The Problem of Development in Psychology

1. The problem of development in psychology hinges on the problem of the subject matter of psychology. This dependency is discernible in the old psychology and in its contemporary trends as well. Accordingly, the definition of the subject matter of psychology expressed by the formula "man as an active agent in the environment" will lead to a specific understanding of psychological development.     

The Problem of Child Development In Soviet Psychology

The problem of child development was central in Soviet psychology from the start. Interest in child development arose, on the one hand, in connection with the needs of pedagogical practice, for the reconstruction and improvement of the educational system for the new generation, and, on the other hand, as a result of the theoretical importance of the problem in working out a genetic approach to the study of the human mind [psikhika].     

Experimental Psychology and Child Development

It was not so long ago that investigators of human development thought that the empirical study of the child was almost completely impossible. The child was considered too variable a creature, during his first years of life, to conduct experiments on, so that one could assess child development in the best of cases only by observations, by keeping diaries and such.     

The Category of Age in the Psychology and Pedagogy of Development

Vygotsky's words, uttered about sixty years ago, may serve as a very special epigraph to the analysis that follows; they have not lost their meaning even today: "The problem of age is not only central to the whole of child psychology: it is the key to all questions of practice as well" [4. P. 260].

The key importance of the concept of age as a category in educational psychology has become obvious now, in light of the urgent need for a reorganization of education, a need to give it a developmental character. This category is just as important for a practice-oriented pedagogy, which can no longer be satisfied with simple study of individual phenomena in educational psychology; it must necessarily become a composite and, even more, a projective science, since it involves contriving complex, synthetic objects that bring together concrete studies, blueprints for educational systems, the programs and technology of continuous education throughout a person's entire life, and expert systems for evaluating and means for monitoring the effectiveness of such continuous education.     

The Problem of the Development of the Intellect and Learning in Human Psychology

The definition of word from which Shpet proceeds embraces every linguistic phenomenon, both autosemantic and synsemantic. The definition includes every isolated word ("dictionary material") as well as a coherent period or sentence and any organic member or arbitrarily established part of them: "Indeed, whatever specific part of a whole in human speech we isolate, it will contain, if only virtually, the properties, functions, and relations of the whole" (Shpet, 1989. P. 402).     

The Psychology of Art

Eisenstein begins his article with the basic problem of all forms of art: how is theme or content changed from an object of reality into an object of art and what is the secret of the method of art? The rest of his presentation gives examples of different art forms to show how reality is transformed into art. Cinema has a special status among arts because best films “are larger than life.”     

The Psychology of Age-Related Crises

Reform of the general education and vocational school is bringing about an improvement in the content of education, as reflected in curricula and syllabuses, textbooks, and teaching aids; teaching methods are changing, and overburdening of pupils is being eliminated.     

The Zeus of Kharkov Psychology

The controversial questions of the relations between L.S. Vygotsky’s theory of development of higher mental functions and A.N. Leontiev’s activity theory are considered in the context of the theoretical principles of the research of P.I. Zinchenko. In the author’s view, these theories are mutually complementary and potentially could be combined into a single theory. A survey of the key results of the research conducted by Zinchenko in voluntary and involuntary mediated memory is presented. Thanks to the high heuristic potential of the cultural-historical and activity-based approaches, original methodologies were developed and empirical studies were performed on fundamental mnemic effects, which much later were independently “rediscovered” in cognitive psychology (including the generation effect and the depth-of-processing effect). The patterns identified by P.I. Zinchenko in the development of mediated voluntary and involuntary memory are also of great importance in the context of current research in the age-related development of memory.