The problem of conditions and driving forces of a child’s mental development in foreign and domestic psychology

The problem of the driving forces of mental development in the traditional sense

Definition 1
Mental development is a natural change in mental processes over time, which is expressed in qualitative, quantitative and structural transformations.

The development of an individual is designated by the term “ontogenesis,” introduced by the German biologist E. Haeckel. Its development begins from birth and continues until the end of life, therefore in psychology the question of the driving forces of mental development is complex and important.

Note 1

Among the factors that determine mental development, scientists traditionally distinguish two main categories - biological and social.

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Supporters of the dominant role of society, called “sociologizers,” considered man a product of external influence, and their direction was called sociogenetic. The origins of this trend were J. Locke, who believed that the soul of a child is a “blank slate” and you can write whatever you want on it. Locke's view was that every personality trait of a person is shaped by his personal experiences, and that innate factors are not particularly important.

In the mental development of a person, a decisive role is played by education and training. This view of human development also exists in our time, i.e. Initially, people are not divided into evil and good, honest and dishonest, but become so under the pressure of a specific situation.

French philosophers R. Descartes and J. Rousseau held a completely opposite point of view. They were representatives of the “natural”, “biologization” direction. Their main idea was that for the development of personality, heredity is of greatest importance, and the influence of the environment is minimal. They believed that the child realizes what nature has given him and grows according to natural laws.

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Rousseau and Locke formulated ideas in a general form, but they predetermined the debate regarding what determines the course of a person’s mental development for a long time - upbringing or nature, environment or heredity, genes or a person’s lifestyle.

Modern scientists believe that the process of influence in both directions is considered unambiguously and mechanistically. Today, scientists are coming to understand that the formulation of the problem “heredity or upbringing” is incorrect, which has become the cause of fruitless debate for many centuries.

Sensitivity, irreversibility, continuity and individualization of mental development

Age sensitivity is the greatest sensitivity to certain educational influences during certain age periods.

During the sensitive period, certain influences can only influence development when mental functions are in the process of maturation. When they mature, the same influences may not only be neutral, but even have a negative effect.

Sensitive periods coincide with what Vygotsky called the zone of proximal development. It is sensitivity that causes the uniqueness and irreversibility of age-related development . Any missed sensitive period leads to developmental delays.

Irreversibility is the ability to accumulate changes, to “build on” new changes over previous ones .

Periods of sensitive development are limited in time. Therefore, if a sensitive period of development of a particular function is missed, much more effort and time will be required for its development in the future.

Sensitive periods can be distinguished from neoplasms of age. Thus, several sensitive periods can be distinguished.

Sensitive periods

The irreversibility of mental development means that development in ontogenesis is unidirectional. Irreversibility does not mean that the changes that have occurred remain unchanged. The formed functions can be rebuilt in the context of a different age, but the result will be different than normal.

Continuity of mental development means that all recent stages of development are connected with the previous ones. At the same time, old structures and formations do not disappear, but are rebuilt and become part of new ones.

The cumulativeness (accumulation) of development is associated with continuity. Cumulative development is the accumulation of mental properties, qualities, abilities, skills during growth, leading to qualitative changes in their development.

Cumulative development means that the result of the development of each subsequent stage is included in the last, while being transformed in a certain way. This accumulation of changes prepares for a qualitative transformation in mental development.

An example of cumulativeness is the consistent formation and development of visual-effective, visual-figurative and verbal-logical thinking, when each subsequent type of thinking arises on the basis of the previous one.

Individualization of mental development is the existence of age-related characteristics in individual variants. Individualization in development does not appear immediately, not completely, but changes and is enriched from age to age.

Individual development options are manifested:

• in the timing of the onset of sensitivity to educational influences;

• in the pace and rhythm of approaching maturity and old age;
• in a variety of dynamic features caused by the type of HNA (higher nervous activity), the type of temperament.

The problem of the driving forces of mental development in domestic psychology

Definition 2

Driving forces are factors that determine the progressive development of a child and are its causes.

These, first of all, include the child’s needs, his motivation, external stimuli for communication and activity, as well as the goals and objectives set by adults in education and training.

Each child develops in certain conditions, he is surrounded by certain objects of material and spiritual culture, specific people with their relationships - all these are components of the conditions of mental development.

Figure 1. Driving forces of a child’s mental development. Author24 - online exchange of student work

Thus, the conditions of development include external and internal constantly operating factors. They guide the course of development, shape the dynamics and determine the final results.

Conditions influence the mental development of the child and his individual characteristics.

Psychological space with elements of a certain quality is an area of ​​mental development - this is a psychophysical area, psychosocial, cognitive.

Biological factors include hereditary and congenital properties of the body. The human body has the property of repeating similar types of metabolism and individual development in general over generations - this is heredity. A child, first of all, inherits human characteristics of the structure of the nervous system, sensory organs, and brain. Congenitality is also a biological factor. However, not everything that a child is born with is hereditary.

Thus, the birth of a child with inherent human structural features is determined by a biological factor, although at birth people have biological differences. However, a normal child is capable of learning everything; his biological characteristics are the natural basis.

The essence is socially significant factors - the social environment, training, education, socialization. The social environment is the social situation surrounding a person, the material and spiritual conditions necessary for his existence.

The natural environment also has an influence on the development of a child’s psyche - these are climatic and natural conditions, although their influence is indirect.

For a child’s mental development, his life in human society is important. As for upbringing and training, they are considered as a purposeful process in which social institutions exert their influence and through them the child learns the norms and rules of society.

If we consider upbringing and learning as a spontaneous process, then the child learns these norms through observing the interpersonal relationships of the people around him. Both of these concepts cannot be separated from the concept of “socialization”, through which the assimilation of all attitudes, customs, opinions, life values, roles and expectations accepted in a particular social group occurs.

Psychologists today are looking for an answer about the relationship between the biological and the social in development, which determines the process of child development, heredity or the environment. The search for an answer has led to the theory of the convergence of these factors. The founder of this theory was V. Stern, who believed that both factors are equally responsible for mental development.

Note 2

Thus, mental development, according to V. Stern, is the result of the convergence of internal inclinations with the external conditions of the child’s life.

Experimental strategy in the study of mental development

An experiment is a research strategy in which purposeful observation of a process is carried out under conditions of controlled changes in certain of its characteristics. In the process, a hypothesis is tested. In psychology, along with observation, this is one of the main methods of obtaining scientific knowledge in general and psychological research in particular. It differs from observation primarily in that it involves a special organization of the research situation, active intervention of the researcher in the situation, systematic manipulation of one or more variables (factors) and recording of emerging changes in the behavior of the research object.

Formative experiment - used in developmental psychology as a pedagogical method for tracking changes in the child’s psyche during the active influence of the researcher on the subject. Synonyms: transformative, creative, educational, formative, genetically modeling experiment; method of shaping the psyche of the actor. A form of natural experiment characterized by the study of mental processes in the process of their purposeful occurrence. It involves identifying patterns of development during the active, purposeful influence of the experimenter on the subject - during the formation of his psyche. It is based on an approach that considers mental development as a phenomenon controlled by training and education; It follows from this that the learning process itself, which determines this development, cannot be ignored. In this case, this method reveals not so much the existing state of knowledge, skills and abilities, but rather the specifics of their formation. Within its framework, the subject is first asked to independently master a new action or knowledge (for example, formulate a pattern), and if this does not work, then he is offered strictly regulated and individualized assistance. This whole process is accompanied by a formative experiment so that the difference between the initial, current level and the final level corresponding to the development zone of the near future can be determined. The formative experiment is used not only in theoretical psychology, but also for diagnosing mental development in pathopsychology.

The cross-sectional method refers to organizational methods for observing the psychology of aging. The study was organized as work with people of different age groups - as with performing sections at different ages. If there are a sufficient number of representatives of each group, it is possible to identify generalized characteristics at each level and, on this basis, to trace general trends in age-related development - this method is sometimes contrasted with the longitudinal method (long-term observation of an individual).

Unlike a formative experiment, the cross-sectional method is limited to recording identified facts, while a formative experiment, by creating special situations, identifies patterns, mechanisms, dynamics, trends in mental development and personality formation, and determines ways to optimize this process. Therefore, it is widely used in domestic psychology (since the late 30s) when studying the conditions, principles, and ways of forming a child’s personality, which ensures the connection of psychological research with pedagogical search and design of particularly effective forms of the educational process.

Mechanisms of personality development

The process of personality development, its patterns and driving forces have always interested researchers. As a result of studying the course of personality development, certain mechanisms of personality development were identified:

• appropriation;
• identification;
• separation.

Let's look at them in more detail.

Definition 1

Appropriation is the process of personality development through the individual’s appropriation of his uniqueness due to the social relations around him and the person’s direct participation in them.

A person is a source of development not only for himself, but also for the people around him, and this is a reciprocal process. The environment and people create certain circumstances and each other.

Definition 2

Isolation is the process of an individual defending his boundaries, his essence, a kind of distinguishing himself from other people, the process of individualization.

There are external and internal separation:

• external isolation is the physical parameters given to a person from birth, appearance, gender, nationality;
• internal isolation is congenital and acquired individual psychological characteristics, temperament, character, intelligence.

Definition 3

Identification is a person’s emotional identification of himself with other people, a pattern of behavior, the experience of his similarity or difference from the desired object of imitation.

Identification is a process that occurs with a person throughout life. Sources of identification are the surrounding people, who are carriers of the individual’s standard qualities and forms of behavior.

Chapter 1. Educational psychology is an interdisciplinary branch of scientific knowledge

§ 1. General scientific characteristics of educational psychology

Educational
psychology among other human sciences
In modern science, the interaction of two main trends in its development is increasingly visible: integration and differentiation of scientific branches, disciplines, problem areas (along with such trends as systematization, hierarchization, cumulativeness). Analyzing the integrativeness of science, J. Piaget, B.G. Ananyev, B.M. Kedrov noted that at the center of scientific knowledge is psychology - the science of man. Interpretation of the presentation by B.M. Kedrov’s triangle of scientific knowledge (its apex is the natural sciences, its base corners are philosophy and social sciences, and in the center psychology, connected with these sciences) correlates with the statement of J. Piaget that “... psychology occupies a central place not only as a product of all other sciences, but also as a possible source of explanation for their formation and development” [172, p. 155].B.G. defines the role of the human problem in the development of science even more clearly. Ananyev [7], according to whom differentiation, deepening the study of man and at the same time integration of all research in this area contribute to the fact that the problem of man becomes general scientific. The same trend of globalization of the human problem was outlined in the field of pedagogical knowledge by K.D. Ushinsky in 1868-1869. in the work “Man as a subject of education. Experience of pedagogical anthropology”, where, based on the definition of the hierarchy of sciences that contribute to human education, the leading role of psychology was noted.

In turn, psychology is also complex integrated knowledge, the basis of the structural representation of which, according to A.V. Petrovsky, serve the psychological aspects: “1) specific activity, 2) development, 3) the relationship of a person (as a subject of development and activity) to society (in which his activity and development takes place)” [39, p. 80]. Educational psychology is considered as an independent branch of general psychological knowledge, distinguished primarily on the basis of “concrete activity”, in which two other aspects of it are reflected. This statement means that the foundation of educational psychology contains general psychological patterns and mechanisms of educational activity itself, or, as defined by one of the founders of educational psychology, P.F. Kapterev, educational process.

Educational psychology is related to many other sciences for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is a specific branch of general psychological knowledge, which is located in the center of the triangle of scientific knowledge. Secondly, it is connected with other sciences due to the fact that the educational process, in its goals and content, is the transfer of sociocultural experience, which accumulates the most diverse civilizational knowledge in a symbolic, linguistic form. Thirdly, the subject of its study is the person who knows and learns this knowledge, which is studied by many other human sciences. It is obvious that educational psychology is inextricably linked with such sciences as, for example, pedagogy, physiology, philosophy, linguistics, sociology, etc. At the same time, the statement that educational psychology is a branch of general psychological knowledge means that it is formed on its basis, those. knowledge about mental development, its driving forces, individual and gender-age characteristics of a person, his personal formation and development, etc. Because of this, educational psychology is connected with other branches of psychological knowledge (social, differential psychology, etc.) and, above all, with developmental psychology.

Pedagogical and developmental psychology are most closely related to each other by the commonality of the object of these sciences, which is the developing person. But if developmental psychology studies “the age-related dynamics of the human psyche, the ontogenesis of mental processes and psychological qualities of a developing person” [43, p. 5], then pedagogical - the conditions and factors for the formation of mental new formations under the influence of education. In this regard, all problems of educational psychology are considered on the basis of taking into account the age characteristics of a person in the educational process. At the same time (let us once again emphasize this point) both pedagogical and developmental psychology are based on knowledge of general psychology, which “... reveals general psychological patterns, studies mental processes, mental states and individual psychological characteristics of the personality of an already established person” [96, With. 7]. This interpretation, on the one hand, of interdisciplinarity, and on the other, of the independence of educational psychology as a branch of scientific knowledge, can be correlated with the position of B.G. Ananyeva. In his opinion, educational psychology is a borderline, complex field of knowledge, which “... has taken a certain place between psychology and pedagogy, and has become a field of joint study of the relationships between the upbringing, training and development of younger generations” [8, p. 14].

However, this interpretation does not completely coincide with the definitions of the status of educational psychology given by other authors, which may indicate that the solution to this issue is ambiguous. For example, in the “Course of General, Developmental and Pedagogical Psychology” about [101, p. 4]. On the other hand, the “Fundamentals of Pedagogy and Psychology of Higher School” emphasizes the complexity and unity of pedagogy and psychology, forming one comprehensive scientific discipline [157, p. 5-6]. It can be assumed that educational psychology is essentially complex. Pedagogy in its theoretical, according to V.I. Ginetsinsky [52], and practical aspects is an independent science closely related to it, while general and developmental psychology are internally inextricably linked branches of general psychological knowledge.

General psychological
context of the formation of educational psychology
Educational psychology develops in the general context of scientific ideas about man, which were recorded in the main psychological movements (theories) that have had and are having a great influence on pedagogical thought in each specific historical period. This is due to the fact that the learning process has always acted as a natural research “testing ground” for psychological theories. Let us take a closer look at the psychological movements and theories that could influence the understanding of the pedagogical process.

Associative psychology

(starting from the middle of the 18th century - D. Hartley and until the end of the 19th century - W. Wundt), in the depths of which the types and mechanisms of associations were defined as connections between mental processes and associations as the basis of the psyche. Using the material from the study of associations, the features of memory and learning were studied. Here we note that the foundations of the associative interpretation of the psyche were laid by Aristotle (384-322 BC), who is credited with introducing the concept of “association”, its types, distinguishing two types of reason (nous) into theoretical and practical, definitions feelings of satisfaction as a learning factor.

Empirical data from experiments

G. Ebbinghaus (1885) on the study of the process of forgetting and the forgetting curve he obtained, the nature of which is taken into account by all subsequent researchers of memory, development of skills, organization of exercises.

Pragmatic functional psychology

W. James (late 19th - early 20th centuries) and J. Dewey (practically the entire first half of our century) with an emphasis on adaptive reactions, adaptation to the environment, body activity, and skill development.

Trial and error theory

E. Thorndike (late 19th - early 20th centuries), who formulated the basic laws of learning - the laws of exercise, effect and readiness; who described the learning curve and achievement tests based on these data (1904).

Behaviorism

J. Watson
(1912
-
1920)
and
neobehaviorism of
E. Tolman, K. Hull, A. Ghazri and B. Skinner (the first half of our century). V. Skinner already in the middle of this century developed the concept of operant behavior and the practice of programmed training. The merit of the works of E. Thorndike, orthodox behaviorism of J. Watson and the entire neo-behaviourist movement that preceded behaviorism is the development of a holistic concept of learning, including its patterns, facts, mechanisms.

Research by F. Galton (late 19th century) in the field of measuring sensorimotor functions,

which laid the foundation for testing (F. Galton was the first to use questionnaires and rating scales); use of mathematical statistics; “mental tests” by J. Cattell, which, as A. Anastasi notes, were considered a typical research method of that time. Intellectual tests by A. Wiene and T. Simon (1904-1911) with a variation of individual and group testing, in which the intellectual development coefficient was first used as the ratio of mental age to actual age (L. Theremin in America in 1916). It is significant that F. Galton began his first (1884) measurements in the education system, J. Cattell (1890) tested college students in America, the first Binet-Simon scale (1905) was created in France on the initiative of the Ministry of Education. This indicates a fairly long-standing close relationship between psychological research and education.

Psychoanalysis

3. Freud, A. Adler, K. Jung, E. Fromm, E. Erikson (from the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century), developing the categories of the unconscious, psychological defense, complexes, stages of development of the “I”, freedom , extroversion-introversion. (The latter finds the widest application and distribution in many pedagogical studies thanks to the G. Eysenck test.)

Gestalt psychology

(M. Wertheimer, W. Köhler, K. Koffka - early 19th century), the concept of a dynamic system of behavior or the field theory of K. Lewin, genetic epistemology or the concept of staged development of intelligence by J. Piaget, which contributed to the formation of the concepts of insight and motivation , stages of intellectual development, internalization (which was also developed by French psychologists of the sociological direction A. Vallon, P. Janet).

Operational concept

J. Piaget, starting from the 20s of our century, has become one of the main world theories of the development of intelligence and thinking. In the context of this concept, the concepts of socialization, centering-decentration, specificity of adaptation, reversibility of actions, and stage of intellectual development are developed. It should be noted that in the science of the 20th century. J. Piaget entered primarily as one of the most prominent representatives of the “synthetic approach to the study of the psyche” [104, p. 26].

Cognitive psychology

60-80s of our century G.U. Neisser, M. Broadbent, D. Norman, J. Bruner and others, who focused on knowledge, awareness, organization of semantic memory, forecasting, reception and processing of information, reading and comprehension processes, cognitive styles.

Humanistic

psychology of the 60-90s of our century by A. Maslow, K. Rogers, which put forward the concept of “client-centered” therapy, the category of self-actualization, the pyramid (hierarchy) of human needs, facilitation (relief and activation), which formed a student-centered humanistic approach to training.

The development of educational psychology was greatly influenced by the works of domestic thinkers, teachers, naturalists - I.M. Sechenov, I.P. Pavlov, K.D. Ushinsky, A.F. Lazursky, P.F. Lesgaft, L.S. Vygotsky , P.P. Blonsky, etc. Pedagogical anthropology

K.D. Ushinsky (1824-1870). It affirmed the educational nature of learning, the active (active) nature of man. K.D. Ushinsky is responsible for the development of content categories and teaching methods.

Cultural-historical theory

L.S. Vygotsky (1896-1934) - the theory of the development of the psyche, conceptual thinking, speech, the connection between learning and development, where the first should anticipate and lead the second, the concept of levels of development, the “zone of proximal development” and many other fundamental provisions to varying degrees completeness formed the basis of psychological and pedagogical concepts of recent decades. Concept of activity of M.Ya. Basov, theory of activity by A.N. Leontyev, general methodological development of the category of activity itself (especially in terms of subjectivity) S.L. Rubinstein, a general integrative approach to the psyche, determining the specifics of its development during adulthood, identifying a special age period - student age B.G. Ananyev and others had an undoubted influence on the psychological and pedagogical understanding of the educational process and the development of educational psychology.

The theories, concepts, interpretations of teaching, and educational activities that were formed in Russian psychology in the middle of the current century

(D.N. Bogoyavlensky, G.S. Kostyuk, N.A. Menchinskaya, P.A. Shevarev, Z.I. Kalmykova, P.Ya. Galperin, N.F. Talyzina, D.B. Elkonin, V L.V. Davydov, A.K. Markova, L.I. Aidarova, L.V. Zankov, L.N. Landa, G.G. Granik, A.A. Lyublinskaya, I.V. Kuzmina, etc.) made an invaluable contribution not only to the understanding of teaching practice, but also to educational psychology as a science developed both in our country and in other countries (I. Lingart, J. Lompscher, etc.).
The development of educational psychology was greatly influenced by the identification of specific mechanisms
for students’ assimilation of educational material (S.L. Rubinshtein, E.N. Kabanova-Meller, L.B. Itelson);
studies of memory
(P.I. Zinchenko, A.A. Smirnov, V.Ya. Lyaudis), thinking (F.N. Shemyakin, A.M. Matyushkin, V.N. Pushkin, L.L. Gurova),
perception (V. P.
Zinchenko, Yu.B. Gippenreiter),
child development
and, in particular,
speech development
(M.I. Lisina, L.A. Wenger, A.G. Ruzskaya, F.A. Sokhin, T.N. Ushakova ),
personality development
(B.G. Ananyev, L.I. Bozhovich, M.S. Neimark, V.S. Mukhina),
speech communication and speech training
(V.A. Artemov, N.I. Zhinkin, A.A. Leontyev , V.A. Kan-Kalik);
determination of stages
(eras, epochs, phases, periods)
of age development
(P.P. Blonsky, L.S. Vygotsky, A.N. Leontiev, D.B. Elkonin, B.G. Ananyev, A.V. Petrovsky) , features of mental
activity of schoolchildren
and their mental talent (A.A. Bodalev, N.S. Leites, N.D. Levitov, V.A. Krutetsky).
the psychology of adult learning
were of great importance for educational psychology . Textbooks on educational and developmental psychology, educational psychology by M.N. played an unconditional positive role in the process of scientific reflection of the achievements of educational psychology. Shardakova, V.A. Krutetsky, A.V. Petrovsky and others1

The concept of personality and the conditions of its psychological development

Remark 1
There are a great many definitions of the concept of personality; if we put them together, we can imagine personality as a person taken in a system of socially conditioned psychological characteristics that manifest themselves in social relations, are stable and determine the nature of the individual’s moral actions, significant both for himself and for his immediate environment.

Child development is a process that occurs in certain conditions, surrounded by the cultural and material heritage of mankind, in the system of established relations between members of a particular society. Thus, we can confidently say that the development of a child’s personality depends entirely on the social situation.

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It is she who predetermines all the changes that will occur to the individual during the period of growing up. Thanks to the social situation, it is possible to determine the paths and forms of development, types of activities, new mental qualities and properties acquired by the child.

This is precisely what constitutes the conditions for the mental development of the child’s personality, and in this regard, maximum attention should be paid to the social conditions that surround the child.