HUMAN DEVELOPMENT 1
PSYCHOLOGY 3050:
Social Construction of Mind
Dr. Jamie Drover
SN-3094, 864-8383
e-mail -- jrdrover@mun.ca
Fall Semester, 2012
Sociocultural perspective
• Focus on species typical structure-function
relationships that underlie thought
• Cognitive universals
– Attention, learning, memory, information
processing
• However, cognition develops in the child who
develops in a familial, social, and cultural
context
Sociocultural perspective
• Cognitive development is inseparable from its
cultural context
– Only humans have developed culture
– Provides a unique source of influence
• How we develop and learn to think is
primarily a function of the social and cultural
environments in which we are reared
– Family, school, community, social institutions, etc.
Sociocultural perspective
• Focuses is on what makes us different, rather
than on the universals that make us similar.
Interaction: Four interrelated levels of
development are important
• Ontogenetic: development of the individual across
the lifespan
• Microgenetic: changes over brief periods of time
– Changes in problem-solving over a school year
• Phylogenetic: development of a species through
evolution
– Understanding species development (history) informs
individual development
• Sociohistorical: changes that occur in one’s culture,
values, norms, and technologies
– Literacy, info technologies
Tools of Intellectual Adaptation
• We enter the world with
elementary mental functions.
• Culture provides us with tools
of intellectual adaptation.
– Methods of thinking and problemsolving that children internalize
from interactions with more
competent members of society.
– Enable children to use mental
functions adaptively, i.e., how to
think.
Tools of Intellectual Adaptation
• These cultural tools do indeed affect
development.
• Some cultures have numbers only for 1, 2,
and “many”.
• Members of these cultures can operate on
small amounts, but have difficulty with
larger numbers.
Tools of Intellectual Adaptation
• Even more subtle differences in number
names can affect development.
• Miller et al. (1995) provided evidence that
Chinese children are superior counters at
4 and 5 years of age than American
children.
– Numbering system is more logical.
Tools of Intellectual Adaptation
• Culture also transmits beliefs and values.
– What to think
• The relevance of cultural tools can be seen in the
computer.
– Access to and the use of computers will have effects both
between and within cultures.
– Computers will affect how we think and process information.
The Social Origins of Early Cognitive
Competencies
• Vygotsky emphasized the social contributions to
cognitive development.
• He believed that all higher psychological
processes originate socially and then develop on
a psychological plane.
– General genetic law of cultural development
The Social Origins of Early Cognitive
Competencies
• Much of what children learn occurs within the
context of cooperative or collaborative dialogues
between a skillful tutor and a novice pupil.
– i.e., collaborative or guided learning
– The pupil seeks to understand the tutor’s instruction
and then internalizes this information.
– This fosters cognitive growth (see puzzle eg, p 83).
Zone of Proximal Development
• The difference between a child’s actual
developmental level determined by
independent problem solving and his/her
level of potential development as determined
through problem-solving under the guidance
of others
• New cognitive growth can occur in “the zone”
and instruction should be targeted there
Zone of Proximal Development
• Children can learn material that is just a bit more
advanced than what they know at any given point
– Too advanced – can’t be incorporated
• Scaffolding occurs when experts are sensitive to the
abilities of a novice and work to guide the child’s
performance so that his/her understanding increases
Zone of Proximal Development
• Scaffolding will be most effective in the “zone of
proximal development”
• Commonly observed as parents and young
children solve a problem or have a conversation
together.
– See dice example pp. 84-85
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• Rogoff (1990) viewed transactions between
adults and children as reflecting “apprenticeship
in thinking”
– novice improves their skills and understanding
through participation with more skilled partners in
culturally organized activities.
• All the responsibility is not placed on adults.
• Rogoff extended the idea of “zone of proximal
development.”
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• Rogoff applied to “guided participation” to adult
child interactions during explicit instructions, but
also to day to day activities and everyday life.
– Doing chores, watching TV
• In post-industrial societies, transactions between
parents and children are designed for the
schooling that will follow.
– Context-independent learning
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• Another school-related skill
associated with parent-child
interactions is reading.
– Whitehurst (1988):
interactive reading led to
gains in verbal
expressiveness
• Parents use scaffolding
when reading to children.
– They are more directive
when children are
younger, but less so as
children get older.
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• Parents and older siblings
can also guide children’s
development in symbolic
play.
– Requires mental
representation
• Mothers tend to bring out
high levels of symbolic play
in their children.
– Bring out challenging
play interactions
• Symbolic play is related to
other aspects of cognitive
development.
– E.g. theory of mind
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• Guided participation is universal, but there are
differences in the nature of guided participation.
• Occurs in two cultures
– Cultures in which children are segregated from adults
and receive instruction in school (middle class)
– Cultures in which are in close contact with adults
while performing culturally important activities
(traditional)
• Rogoff studied interactions and guided
participation in both types of cultures (pp 90-91).
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• Middle-class communities
– place more emphasis on verbal instruction and
provide plenty of structure.
– Use praise to motivate children.
• Traditional communities
– Use explicit nonverbal instruction
– Don’t provide direct instruction
– Children possess good observational skills
Apprenticeship in Thinking and Guided
Participation
• In different cultures, different forms of guided
participation are likely to be used.
• One form is no better than the other.
• Cognitive development is rooted in one’s culture.
Implications for Education
• Vygotsky stressed active learning and assessment of
what the child already knows.
• Teachers should structure activities and provide helpful
hints or instructions tailored to the child’s abilities.
• Cooperative learning between children could also be
used.
Implications for Education
• Freund (1990) found that children who practiced a
dollhouse furniture sorting task with their mother showed
dramatic improvement.
• Cooperative learning between students is also beneficial
– Enhances motivation, requires explanation, higher
quality strategies.