PSYC 2020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: Kwanzaa, Lev Vygotsky
PSYC 2020 Lecture 40 Notes
Introduction
Emphasized environmental forces
• Traditionally, however, most theories of child development have emphasized
environmental forces that affect children directly.
• Examples of direct environmental influences would be a parent praising a child, an older
sibling teasing a younger one, and a nursery-school teacher discouraging girls from
playing with trucks.
• These diret ifluees are iportat i hildre’s lies, ut in the contextual
perspective they are simply one part of a much larger system, in which each element of
the system influences all other elements.
• This larger sste iludes oe’s parets ad siligs as ell as iportat idiiduals
outside of the family, such as extended family, friends, and teachers.
• The system also includes institutions that influence development, such as schools,
television, the workplace, and a church, temple, or mosque.
• All these people and institutions!
• Together to form a perso’s ulture — the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior
associated with a group of people.
• Culture can refer to a particular country or people (e.g., French culture)
• To a specific point in time (e.g., popular culture of the 1990s)
• To groups of individuals who maintain specific, identifiable cultural traditions, such as
African American families that celebrate Kwanzaa.
• A culture provides the context in which a child develops and thus is a source of many
important influences on development throughout childhood and adolescence.
• Oe of the first theorists to ephasize ultural otet i hildre’s deelopet as
Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934).
• A Russian psychologist, Vygotsky focused on ways that adults convey to children the
beliefs, customs, and skills of their culture.
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