HISTORICO-EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY:Leon Vygotsky, Sergei Rubenstein

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 25

HISTORICO-EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY

There were two current philosophies and practices of psychology during the early and till the

middle of the 20th century; Behaviorism and Functionalism. The Historico-Evolutionary or Soviet

Psychology tried to adopt a different approach and methodology. As the name implies, the contributors in

the Historico-Evolutionary Psychology tried to see how consciousness in humans developed, what exact

role it played in different historical stages of man's development and how it impacts behavior. In other

words, these psychologists looked at the historical evolution of consciousness. They focused on how, in the

past, man has been able to develop his power to think and understand and what role has his consciousness

played in this regard. For further explanation, because this group looked at the historical evolution of man's

mental functions and its relationship with behavior, that is why this point of view is called the Historico-

Evolutionary Psychology.

Leon Vygotsky

The first amongst the Historico-Evolutionary psychologists was Leon Vygotsky who was born in

1896 and died in 1934. The Soviet revolution had taken place in 1917 and therefore Vygotsky was the first

truly Soviet psychologist.

Vygotsky was impressed by Sechenov and Pavlov and believed that man's consciousness came into

being as a result of his development or evolution, and man's higher mental functions, i.e. consciousness

developed as a result of collective labor. So man became different from animals in some fundamental and

basic ways. In other words, as man went through the process of evolution, his mental functions also went

through the same process. This resulted in the development of the higher mental functions, such as that of

thinking and understanding. As the Historico-Evolutionary psychologists focused on the development of

consciousness, Vygotsky proposed that the higher mental function of consciousness also developed through

the process of evolution.

Vygotsky taught that behaviorists, and structuralists and functionalists divide man into parts; some

try to study his behavior and others his consciousness, whereas man is a unity. Therefore, he emphasized on

the fact that the structure and the functions of the consciousness cannot be separated. They both

complement each other and exist for and because of each other.

In Vygotsky's view, man's development is a function of biological evolution and a function of

historico-cultural evolution. The body develops and so does the mind; man's behavior and his

consciousness is a mixture of these two developments. Historico-cultural evolution can be seen in the form

of man's thoughts, determination, ideas etc. Man uses language and mathematical symbols and these are the

tools of his developed consciousness. On the other hand, animals are unable to use language and symbols

to express their thoughts. They have not reached the point of evolution which man has reached. Therefore,

this further substantiates the fact that consciousness and higher mental functions are a result of the

evolutionary process which man had undergone over the past.

He showed that environment effects man, but then in turn man also effects the environment. In

other words, as proposed by previous psychologists such as Darwin, environment has an impact on man,

but according to Vygotsky, in turn man tries to change the environment in his own way, moulds it and

thereby uses it to fulfill his needs. For example, man has over the last one hundred years, developed various

methods and techniques to make the best out of the opportunities available in the environment. In other

words, it is not just the environment that affects man, but man in turn also influences the environment.

This is how consciousness functions and separates man from animals. So Vygotsky said that behavior and

consciousness can not be studied separately. Since consciousness is impacted by the environment, and the

behavior is dictated by consciousness. Further, that the human mental functions are radically different from

functions of lower animals. And this difference is due to man's development of consciousness which is the

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

result of the historical evolution of man. These were some of the contributions of Leon Vygotsky because

of which he is known as a Historico-Evolutionary psychologist.

Sergei Rubenstein

The other prominent name in the Historico-Evolutionary Psychology during the Soviet era was that

of Sergei Rubenstein, who was born in 1889 and died in 1960.

He criticized those who wanted to establish the science of psychology on the basis of only stimulus

and response. He thought such people ignore the important role of internal conditions. Same stimulus may

result in different reactions in different people, and at different times. For example, a person who is already

in a state of anger might perceive a stimulus of somebody staring at him in a different manner as compared

to the one who is normal. Therefore, Rubenstein rightly pointed out the importance of internal conditions

apart from the external stimulus and response relationships. Such an approach was established by the

behaviorist psychologists who considered behavior as the result of stimulus and response process.

Rubenstein went on to say that such psychologist ignore the importance of man's development and

assume humans to be like machines. These machines, once presented with the stimulus would always

respond in the predetermined manner. The soul purpose of the behaviorists was to determine methods to

control and predict human behavior since this school emerged at the advent of the industrial revolution.

Therefore, the approach of the behaviorists to consider only external factors in determining human

behavior was criticized by Rubenstein.

Rubenstein also showed that external factors effect psyche and then in turn psyche also affects

external factors in the environment. This was similar to what Vygotsky had said. Vygotsky had stated that

the environment impacts man and man in turn impacts the environment.

Therefore, according to Rubenstein, man's psychology can be understood as a dialectical process, it

effects and gets affected. He argued that consciousness originates as a result of sensitivity to certain stimuli.

As can be seen, Rubenstein tried to discover how and why consciousness came into being and rejected

purely behaviorist view point. These were the main contributions of the Sergei Rubenstein, because of

which he is regarded as a Historico-Evolutionary psychologist. He focused on the development of

consciousness in the history of mankind rather than concentrating on the stimulus and response

relationships purported by the behaviorists.

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