Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Выготский, IPA: [vɨˈɡotskʲɪj]; Belarusian: Леў Сямёнавіч Выгоцкі; November 17 [O.S. November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory. After his early death, his books and research were banned in the Soviet Union until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, with a first collection of major texts published in 1956. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Vygotsky as the 83rd most cited psychologist of the 20th century. His major ideas include:
The social origin of mind: Vygotsky believed that human mental and cognitive abilities are not biologically determined, but instead created and shaped by use of language and tools in the process of interacting and constructing the cultural and social environment. The importance of mediation: He saw mediation as the key to human development, because it leads to the use of cultural tools and becomes a pathway for psychological development through the process of interiorization. The zone of proximal development: Vygotsky introduced the concept, which refers to the gap between a child's current level of development and the level they are capable of reaching with tools provided by others with more knowledge. The significance of play: Vygotsky viewed play as a crucial aspect of children's development, as he thought of it as the best sandbox to build and develop the practice of mediation.
Early life and education Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky (his patronymic was later changed to Semyonovich and his surname to Vygotsky for unclear reasons) was born on November 17, 1896, in the town of Orsha in Mogilev Governorate of the Russian Empire (now Belarus) into a non-religious middle-class Jewish family of Simkha Leibovich (also known as Semyon Lvovich), a banker, and Tsetsilia Moiseevna. Vygotsky was raised in the city of Gomel, where he was home-schooled until 1911 and then obtained a formal degree with distinction in a private Jewish gymnasium, which allowed him entrance to a university. In 1913, Vygotsky was admitted to the Moscow University by mere ballot through a "Jewish Lottery"; at the time, a three percent Jewish student quota was administered for entry in Moscow and Saint Petersburg Universities. He had an interest in the humanities and social sciences, but at the insistence of his parents he applied to the medical school at Moscow University. During the first semester of study, he transferred to the law school. In parallel, he attended lectures at Shanyavsky Moscow City People's University.
Career In January 1924, Vygotsky took part in the Second All-Russian Psychoneurological Congress in Petrograd (soon thereafter renamed Leningrad). After the Congress, Vygotsky met with Alexander Luria and with his help received an invitation to become a research fellow at the Psychological Institute in Moscow which was under the direction of Konstantin Kornilov. Vygotsky moved to Moscow with his new wife, Roza Smekhova, with whom he would have two children. He began his career at the Psychological Institute as a "staff scientist, second class". He also became a secondary school teacher, covering a period marked by his interest in the processes of learning and the role of language in learning. By the end of 1925, Vygotsky completed his dissertation, "The Psychology of Art," which was not published until the 1960s, and a book, "Pedagogical Psychology," which apparently drew on lecture notes he prepared in Gomel while he was a psychology instructor at local educational establishments. In the summer of 1925, he made his first and only trip abroad to a London congress on the education of the deaf. Upon return to the Soviet Union, he was hospitalized due to tuberculosis and would remain an invalid and out of work until the end of 1926. After his release from the hospital, Vygotsky did theoretical and methodological work on the crisis in psychology, but never finished the draft of the manuscript and interrupted his work on it around mid-1927. The manuscript was published later with notable editorial interventions and distortions in 1982 and was presented by the editors as one of the most important of Vygotsky's works. In this early manuscript, Vygotsky argued for the formation of a general psychology that could unite the naturalist objectivist strands of psychological science with the more philosophical approaches of Marxist orientation. However, he also harshly criticized those of his colleagues who attempted to build a "Marxist Psychology" as an alternative to the naturalist and philosophical schools. He argued that if one wanted to build a truly Marxist psychology, there were no shortcuts to be found by merely looking for applicable quotes in the writings of Marx. Rather, one should look for a methodology that was in accordance with the Marxian spirit. From 1926 to 1930, Vygotsky worked on a research program investigating the development of higher psychological functions, i.e. culturally-governed lower psychological functions such as voluntary attention, selective memory, object-oriented action, and decision making. During this period, he gathered a group of collaborators including Alexander Luria, Boris Varshava, Alexei Leontiev, Leonid Zankov, and several others. Vygotsky guided his students in researching this phenomenon from three different perspectives:
The instrumental approach, which aimed to understand the ways humans use objects as mediation aids in memory and reasoning. A developmental approach, focused on how children acquire higher cognitive functions during development A culture-historical approach, studying how social and cultural patterns of interaction shape forms of mediation and developmental trajectories
Death Vygotsky died of a relapse of tuberculosis on June 11, 1934, at the age of 37, in Moscow. One of Vygotsky's last private notebook entries was:
This is the final thing I have done in psychology – and I will like Moses, die at the summit, having glimpsed the promised land but without setting foot on it. Farewell, dear creations. The rest is silence.The urn containing Vygotsky's ashes was buried, in section 3 of Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.
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