Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Valsiner, Jaan

Psychology & Counseling

Indiana Univ. Pr

How does a doctor or therapist bridge the gap between particulars and generalizations regarding patients and various phenomena or diseases? The authors of this volume illustrate the multiple ways practitioners in the fields of clinical psychology and medicine address the tension between the universal nature of scientific knowledge and its particular applications. They discuss the fact that some decisions, if made erroneously, have impacts that cannot be reversed. An error in the realms of medicine, ecology, peace, and war brings with it psychological strategies that differ from those a practitioner faces where errors are correctable.
How does a doctor or therapist bridge the gap between particulars and generalizations regarding patients and various phenomena or diseases? The authors of this volume illustrate the multiple ways practitioners in the fields of clinical psychology and medicine address the tension between the universal nature of scientific knowledge and its particular applications. They discuss the fact that some decisions, if made erroneously, have impacts that cannot be reversed. An error in the realms of medicine, ecology, peace, and war brings with it psychological strategies that differ from those a practitioner faces where errors are correctable.
The disciplines of psychology and medicine have two shared goals. The first is that both disciplines seek a basic understanding about how human beings exist in their ordinary biological and psychological worlds and the second is the attempt to describe and treat disruptions of each person's healthy state of being. Therefore, the four coeditors uncover areas of mutual interest between the two disciplines and the basis for the conflicts that have arisen in their fields.

Science and Medicine in Dialogue: Thinking through Particulars and Universals (Praeger Series in Health Psychology)

Bibace, Roger

Praeger

In this deeply probing, intellectually challenging work, Dr. JaanValsiner lays the groundwork for a dynamic new cultural-historicalapproach to developmental psychology. He begins by deconstructingtraditional developmental theory, exposing the conceptual confusionand epistemological blind spots that he believes continue toundermine the scientific validity of its methodologies. Hedescribes the ways in which embedded cultural biases shapeinterventional goals and influence both the direction researchtakes and the ways in which research data are interpreted. And hesuggests ways in which researchers and clinicians can become moreaware of and transcend those biases. Dr. Valsiner then develops a hierarchical, systemic model thatportrays development as an open-ended, dialectical process. Centralto Valsiner's approach is the premise that, since each child isunique--as are his or her life conditions--deviations in functionor the rate of development from a prescribed norm are just aslikely to be constructive adaptations to changing environmentalpressures as symptoms of psychological disorder. Drawing uponsources as varied as linguistic philosophy, structuralanthropology, thermodynamics, and systems theory, as well as thework of many of the leading figures in twentieth-centurydevelopmental theory, Valsiner argues convincingly for an approachto developmental psychology mature enough to recognize thedifference between healthy variability and dysfunction. In later chapters the focus shifts from development in the abstractto the everyday challenges encountered by the developing child.Case histories illustrate the subtle interplay of cultural,physiological, and psychological factors in shaping childhoodbehavior. Called an "intellectual tour de force" by the Bulletin of theMenninger Clinic, Culture and the Development of Children's Actionis important reading for developmental psychologists, childpsychologists, and all child clinicians. "Of course, no science progresses in a linear fashion. It movesinterdependently with the society in which it is embedded, makinguse of the narrative forms in describing itself to its insiders andoutsiders. The rhetoric of scientists about their science istherefore necessarily inconsistent. Sciences are both socialinstitutions within a society and social organizations that attemptto build universal knowledge. It is a complicated task forpsychology to be both knowledge-constructing and self-reflexive atthe same time. Nevertheless, it is the latter kind of reflexivitythat guides the actual construction of knowledge." -- JaanValsiner "[This book] is a fascinating and important work that challengesmuch of contemporary developmental psychology. The Second Editionhas changed in a number of respects, and much new material has beenadded, but at root, Valsiner grapples with the question 'how shallwe understand development?' He continues to struggle also with whathe describes rather vividly as the 'epistemological windmills ofpsychology.' His challenge is summed up succinctly in two linesfrom a poem by T. S. Eliot: * Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? * Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" -- -- fromthe Foreword by Kevin Connolly

Culture and the Development of Children's Action: A Theory of Human Development

Mental Health

wiley

This book provides a synthesis of research on a topic of increasing importance in developmental and social psychology - a general theory of child development that takes into account the culturally guided nature of child-environment relationships. The author presents an integration of theory with psychological phenomenology of child development backed by evidence from language research literature in psychology and anthropology as well as from his own research, which offers an appropriate basis for understanding child development in many cultural contexts. Because of the book's structural-dynamic perspective on child development it will be of value to both researchers and practitioners together with postgraduate students in developmental and child psychology, education and anthropology.

Culture and the Development of Children's Action: A Cultural-Historical Theory of Developmental Psychology (Wiley Series in Developmental Psychology & Its Applications)

John Wiley&Sons

Drawing on philosophy, the history of psychology and the natural sciences, this book proposes a new theoretical foundation for the psychology of the life course. It features the study of unique individual life courses in their social and cultural environment, combining the perspectives of developmental and sociocultural psychology, psychotherapy, learning sciences and geronto-psychology. In particular, the book highlights semiotic processes, specific to human development, that allow us to draw upon past experiences, to choose among alternatives and to plan our futures. Imagination is an important outcome of semiotic processes and enables us to deal with daily constraints and transitions, and promotes the transformation of social representation and symbolic systems - giving each person a unique style, or 'melody', of living. The book concludes by questioning the methodology and epistemology of current life course studies.

Human Development in the Life Course: Melodies of Living

Zittoun, Tania

Vedeler, Dankert

Salgado, João

Gonçalves, Miguel M.

Ferring, Dieter

Cambridge University Press

The Social Mind: Construction of the Idea

The Social Mind charts the intellectual history of the idea of the socially constructed mind through the examination of four key theorists--Lev Vygotsky, George Herbert Mead, James Mark Baldwin, and Pierre Janet. An analysis of the theories of these scholars and the social climate in which they worked will be invaluable to contemporary social scientists. In their analysis of the social construction of mind, the authors elaborate on their notion of intellectual interdependency in the development of scientific ideas and they take a new look at how progress in science is a socially constructed entity. Their well constructed, ambitious volume makes an important and timely contribution to the theory and history of psychology.

Veer, Rene van der

This book is the most comprehensive contribution to our understanding of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) yet undertaken. As a key to understanding the most potent influence on developmental theories since the beginning of this century, van der Veer and Valsiner explore Vygotsky's ideas through the course of his life, establishing links with his predecessors and contemporaries. Elaborate analysis of his social context allows detailed discussions of Vygotsky's indebtedness to literary scholarship (his career began with an essay on Hamlet), with psychoananlysis, Gestalt psychology and paedology. The authors show how close was his intellectual dependence on the international scientific community of the time and on contemporary creative endeavours of the fine arts. The Life and Work of Lev Vygotsky not only shows the extent to which Vygotsky's work can be further developed to be relevant to the end of the twentieth century but also opens up scope for a more detailed analysis of his contemporaries.

Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest for Synthesis

van der Veer, René

Biographies & Memoirs

Blackwell Pub.

This book presents the most comprehensive introduction to the life and ideas of Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) yet written. As a key to understanding one of the most potent influences on developmental theories this century, Van der Veer and Valsiner explore Vygotsky's ideas in the contexts of Russian psychology and the politics of the inter-war years. The authors chart Vygotsky's intellectual development through the course of his life, establishing links with his predecessors and contemporaries and illustrating his intellectual interdependence with the contemporary scientific community and the creative endeavors of the fine arts. Careful analysis of his social context allows detailed discussion of Vygotsky's indebtedness to literary scholarship, with psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology and paedology. 
Understanding Vygotsky not only shows the extent to which Vygotsky's work can be further developed to be relevant to the end of the twentieth century but also opens up scope for a more detailed analysis of his contemporaries. It will be essential reading for all students of Vygotsky and his ideas.

Professionals & Academics

Wiley/Blackwell

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Valsiner, Jaan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Valsiner, Jaan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Valsiner, Jaan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Developmental Psychology in the Soviet Union

Science and Medicine in Dialogue: Thinking through Particulars and Universals (Praeger Series in Health Psychology)

Culture and the Development of Children's Action: A Theory of Human Development

Culture and the Development of Children's Action: A Cultural-Historical Theory of Developmental Psychology (Wiley Series in Developmental Psychology & Its Applications)

Human Development in the Life Course: Melodies of Living

The Social Mind: Construction of the Idea

The Social Mind: Construction of the Idea

Human Development in the Life Course: Melodies of Living

Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest for Synthesis

Understanding Vygotsky: A Quest for Synthesis