).

Ill. Class struggle 1. Do the workers and bourgeoisi~ )jJ~!}~~~~ony? Why? How do workers and peasants get%~ong with each other-are they in harmony or not? Why? How do peasants and the bourgeoisie live-in harmony or not? Why? "",;:J!,(j.Ij><,O)) 2. Do you know what a revolution is? What .b.eppe~ during a revolution? What revolutions do you know? What happened in our country during the February Revolution? What happened during the October Revolution? Why did the February Revolution happen? Who made it? Why did the October Revolution take place? Who made it? Who won in tbat revolution? Why did the[t;win? ""~~\,,,-~J'~'" 3. In other countries, abroOOO: ar'tptc5ple happy or not that tht., October Revolution occurred in our country? Is everybody glar (or not) equally about it? Who is glad? Who is not glad? Why? Can a similar revolution take place there, like the one we had? Why do you think so? If that happens-will people in our USSR be happy or not? Why? 4. Are you glad that the October Revolution took place in our country? Why? When do you think it is better-now, or before the Revolution? Why? Would you like a new revolution to take place? Why? 5. What do you think: are revolution and war the same thing or not? What is the difference? Did our country have a war long ago? With whom did we fight? Who won? Who was defeated? What did the winners and losers gam?-w'hy do wars occur? Can we have another war? Why? With whom will we then fight? Do the workers of other countries want to fight with us? Why? And the bourgeoisie? Why? And peasants? Why? Can it be, that people will never have wars with one another? (If 'not': Why do you think so?; if 'yes': When will that happen? What must be done to achieve that?).
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IV. Political parties 1. Do you know what a party is? Which parties do you know? How do parties emerge? For what are they formed? 2. Which parties do you know in the USSR? Who is called a

3.

4.

5.

6.

communist? For what purpose did the communists organize their party? Can everybody be a communist? Who benefits from communists-the bourgeoisie, workers, or peasants? Whom do they harm? Areall workers communists? Why? And peasants? Why? And bourgeoisie? Why? Do the communists accept any kind of a person into their party? (If 'no': Who are not accepted? Why?). Are there communist parties abroad? What do foreign communists want? Are there other parties too? What do they want? Do the communists live in harmony with other parties? Why? And our communists with foreign ones-are they in harmony or not? Why? Do our communists meet foreign ones? Why do they meet? What is Komintern? Can a communist in all cases act as he wishes? But if the party orders him to act in the opposite way, what should he do? Why? If a communist acts as he wishes and not according to the wish of the party, what should happen? Why? What is the leader of the party called? Why do parties have leaders? Which leaders of communist parties do you know? Why did they become leaders? Who was the first and the highest leader of the communist party during the Revolution? Who is now? If the communists had no Lenin, could the Revolution have taken place? Do you want to be a communist? Why? And a Komsomol? A Pioneer? Why? (If already a member: Are you satisfied with being a member of the organization? What are you satisfied with, and with what are you dissatisfied?).

peasants? The Russians have their workers and bourgeoisie. the French and the Germans have them too-so tell us whom do Russian workers like more: Russian bourgeoisie or GermJn or French workers? Why do you think so? Whom do German or French workers like best-their own bourgeoisie or Russian workers? Why? 5. To which nationality do you belong? To which would you like to belong? Why? VI. The state 1. Why do militiamen stand in the streets? Who set them out there? If somebody rides in a streetcar and jumps off when it is moving, a militiaman charges him I rouble-why does he do that? Who permitted him to take money from people) Can one not listen to him and not give him money? What will he do then? Why? Will he be right, or not? Why? 2. What do the Red Army soldiers do? How did they become soldiers? For what purpose does the Red Army exist? Who organized it? Who gives money for it? Do all people become soldiers? If one does not want to be a soldier, can he not go to serve in the Red Army, or not? Why? Could the Army not exist? Why (If 'yes' then: When will that happen? What must be done for that?). 3. Do you know what the court is? What is done in court? For what reasons are people tried? Who made up courts? Why) Is it possible to live without courts? What is a prison? Who, and for what, is sent to prison? 4. Do you know what laws are? Who makes laws? For what) Do all people have to follow laws? Can one not follow them) Why? 5. What are the Soviets? What is done in the Soviets? How are Soviets made up? Who works in the Soviets? Have the Soviets always existed? If 'no' then: When were they not present and why? Are there Soviets like ours in other countries? If 'no, Why not? Will there be some time? When? 6. What is the name of our country? Who directs our country/ Whom do you know in our government? Why do they direct everything, and others follow them? Can one not follow an order from the government? Why? 7. Who has more power in our government: the bourgeoisie. the

V. The nationality question 1. What nationalities do you know? 2. Which nationality you consider the best? Why do you think so? And which ,nationality is the next best? Why? And the next? And which nationality is the least good? Why do you think so? What other nationality is not good? Why? 3. Are all nationalities in the USSR equal, or are some against others? (If unequal: Which nationality is pushing others aside? Why? Who are being pushed aside? Why do you think so?). Was it the same before the Revolution as it is now? How was it then? Why? 4. Do all nationalities have their bourgeoisie, workers, and

workers, or peasants? Why do you think so? In other countries, abroad, is it the same as in ours or different? Why?

Vll.

Morality and law

what? How? children get that they get For what? Is activity 53 theory of (Leontiev) 216-22 attention involuntary, 150 voluntary, 150 analysis conditional-genetic 130 into elements 'differential' 174-6 'real' 174-6 and synthesis 178 into units (minimal gestalts) 130, 173-9 aromorphosis 47 behaviourism 85-6 integration with cognitive/affective study, 169, 179, 186-8 overcoming of 88-9 Bekhterev's 'principles' of continuous change 57-8 differentiation 59 of evolution 58-9 of historical sequence 59 'biogenetic law', the (Haeckel) 44 children drawings 53, 197,321 in early Soviet Union 68-71 homeless 69-70, 260-1 play :48-9, 169, 180, 199, 201-2 religiosity 256-9

1. Have you ever been punished? Who did it? For Were they right to punish you? Why? Do other punished? Who do? For what? How? Is it right punished? Why? Are adults punished? Who are? that right? Why?

2. May one lie? Why do you think so? Should one always tell the truth? If your comrade in class did something wrong (e.g., spoiled a thing), would you tell your teacher about it? Why? (If 'no' then: But what if the teacher asks you who did it-what will you say then? Why?) 3. May one take flnother's things without permission (steal)? May one take communal (public) property without permission? Why? But if another person has many of such things and he has no need for those, may one take (steal) them without permission? Why? If one person has much bread and the other none at all and is starving-may he steal bread from the first? Is it good to do so or not? Why? During the revolution the workers took faccories from the bourgeoisiedid they act properly doing so? Why? 4. May one kill people? Why? Is it prohibited to kill any people? (If not all: Who can be killed? Who may kill them?). May you kill a person? (If 'no': But if you were a soldier in war, could you kill or not? Would you act properly if you killed a person during war? Why?). Can the court order the killing of a person? (If 'no': Why?; if 'yes': When can it do so? Is that good, or not? Why?) 5. Are people always put to prison for bad deeds? Can one be sent to prison for a good deed? (If 'yes': Who can? For what good deed?). Are communists these days sent to prison or not? Why? Is it well done that they are not imprisoned? But before the Revolution, under the czar, were they sent to prison or not? Why? Was it well done that they were imprisoned? (If 'not well done' then: Who did it then in such a bad way? Why were they not sent to prison?). In our country, communists are not now imprisoned, but how is it in other countries? Why? Do they act in a good way abroad? Why do you think so?

understanding of social phenomena, 254, 260-4, 387-94 cognition 207-8 'actional' (Basov) 172 and action 146-7,208-12, 216-22 cultural dependence of 293, 298, 300-3 formation of 212-16 world views 253-4, 264-6 and interaction 248-51 moral 223-6 Piagetian studies 222-3 collectives definition 270-1 organization of 275-7 reflexological approaches to, 267-8 complexity 130, 182-3 consciousness 106-7, 109-10, 186-8 degeneration 47 development active construction of 132, 137, 139,254-5 concept of 14, 115-16 conditional nature of 132 constraints in understanding of logical 13-15 encification 15-16 homogenization 16-17 dialectical thinking about 17-18, 48