Cultural-Historical Theory and the Dialectics of Lower and Higher Psychological Functions

Nikolai Veresov

doi:10.1007/s12124-021-09647-3

Cultural-Historical Theory and the Dialectics of Lower and Higher Psychological Functions

Integr Psychol Behav Sci. 2021 Dec;55(4):735-748. doi: 10.1007/s12124-021-09647-3. Epub 2021 Sep 9.

Author

Nikolai Veresov¹

Affiliation

¹ Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Nikolai.veresov@monash.edu.

PMID: 34498164
DOI: 10.1007/s12124-021-09647-3

Abstract

This paper is grounded on what I refer to as the new reality of Vygotsky's legacy (Veresov, 2020, 2021). I shall shortly introduce this new reality, arguing that it offers possible ways to reconstruct how the dialectical relations of higher and lower psychological functions in the process of cultural development are explored in cultural-historical theory. My second task is to show how the new reality challenges some popular views of cultural-historical theory.

Keywords: Cultural-historical theory; Development; Dialectics; Higher psychological functions; Lower psychological functions; Vygotsky.