3. Catherine A. Sanderson (2010)
• “A perspective describing people’s behavior and mental processes as
shaped in part by their social and/or cultural contact, including race,
gender, and nationality.”
• Socio-cultural perspective theory is a broad yet significant aspect in
our being. It applies to every sector of our daily lives.
• How we communicate, understand, relate and cope with one another
is partially based on this theory.
• Our spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, physiological being are all
influenced by factors studied by socio-cultural perspective theory.
4. Socio-Cultural Perspective
• A Socio-Cultural Perspective is viewing a situation or concept
through the eyes of an individual's native environmental and social
influence.
• It is the influence that a culture and society has on a person's
worldview and perspective.
• Cultural-historical psychology is a psychological theory formed by
Lev Vygotsky in the late 1920s and further developed by his
students and followers in Eastern Europe and worldwide.
5. Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky
• Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist,
• Culture was a primary determinant of knowledge acquisition. Vygotsky
• He argued that children learn from the beliefs and attitudes modeled by their
culture.
• Vygotsky had a ground breaking theory that language was the basis of learning.
• He published on a diverse range of subjects, and from multiple views as his
perspective changed over the years.
• Among his students was Alexander Luria and Kharkiv school of psychology.
• A social Constructivist, Focused on socio-Cultural Aspects
6. Vygotsky and Cultural-Historical Psychology
• This theory focuses on how aspects of culture, such as values, beliefs,
customs, and skills, are transmitted from one generation to the next.
• According to Vygotsky, social interaction—especially involvement with
knowledgeable community or family members—helps children to
acquire the thought processes and behaviors specific to their culture
and/or society.
• The growth that children experience as a result of these interactions
differs greatly between cultures; this variance allows children to
become competent in tasks that are considered important or
necessary in their particular society.
7. Important Aspects
• Social interaction
• Language
• Culture Important
Important Terms
• Terms Zone of proximal
development (ZPD)
• Scaffolding
• More Knowledgeable other
(MKO)
8. How this Theory work
Couldn't do
even with
help
Task with
help
Easy Task
Extreme
Easy task
(below ZPD)
12. For example,
• the child could not solve the jigsaw puzzle (in the example above) by itself
and would have taken a long time to do so (if at all), but was able to solve it
following interaction with the father, and has developed competence at
this skill that will be applied to future jigsaws.
• Vygotsky (1978) sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where
the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given - allowing the
child to develop skills they will then use on their own - developing higher
mental functions.
• Vygotsky also views interaction with peers as an effective way of
developing skills and strategies. He suggests that teachers use cooperative
learning exercises where less competent children develop with help from
more skillful peers - within the zone of proximal development.
