Thought Question #2
By Joe Massie
Would Vygotsky agree that young children are essentially egocentric?
I think that Vygotsky would disagree that young children are egocentric. One of
Vygotsky’s main ideas is that even from young ages, cognition and development are
related to social and cultural influences. Therefore, children are reacting to their
environment and incorporating cultural stimuli into their behaviour. This belief
infers that children are considering the point of view of members of their culture.
Piaget claims “children are egocentric because they fail to understand how someone
else’s point of view might be different from their own…” (Campbell, 1997). However,
Vygotsky would argue that children are able to understand and even learn from
another person’s point of view. “A central idea in Vygotskian and other cultural
approaches is that when two or more people interact, they coconstruct a
conversation, event, or activity” (Miller, 2002). This was shown to be true in
Freund’s study, in which children solved problems better when they worked with
their mothers, as opposed to on their own. It would appear, therefore, that children
are taking another’s perspective and using it in their cognitive processes.
Another argument for egocentrism is in a child’s ‘private speech’. Piaget claims,
“private speech is the child’s egocentric inability to take another person’s
perspective” (Miller, 2002). Vygotsky disagrees on the purpose of private speech
and believes that “private speech helps children direct their problem-solving
activities”. Therefore, he does not attribute private speech to an inability to take on
another’s perspective.
Young children often ignore the people around them, making them appear
egocentric. However, I think that Vygotsky would attribute their seemingly selfish
actions to the language limitations of these children, not egocentrism. As they age,
they learn to communicate more effectively and gain the ability to see past their
immediate environment becoming more capable of understanding the perspective
of others.
Campbell, R. (1997). Jean Piaget's Genetic Epistemology: Appreciation and Critique.
This is a revised version of two lectures presented at the Institute of Objectivist
Studies Summer Seminar, Charlottesville, VA, July 7 and 8, 1997.
Miller, P. H. (2002). Theories of Developmental Psychology, 4th Ed. (pp. 367-396;
Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Approach). New York: Worth.