Components of Psychological Development 

Vygotsky believed the key to understanding human behavior is word meaning.  This set him at odds with the behavioral theoreticians of his time who were only concerend with observable behavior.

He proposed a general law of genetic devlopment which described the role of the social environment in the child's psychological development.  Every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first on the social level and later on the individual level; first between people and then inside the child. Speech is first a form of communiction, but becomes a way of thinking.



One way to understand these ideas is to review the process of learning a foreiegn langauge (which is the same as learning our native tongue, but as adults, the foriegn language is generally easier to remember).  When we first begin to learn a second language, we continue to think in our first language.  We must go through a tedious process of transcribing every word between the langauges, decoding and assigning meaning.  At best, we can engage in simple communication with others, asking where the restroom is, or how to find the train station.  But, as we become more adept at this new language, we no longer need to translate evey word.  Some words become common place and they roll off our tongue without hesitation or notice. Something has changed.  The new language has started to become a method of thinking, and we begin to increasingly think in this new manner.  Many people find that they may even begin to dream, a sure sign that language has moved from communication to thinking.



 
 

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