Sociocultural Theory, also known as cultural-historical psychology, studies human’s mental development from a sociocultural perspective. Between the mid-1920s and the early 1930s, influenced by the German thinker and philosopher Friedrich Engels’ thought about the role of labor in the process of human adapting to and transforming nature, the Soviet psychologist Lev Vygotsky elaborated the basic principles and ways by which human mental functions develop, and proposed the sociocultural theory.
Vygotsky categorizes mental functions into lower and higher and posits that an individual’s mental development involves transitioning from lower to higher mental functions, influenced by their environment and education. Reasons underlying the transition are as follows: (1) Mental functions are shaped by the development of society, culture, and history and follow social laws. (2) Through communications with adults, children acquire languages and symbols, which are mediational tools for the...
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Further Reading
Shaffer DR, Kipp K (2020) Developmental psychology: childhood and adolescence, 9th edn. Cengage Learning, Boston
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Qinxue, L. (2024). Sociocultural Theory. In: The ECPH Encyclopedia of Psychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_851-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6000-2_851-1
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