Brief introduction to the general genetic law of development Nikolai Veresov 1

collecting data analyzing data presenting data/results 2 RESULTS DEPEND ON: analysis of collected data analysis of methods of data collection WHAT? HOW?

3 collecting data analyzing data INVESTIGATION EMPIRICAL GENETICAL (DEVELOPMENTAL) Selecting the object(s) Measuring Scaling Making intervention(s) Measuring Scaling Comparing ?????????

4 collecting data analyzing data LIMITS OF EMPIRICAL APPROACH AN EXAMPLE: 1.The cockroach moves when I command it to move. 2. When its legs are torn off it does not move. 3. Legs of the cockroach are organs of...hearing. HOW TO ESCAPE? Selecting the object(s) Measuring Scaling Making intervention(s) Measuring Scaling Comparing according to the principles and requirements

LOWER MENTAL FUNCTIONS HIGHER MENTAL FUNCTIONS SOCIAL FACTORS BIOLOGICAL FACTORS 5

6 The one-sidedness and erroneousness of the traditional view (emphasis mine – NV)...on higher mental functions consist primarily and mainly in an inability to look at these facts as facts of historical development, in the one-sided consideration of them as natural processes and formations, in merging and not distinguishing the natural and the cultural, the essential and the historical, the biological and the social in the mental development...; in short – in an incorrect basic understanding of the nature of the phenomena being studied... Putting it more simply, with this state of the matter, the very process of development of complex and higher forms of behaviour remained unexplained and unrealised methodologically (Vygotsky, 1997, p.2)

7 Cultural-historical theory is the theory of development of higher mental functions. But: what is development? what is mental development?

8 Development is not just a simple change Development is not an organic growth Developmental is a complex process of qualitative reorganisation of certain system: Sources Moving forces Main directions Specific features Results Law (laws)

9 Empirical research strategy Genetical research strategy is targeted on the description of changes on the explanation of the changes What has been changed and how? WHY? RESEARCH STRATEGY Selecting the object(s) Measuring Scaling Making intervention(s) Measuring Scaling Comparing according to the principles and requirements What is experimental- genetical method? What are its principles?

10 The process of genesis (origins and development) of HMF sources character moving forces main directions specific features results theoretical tools (instruments) experimental tools (instruments) - concepts and principles - requirements cultural-historical theory experimental-genetical method Genetic research methodology

11 The method we use may be called experimental-genetical method in the sense that it artificially elicits and creates a genetic process of mental development … Vygotsky, 1997, p. 68 Five basic principles of genetic research methodology (genetic- experimental method of study of the development of higher mental functions) the principle of buds of development the principle of category/drama the principle of ideal and real forms the principle of developmental tools the principle of sustainable results

12 The principle of category (collision, dramatic event) The principle of category follows from the general law of cultural development of higher mental functions....any function in the childs cultural development appears on stage twice, that is, on two planes. It firstly appears on the social plane and then on a psychological plane. Firstly it appears among people as an inter-psychological category, and then within the child as an intra-psychological category. Genetically, social relations, real relations of people, stand behind all the higher functions and their relations. From this, one of the basic principles... is the principle of... the experimental unfolding of a higher mental process into the drama that occurs among people. (Vygotsky, 1983, p.145.) CATEGORY = DRAMA AMONG PEOPLE

13 The principle of category (collision, dramatic event) means that at the beginning of the experimental study the child should be intellectually and emotionally involved into specially organized dramatical collision (category). The initial (inter-psychological) form of HMF should be created at the beginning of the experimental study of its transformation into the intra-psychological form of HMF