Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory
Writing at the same time as Piaget, Russian scholar Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) offered a different perspective on development that emphasized the importance of culture. As we have discussed on page 8, culture refers to the beliefs, values, customs, and skills of a group; it is a product of people’s interactions in everyday settings (Markus & Kitayama, 2010). Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory examines how culture is transmitted from one generation to the next through social interaction. Children interact with adults and more experienced peers as they talk, play, and work alongside them. It is through these formal and informal social contacts that children learn about their culture and what it means to belong to it. By participating in cooperative dialogues and receiving guidance from adults and more expert peers, children adopt their culture’s perspectives and practices, learning to think and behave as members of their society (Rogoff, 2016). Over time, they become able to apply these ways of thinking to guide their own actions, thus requiring less assistance from adults and peers (Rogoff, Moore, Correa-Chavez, & Dexter, 2014).
Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) emphasized the importance of culture in development. Children actively engage their social world, and the social world shapes development by transmitting culturally relevant ways of thinking and acting that guide children’s thought and behavior.
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Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory holds important implications for understanding cognitive development. Like Piaget, Vygotsky emphasized that children actively participate in their development by engaging with the world around them. However, Vygotsky also viewed cognitive development as a social process that relies on interactions with adults, more mature peers, and other members of their culture. Vygotsky also argued that acquiring language is a particularly important milestone for children because it enables them to think in new ways and have more sophisticated dialogues with others, advancing their learning about culturally valued perspectives and activities. We will revisit Vygotsky’s ideas about the roles of culture, language, and thought in Chapter 7.
Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is an important addition to the field of lifespan human development because it is the first theory to emphasize the role of the cultural context in influencing people’s development throughout life. Critics argue that sociocultural theory overemphasizes the role of context, minimizes the role of individuals in their own development, and neglects the influence of genetic and biological factors (Crain, 2016). Another perspective on development, described next, refocuses attention on the individual in context.
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory
Similar to other developmental theorists, Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917–2005) believed that we are active in our own development. Specifically, Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory poses that development is a result of the ongoing interactions among biological, cognitive, and psychological changes within the person and his or her changing context (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Bronfenbrenner proposed that all individuals are embedded in, or surrounded by, a series of contexts: home, school, neighborhood, culture, and society, as shown in Figure 1.6. The bioecological systems theory thus offers a comprehensive perspective on the role of context as an influence on development. As shown in Figure 1.6, contexts are organized into a series of systems in which individuals are embedded and that interact with one another and the person to influence development.
At the center of the bioecological model is the individual. The developing person’s genetic, psychological, socioemotional, and personality traits interact, influencing each other. For example, physical development, such as brain maturation, may influence cognitive development, which in turn may influence social development, such as a child’s understanding of friendship. Social development then may influence cognitive development, as children may learn activities or ideas from each other. In this way, the various forms of development interact. The individual interacts with the contexts in which he or she is embedded, influencing and being influenced by them (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006).
Figure 1.6 Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory
Source: Adapted from Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006).
The individual is embedded in the innermost level of context, the microsystem, which includes interactions with the immediate physical and social environment surrounding the person, such as family, peers, and school. Because the microsystem contains the developing person, it has an immediate and direct influence on his or her development. For example, peer relationships can influence a person’s sense of self-esteem, social skills, and emotional development.
The next level, the mesosystem, refers to the relations and interactions among microsystems, or connections among contexts. For example, experiences in the home (one microsystem) influence those at school (another microsystem); parents who encourage and provide support for reading will influence the child’s experiences in the classroom. Like the microsystem, the mesosystem has a direct influence on the individual because he or she is a participant in it.
The exosystem consists of settings in which the individual is not a participant but that nevertheless influence him or her. For example, a child typically does not participate in a parent’s work setting, yet the work setting has an indirect influence on the child because it affects the parent’s mood. The availability of funding for schools, another exosystem factor, indirectly affects children by influencing the availability of classroom resources. The exosystem is an important contribution to our understanding of development because it shows us how the effects of outside factors trickle down and indirectly affect children and adults.
The macrosystem is the greater sociocultural context in which the microsystem, mesosystem, and exosystem are embedded. It includes cultural values, legal and political practices, and other elements of the society at large. The macrosystem indirectly influences the child because it affects each of the other contextual levels. For example, cultural beliefs about the value of education (macrosystem) influence funding decisions made at national and local levels (exosystem), as well as what happens in the classroom and in the home (mesosystem and microsystem). The accompanying Lives in Context feature illustrates how one element of the macrosystem, historical events, may influence development.
Lives in Context
Sociohistorical Influences on Development
Sociohistorical influences, such as the Great Depression (1929–1939), contribute to cohort, or generational, differences in development.
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Historical events, such as wars, times of prosperity, economic and natural disasters, and periods of social unrest, are contextual influences that shape our world and our development. The effect of historical events on development depends in part on when they occur in a person’s life (Elder et al., 2016).
The same historical event is experienced differently by successive cohorts, reflecting the fact that they are in different life stages, with different social roles, levels of maturity, and life experiences. For example, researchers examined the influence of the Great Depression (1929–1941) and World War II (1939–1945) on two cohorts of California-born Americans, followed from childhood to older adulthood, over a 70-year