Each science is characterized by the presence of several areas dedicated to the study of a single issue or their combination, relating to one area of ​​interest. It is precisely this direction that cultural-historical psychology is.
Its appearance is associated with the names of both Russian scientists and French. But this science appeared relatively recently - at the beginning of the last century. Accordingly, she is very young and still in the stage of formation, development, but already has her own separate areas.
What it is?
Historical psychology is a scientific field that deals with issues of self-awareness, aspects of personal manifestations of people in certain time intervals. Of interest to scientific research are the nuances characteristic of thinking, personality aspects and self-awareness of individuals and society as a whole, its various social classes and cultural groups.
In other words, the subject of historical psychology is the manifestation of a person’s personality within a specific historical era. Science studies the relationship between time, the psyche and consciousness, their mutual penetration and the influence of one on the other.
How long and where did this direction appear?
For the first time, the concept of “historical psychology” was introduced in the middle of the last century by Emil Meyerson. It happened in 1948 in France. However, this science cannot be called Western European.
The basis of this direction is the work of the Soviet scientist Leo Vygotsky. Most of his works, which examine the relationship of historical eras and psychological aspects of personality, relate to the 20 years of the last century. However, the terminology combining the words “culture”, “history”, “psychology” was not used in the scientist’s works.
The name “cultural-historical theory” arose only in the 30s of the past century, and not among the followers of Vygotsky and the scientists who shared his views, but in revelatory criticism. For what reason the psychological theory, which does not carry any anti-Soviet or anti-communist thought, has been subjected to various accusations and persecutions, is not entirely clear. But be that as it may, critics of the work of Vygotsky and his followers benefited from historical psychology by practically introducing a term that most accurately defines the junction of areas in which its circle of interests lies.
Since the 30s, this area of science has found its followers in Western European countries and, of course, in the USA. By the middle of the last century, this scientific direction took shape, the spheres of its interests and subjects of study were determined.
What own directions are there in this science?
Historical psychology is a relatively young discipline that has not yet reached a hundred-year milestone in its existence. Despite the age so young for science, it already has two directions of its own, within which it is developing.
They are simply called:
Names chosen by chance. They reflect the essence of the issues and those that are studied within their borders.
What is the difference between internal directions?
The historical psychology of the horizontal direction is a kind of plane, an even cut from today to the depths of time. In other words, in the framework of the horizontal direction, absolutely all personality aspects, characteristics, types of behavior and thinking patterns that are characteristic of people during specific historical eras are studied. Of course, the issues of the relationship between the characteristics of the psychology of people and the time in which they are also raised.
The vertical direction is occupied by slightly different issues, of course, overlapping with those studied in the horizontal. This scientific field is devoted to the cognition of the peculiarities and nuances of development, the transformation of certain psychological functions during various historical eras and their time periods.
What is happening now?
The historical development of psychology was very difficult. Of course, the formation of its separate areas, including historical and cultural, also went on.
Currently, representatives of this area of ​​scientific activity use the so-called "non-adaptive" type of correlation of the nature and mechanisms of development of psychological processes with time intervals as a postulate.
In the writings of Vygotsky, who is considered the founder, the founding father of this field of psychology, the idea is expressed that the main subject for study should be human consciousness. It is expressed through cultural instruments, such as a word or some other sign left by people.
At the moment, this basic, pivotal thought of historical psychology has not yet been completely deduced. In other words, today the scientific direction is no longer in its infancy, but still in a very undeveloped state.